Chemical giant Bayer, which is facing hundreds of thousands of lawsuits, says it will make a decision on whether to continue producing the herbicide Roundup within months. Bayer has continued to produce the glyphosate spray in spite of pouring billions of dollars into litigation. Jess Christiansen is Bayer’s head of crop science and sustainability communications.

“We have paid out over ten billion in settlements with no admission of fault or guilt. Again, we stand behind the product. This is part of the litigation industry and the process that we have to make decisions around, we reserved $16 billion I mean, billion, that’s just a tremendous amount of money that could otherwise go into our R and D pipeline.”

Kevin Deinert, president of the South Dakota Soybean Association, says farmers are at a real disadvantage if they don’t have access to glyphosate.

“Really pigeon holes us on what we can do, and really maybe eliminates the profitability of some of that those acres. So being not having that diversification in our pesticide regime, and even on the GMO level, that’s going to really hurt.

Ag leaders point to EPA testing that has declared glyphosate safe. Chandler Goule, CEO of the National Association of Wheat Growers, says claims to the contrary are unscientific.

“So when you really look at the pros and cons of glyphosate, the list of pros is significantly longer than the short list of concerns that have no science basis of the concerns that they continue to put out.”

Bayer has stood by the safety of Roundup, but has paid more than ten billion to plaintiffs in litigation claiming Roundup as the cause of their cancer.

“But at the end of the day, we have to make the right business decisions, because, again, if you look at the math, you know you don’t have to be an MBA to understand that that’s not a good business model today. You know we’re losing money on Roundup.”

A decision on whether to keep Roundup in production could come before the 2026 planting season.