Monsanto Ex-CEO Defends Roundup’s Safety Record at Bayer Trial

The former head of Bayer AG’s Monsanto unit defended the safety of the company’s much-maligned Roundup weedkiller before a Missouri jury in first his testimony about his knowledge of the product’s cancer risks.

Hugh Grant, who stepped down as Monsanto’s chief executive officer in 2018, told jurors Tuesday he believed Roundup was never proven to be a carcinogen despite studies to the contrary. Bayer has faced tens of thousands of lawsuits blaming the herbicide for causing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“This product was never found to cause cancer,” Grant told a state court jury in Kansas City. “It passed all ...