MARTINEZ, Calif. — Minutes before opening arguments were set to begin in a state court trial over allegations that Monsanto's herbicide Roundup causes cancer, Bayer AG and plaintiffs counsel agreed to postpone the case to continue global settlement talks.  

"The parties have reached an agreement to continue the Caballero case in California Superior Court for Contra Costa County," said a spokesperson for Bayer, which owns Monsanto, in a statement. "The continuance is intended to provide room for the parties to continue the mediation process in good faith under the auspices of Ken Feinberg, and avoid the distractions that can arise from trials." 

The company said that while it is "constructively engaged in the mediation process" there is no settlement at this time nor certainty that a settlement will be reached.

Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Barry Goode, who was set to oversee the trial, thanked jurors Friday for participating in what he called a "fairly extraordinary selection process" before they were dismissed.

The Miller Law Firm represents Kathleen Caballero in the case. Caballero alleges Monsanto's Roundup is to blame for her non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis after regularly using the herbicide for about a decade in her gardening and landscaping business and as an owner of a peach and sugar cane farm. 

Winston & Strawn and Dentons represent Monsanto in the case.

The trial was set against a background of global settlement talks between Monsanto Co. and plaintiffs in some 42,700 U.S.lawsuits. The talks follow jury verdicts of $289 million and $2 billion in California state courts, and an $80 million jury award in the first bellwether trial in the multidistrict litigation in San Francisco federal court. This week, reports surfaced that the company was considering halting retail sales of Roundup, while continuing to serve the company's commercial base, according to Reuters.

Last week, Bayer postponed a trial in Missouri hours before it was set to begin. The company said the delay's purpose was to "provide room for the parties to continue the mediation process," which Feinberg is mediating. 

The Miller Firm founder Michael Miller, who works in Orange, Virginia, also serves as co-lead plaintiffs counsel in the multidistrict litigation, where U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California has set the second bellwether trial for Feb. 24. In that case, plaintiff Elaine Stevick alleges she used Roundup in her garden until 2014, when she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Her husband, Christopher Stevick, is bringing claims for loss of consortium.

Amanda Bronstand contributed reporting to this story.