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Judge casts doubt on experts' testimony
Story Date: 3/16/2018
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Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 3/15/18
Monsanto and attorneys representing cancer patients appeared in federal court on Wednesday for the final day of a hearing to convince a federal judge that their side has the most credible evidence in a case involving allegations that Monsanto's popular weed killer Roundup causes cancer. The parties spent last week calling scientific experts to the stand to present evidence about the cancer risk of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.
The judge presiding over the case, Judge Vince Chhabria of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, appeared to doubt the strength of plaintiffs' expert testimony, according to Bloomberg News. He called the experts' testimony that glyphosate causes non-Hodgkin's lymphoma "shaky" and said he found the science of epidemiology to be "loosey goosey." After listening to a week of testimony, the judge said that he has a "difficult time understanding" that the scientific evidence supporting that glyphosate causes cancer is solid.
Legal standard: Still, the threshold plaintiffs have to meet at this stage isn't too high of a hurdle. All the judge has to determine is that the evidence isn't "junk science" and that the experts reached a reasonable conclusion using reliable methods.
Clock starts: Chhabria will now retreat to his chambers to consider a large stack of scientific analysis from both sides. This is a make-or-break moment: If the judge decides that attorneys for the cancer patients failed to present enough credible evidence, then their case is essentially dead.
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