If the Hardeman jury verdict stands, Monsanto would need to add a cancer warning to the Roundup® label. That’s something the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has never required for a glyphosate-based pesticide’s label since the agency approved glyphosate in 1972.

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If uniform labeling ceases to be federal policy, preemption will no longer protect pesticide manufacturers from frivolous failure-to-warn claims based on junk science. Faced with the costs of distributing pesticides with potentially fifty different labels, not to mention exposure to billions of dollars in damage awards and legal fees, companies may decide the risks outweigh the rewards. A reduction in pesticide production and innovation will mean fewer effective pesticides. And fewer pesticides mean less, and more expensive, food.

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For that reason, and because of that policy’s threat to food security and science-based policy making, the justices should accept certiorari in Monsanto v. Hardeman and ultimately reverse the Ninth Circuit’s decision.