What Happened to Shared Accountability? | Accelerate Success with Lorraine Moore

Is the goal to bankrupt Bayer? Or to sanitize sport? The Monsanto Roundup lawsuits and the recent move to remove obstacles from mountain biking pathways leads me to question, what happened to shared accountability?

Monsanto faces 13,400+ Roundup lawsuits, including one in which the plaintiff, Mr. Dewayne Johnson, received a jury award of $78.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Mr. Johnson stated that on at least two occasions, he spilled a substantial amount of the chemical on his body. As a groundskeeper for several decades, he was likely exposed to a variety of chemicals. Can it be determined with certainty that Roundup was the single compound that damaged his health?

When asked what Monsanto (and Bayer) would need to do to demonstrate the safety of their product, a juror allegedly responded, “They would have to drink it in front of us in court.” Really? Should I expect product owners to drink gasoline, bleach or toilet bowl cleaner in front of me before I will purchase them? We have personal choice. Ideally, we have common sense which causes us to read warning labels and take appropriate precautions.

In North Vancouver, avid mountain biking enthusiasts were upset about the planned removal of five “built structures,” such as teeter-totters, from bike paths. (Update: The teeter-totters will stay in place for the time being, but they are discussing alternate routes to allow cyclists to avoid the obstacles or get off the difficult sections of trail). The municipality is responding to a lawsuit in Bruce County, Ontario in which the structures were determined dangerous to mountain bicyclists.

Some research has suggested that the sanitization of children’s playgrounds has led to an increase in childhood psychological and emotional disorders, as children are no longer experiencing and learning from risky play. It has been replaced with isolating screen “play”.

As a society, what are our ultimate intentions?

Are we seeking retribution for circumstances we cannot change, such as an incurable disease or injury, to offset our grief and frustration? Are we seeing an opportunity to get back at large, money-making enterprises because their profits are unseemly and untenable? Many of us are aware of the longstanding knowledge of the harms of nicotine or the closely held knowledge of the risk of opioids and the ensuing crisis. I believe some consumers take action in order to hold corporate America/Europe accountable for their actions. However when doing so, we need to consider the potential longer term and wider reaching impacts of our actions.

The mountain biking enthusiasts would say they do not want to be protected from themselves and they willingly carry the risks of riding on black and double black trails. There are over 100,000 employees employed by Bayer (owner of Monsanto). So if enough lawsuits ensue to cripple the company financially, do those seeking large compensation have any responsibility to the hundreds of thousands (employees and family members) who will be impacted?

There is no simple answer. If large corporations put profits ahead of humanity, they must be held to account. But where is our personal responsibility in all of this?

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