Monsanto admitted in a plea agreement to 30 environmental crimes related to the use of a glufosinate ammonium herbicide. After using the product in 2020 on corn fields in Oahu, Hawaii, Monsanto allowed workers to enter the fields during a six-day "restricted access interval" (RAI) after the product was applied. The agreement calls for Monsanto to serve three years of probation, pay a total of $12 million, and continue a comprehensive environmental compliance program that includes a third-party auditor for another three years.
The company is also being sued because it violated a 2019 DPA related to the storage of a banned pesticide by allowing workers to enter fields sprayed with Forfeit 280 to conduct corn scouting within six days of spraying. According to court filings, Monsanto will plead guilty to two felony charges filed in 2019 that the government would have dismissed had the company complied with federal law. Along with the DPA related to the two felony charges of unlawful storage of an acute hazardous waste, Monsanto pleaded guilty in early 2020 to a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully spraying a banned pesticide - specifically, methyl parathion, the active ingredient in Penncap-M - on research crops at one of its Maui facilities.