Stratovation Group Advisor Blake Hurst Addresses Roundup Suits in WSJ Column
In a recent guest editorial for The Wall Street Journal, Blake Hurst, a member of the Stratovation Group Board of Advisors and a farmer and greenhouse grower in northwest Missouri, tackled one of the most contentious legal battles in agriculture today: the ongoing litigation over Roundup, a widely used herbicide.
In his column, Hurst provided a farmer’s perspective on how the herbicide has revolutionized modern farming and how the current legal challenges could have dire consequences for both farmers and consumers.
Hurst shared his personal experiences, detailing how Roundup dramatically changed life on the farm. He recalls the days of “bean walking,” a grueling task where farmers would labor under the hot sun to cut weeds from their soybean field by hand with a hoe, a “bean hook” or a long-bladed “corn knife.” The introduction of Roundup and genetically modified crops ended this back-breaking work, allowing farmers to achieve weed-free fields more efficiently and sustainably.
As Hurst explained, Roundup’s benefits extended beyond the elimination of weeds. It also helped reduce the need for tilling. The shift to no-till farming, partially made possible by Roundup, has saved farmers time, money, and, more importantly, preserved soil health across millions of acres.
According to the column, the litigation surrounding glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, threatens to undo these advancements. Hurst highlighted that while most regulatory bodies around the world, including the EPA and the European Food Safety Authority, have declared glyphosate safe, lawsuits continue to roll in, fueled by trial lawyers buoyed by one outlier report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
As legal battles rage on and legislative efforts to protect agribusiness companies from such lawsuits falter, Hurst expressed concern that farmers could lose access to this vital tool. He warns that if technologies like Roundup are taken away based on borderline science and aggressive litigation, it could stifle future innovations and drive up food costs for consumers.
Hurst underscored the potential impact on agriculture: “If farmers lose the ability to use a beneficial technology because of one bad scientific report and the efforts of lawyers willing to mislead cancer patients, then no technology is safe.”
Blake Hurst’s skilled writing ability, his practical-farmer credibility and his common-sense voice on agricultural issues continues to be refreshing. At Stratovation Group, we are proud to count Blake as a member of our Board of Advisors. His voice reinforces our mission to share fact-based insights to boost the resiliency and sustainability of American agriculture.