Paul François

Paul François is a French agricultor and author, who has been decorated with the Legion of Honour.

François considers himself to have been "a pure product of the chemical agriculture industry", up until his rupture with it because of his poisoning.

Toxic incident

François inhaled the poison on 27 April 2004. He was ill enough to spit blood when interned in hospital. As late as November that year, the long-term effects of the poison caused him to faint, and in May 2005 it was determined that monochlorobenzene—a solvent used in Lasso to dilute the Alachlor—was present in his bloodstream.

In December 2011, final arguments to the court were heard.

In February 2012, the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Lyon condemned Monsanto to pay damages to François.

Appeal court

In 2015 at the appeal court, Monsanto lawyers repeatedly refused to concede that their product was toxic and that the damages owed were fictitious.

Court of cassation

The case was finally set against Monsanto on 21 October 2020 by the Court of Cassation (French highest appeal court), which rejected Monsanto’s bid to overturn the 2019 sentence.

In a ruling handed down on 7 November 2022, the Lyon judicial court sentenced the German agrochemical giant Bayer (which bought Monsanto in 2018) to pay Paul François the sum of €11,135.

Author

François wrote, with Anne-Laure Barret, Un paysan contre Monsanto to document his battle against Monsanto. This book, which was released to market in October 2017, was published by Fayard press.