At Vibrant ‘The People vs. Poison’ Rally, Resistance Galvanizes Against Bayer-Monsanto, Makers of Roundup

They arrived from opposite ends of America’s political spectrum carrying the same banner: The People vs. Poison.

At Monday’s rally outside the Supreme Court of the United States, hundreds of Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and independents gathered to protest a hearing inside that could help Bayer and Monsanto shield themselves from future Roundup lawsuits.

Roundup, the most widely used herbicide to kill weeds that prevent crops like corn from growing, contains glyphosate, which studies have found is a likely human carcinogen that causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Protesters packed the sidewalks chanting “No more poison! No more poison!” while waving signs reading “Children Over Chemicals,” “Total Immunity for Liars,” and “How Much Cancer is Acceptable?”

Two protesters in cowboy hats stood facing the podium with two signs at their feet bearing longer messages: “KILL LIABILITY NOT PEOPLE: Legalized Poisoning of People is MURDER” and “Glyphosate Kills Beneficial Organisms in the Intestinal Tract.”

At the center of the protest is Monsanto v. Durnell, the case now before SCOTUS. Demonstrators warned a ruling in favor of Bayer could create a sweeping legal shield for manufacturers whose products receive U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approval, making it far harder for future victims to sue. They pointed repeatedly to Bayer, the German conglomerate that bought Monsanto in 2018 and has already paid more than $10 billion to settle Roundup-related cancer claims while still facing tens of thousands of pending cases. Protesters argued that if Bayer prevails, the precedent could extend far beyond Roundup and reshape corporate liability for generations.

Vani Hari, known online as The Food Babe, was one of the event’s organizers and urged the enthusiastic crowd to raise their voices louder so those inside the Supreme Court could hear what they were fighting for.

“Right now, inside that building, Monsanto Bayer will be arguing for the right to poison us and not be held accountable,” she said. “They want to give us cancer and get away with it.” The crowd erupted when she added: “We are here to make sure that does not happen.”

Hari also took aim at politicians backing liability protections. “You cannot claim to care about health while protecting poison,” she said. “You cannot tell Americans to eat real food while protecting the cancer-causing chemicals sprayed on it.”

The speaker lineup reflected the unusual coalition now forming around the issue: wellness influencers, MAGA-adjacent activists, progressive lawmakers, libertarians, former members of Congress, farmers and one woman who said Roundup killed her husband.

“My name is Terry McCall. I’m here because Monsanto (who I also like to call MonSATAN) Roundup killed my husband,” she said.

McCall told the story of the life she built with her husband, Jack, on a 20-acre farm in San Luis Obispo County. “Jack was one of the healthiest people I knew. He surfed, ate clean, never smoked,” she said.

McCall said Jack used only Roundup because he believed the company’s assurances. “He chose only roundup because he was told it was safe,” she said, adding that he spent decades spraying their orchards while “trusting what the company said.” Years later, Jack developed aggressive lymphoma. “I believe with all my heart that his death was a direct result of that exposure to Roundup.” She added, “I cannot accept that. We cannot accept that to happen.”

Wellness advocate Kelly Ryerson, known online as Glyphosate Girl, received a warm welcome from supporters who recognized her years of activism on the issue. Ryerson recalled attending one of the first glyphosate cancer trials and finding almost no public outrage. “I assumed there’d be a big protest against Monsanto because who doesn’t hate Monsanto?” she said. “But I walked there and I was essentially alone.” Looking over Monday’s crowd, she declared: “The reinforcements have arrived . . . America is awake and she is here at the Capitol to fight and to win.”

Ryerson framed the issue as part of a broader collapse in public health. “A food system that degrades the health of its own people is not strong, it’s a failure,” she said. “And a government that shields corporations from the people does not serve the public it is captured.”

Even Congressman Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, took the microphone to announce that he has been working with Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine, on legislation to block immunity efforts.

