Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 8/13/18

A stunning verdict on Friday could be just the beginning for Monsanto's legal woes. A California jury in a state court in San Francisco found that the company's products containing the weedkiller glyphosate were responsible for a former groundskeeper's diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (a cancer of the lymph system), yours truly reported . Even if the damages are later lowered or an appellate court overturns the verdict, the decision isn't a good sign for Monsanto or its soon-to-be parent company, Bayer, which is paying $66 billion to purchase the company.

Other cases: The case of the groundskeeper, Dewayne Johnson, was sped up because his diagnosis is terminal. But there are more trials coming. Patients in several state court lawsuits and a federal multidistrict litigation diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma say the herbicide in Monsanto's flagship product Roundup carries a cancer risk that the company didn't warn consumers about. Brent Wisner, Johnson's lead trial lawyer, said during a news conference after the decision that more than 4,000 other cases have been filed around the U.S.

Monsanto's defense: Monsanto said in a statement that it would appeal. The company has repeatedly argued that there's no credible scientific evidence linking glyphosate to cancer in humans.

"We are sympathetic to Mr. Johnson and his family. Today's decision does not change the fact that more than 800 scientific studies and reviews — and conclusions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and regulatory authorities around the world — support the fact that glyphosate does not cause cancer, and did not cause Mr. Johnson's cancer," said Scott Partridge, vice president of global strategy.