Into the Weeds: Dewayne “Lee” Johnson vs. Monsanto Company - An Enviro Doc as Courtroom Drama
By Karen Gordon
Rating: B-plus
One of Canada’s pre-eminent documentary filmmakers, Jennifer Baichwal has explored the impact of human activity on the environment in films like Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (co-director) and Manufactured Landscapes.
In Into the Weeds: Dewayne “Lee” Johnson vs. Monsanto Company - a documentary that plays out like a courtroom drama - she turns her attention to the issues around a controversial pesticide and the regulators who ignore troubling data to allow its use.
It’s less of an environmental travelogue than her previous films, planting its feet in a single controversy with widespread reach.
Dewayne “Lee” Johnson and his wife, Araceli Johnson
Dewayne “Lee” Johnson was a groundskeeper. The company he worked for used Ranger Pro, a commercial grade variant of an effective weed killer called Roundup, made by the giant biochemical company Monsanto. The glyphosate-based pesticide is widely used in farming, and for industrial purposes, like maintaining golf courses, and parks. You can also buy a version of it to use in your gardens if you so choose.
Johnson, was following all the protocols for using the product, including wearing protective clothing, when he had an accident, and some of it splashed on him, getting on his skin.
A short time later, he found lesions on his skin. It was just the beginning of his health issues. He was ultimately diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. It turns out he wasn’t the only one who could draw a line from the use of the pesticide to their own Non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Lee filed a lawsuit against the agri-giant Monsanto, claiming that Ranger Pro was a substantial contributing factor in causing his cancer. Monsanto says that their product is safe. It’s David versus Goliath.
That trial forms the spine of Into the Weeds. Lawyers on both sides lay out their cases. Expert witnesses, company officials are deposed, and we are guided through the system of government agencies that are meant to be watchdogs, monitoring the research on chemicals used in these products. We also meet Monsanto health execs and others who maintain their product is safe.
Are the checks and balances actually protecting the public, or the company? Lee’s case was the first, in effect a test case for a mass tort case against Monsanto that had tens of thousands of plaintiffs. The stakes for this case were high.
Lee himself is a compelling individual, calm, articulate, thoughtful. Baichwal lets us get to know him and some of the people in his life. She reminds us, that it’s individuals and their family who must live with the consequences of decisions made in backrooms.
Baichwal walks us through a lot of information in Into the Weeds, raising urgent and important questions beyond the legal case. RoundUp and Ranger Pro are effective weed killers. But there are scientists, and people like Elder Raymond Owl, the founder of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, who maintain the pesticide doesn’t just kill weeds, but has consequences on insects, birds and other parts of the biosphere. Ray Owl is fighting to stop the aerial spraying of glyphosate within Robinson Huron Treaty Territory.
Into the Weeds: Dewayne “Lee” Johnson vs. Monsanto Company is a cautionary environmental story, that raises unsettling questions about what’s in the food we eat, and how our farming practices are affecting the biosphere.
Into the Weeds: Dewayne “Lee” Johnson vs. Monsanto Company, Written and Directed by Jennifer Baichwal, featuring Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, Brent Wisner, Robin Greenwald, Aimee Wagstaff, Raymond Owl
Opens in theatres Friday, May 20,