“We’ve offered legislation called the No Immunity for Glyphosate Act,” Massie said. “We are not going to give it to them.” He warned, “This is regulatory capture. It is corrupt.”

Pingree said, “Any Farm Bill that protects chemical companies over American families is not pro-farmer. It’s not pro-health. It’s not pro-America. It’s a giveaway to Big Chemical.” She promised the crowd, “People over poison, we are going to win!”

Massie also called out Susie Wiles, accusing the administration of siding with corporate interests. “The White House Chief of Staff worked for a lobbying firm that accepted money from Monsanto-Bayer, and that is wrong,” Massie told demonstrators. “That is why we have an executive order that we are fighting.”

Massie claimed that the federal government, particularly the executive branch, does not have the power to issue what he described as “get-out-of-court-free cards,” saying that is why he is standing with farmers to fight the effort.

Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich followed Massie and Pingree, telling the crowd it was an honor to see so many people gathered. Kucinich placed the fight in a longer timeline, saying he first entered the fight in 1999 after learning monarch butterflies were dying after feeding on pollen dusted with GMOs.

“So what did I do? I went to the House of Representatives and I introduced two bills,” Kucinich said, including GMO labeling and safety testing. He argued Monday’s case was bigger than pesticides alone: “What they’re going to be deciding is whether or not states have a fundamental right to be able to stand up for the health and safety of their people.”

The rally’s cross-party message sharpened when Cory Booker, a Democrat, took the microphone. “I was sent here in New Jersey to stand up for the 9, 10 million people of my state,” Booker said. “But today we gather together to stand up for all of America.”

Booker accused lawmakers of trying to quietly protect chemical interests through Congress. “I see now, on the House side of the Capitol, them trying to stick things in the farm bill that would do the corporate bidders work for them,” he said. “To try to stick things in the farm bill that would protect a broken system that is literally killing people around our country.”

Del Bigtree livestreamed the three-hour rally on his HighWire network and told the crowd that healthy, organic food should be accessible to every family, not just the wealthy. “Every child deserves to be healthy in America,” Bigtree said before leading a chant urging demonstrators to continue to “fight, fight, fight.”

Other speakers rotated through the program, including MAHA activists Zen Honeycutt, Ilana Muhlstein, Holistic Hilda and more.

A few women in custom jackets reading “I Turn into Erin Brockovich when I’m Angry” moved through the buzzing crowd. One of them was podcast host Alex Clark, who later told reporters MAHA’s future inside the GOP remains unsettled. A reporter asked Clark if she believed there was still room for MAHA inside the Republican party.

“That’s up to the Republicans,” Clark replied, “if you’re asking me, yes, and I’m doing everything I can, fighting tooth and nail to make sure that happens.” She added: “I don’t think the entire Republican Party is on board with that and that is a costly mistake if you’re asking me.”

Off camera afterward, Del Bigtree cast the movement as a rare point of unity in a fractured country. “Today we have Democrats standing next to Republicans, standing next to libertarians, mothers standing next to grandparents and children,” he said. “This is an issue that has the potential to bring America back together.”

Moments later, Booker delivered a similar message during his speech.

“Today we fight in the Supreme Court, but even after this fight we have to continue to grow this movement,” Booker told the crowd.

“And I tell you, this movement is not one of hate,” he said. “ It has got to be one fueled by the love that farmers have for their soil.The love that parents have for their children. The love that neighbors have for their neighbors who are suffering from preventable cancers. This has got to be a movement that grows, does not divide, but multiplies.”

SCOTUS is expected to issue its decision on Monsanto v. Durnell by early summer.

Until then, Hari urged protesters to flood social media with footage and messages from the rally, framing the weeks ahead as a public pressure campaign.

The fight now moves from the Supreme Court’s marbled chambers to millions of phone screens — and, the rally organizer’s hope, a safer future for America.

[For a video recording of the rally, please see here.]

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