DES MOINES, Iowa – A renewed and expanded effort from chemical giant Bayer to shield itself from lawsuits that claim its popular weedkiller Roundup causes cancer brought dozens of protesters to the Iowa Capitol building Monday begging lawmakers to reject it.
The legislation, pending in Iowa and at least seven other states, would protect pesticide companies from claims they failed to warn that their product causes cancer if the product label otherwise complies with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations.
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Similar efforts failed during 2024 legislative sessions in Iowa, Missouri and Idaho. But this year, Bayer and a coalition of agricultural groups are doubling down. A broader media campaign is highlighting the importance of glyphosate-based Roundup for American agriculture. And they are getting help from a group that ran a Super Bowl ad in Missouri asserting the legislation is necessary to combat Chinese influence over the U.S. food supply.
Opponents, including those who rallied Monday in Des Moines, say the bills would limit the rights of people to hold companies accountable if their products cause harm. Speakers took turns telling stories of family members throughout the state who have been diagnosed with cancers and shouted out to lawmakers that Iowa's people are more important than corporate profits.
“I feel like we need accountability here in Iowa,” said Nick Schutt, a part-time farmer whose mother, father, aunt and two siblings have all had cancer diagnoses. “At the end of the day, multinational chemical companies like Bayer should be held accountable."
Bayer disputes the claims that Roundup causes cancer, but the company has been hit with about 177,000 lawsuits involving the weedkiller and has set aside $16 billion to settle cases. It contends those legal costs are “not sustainable” and is looking for relief from lawmakers concerned about the possibility that Roundup could be pulled from the U.S. market.
For crops including corn, soybeans and cotton, Roundup is designed to work with genetically modified seeds that resist the weedkiller’s deadly effect. It allows farmers to produce more crops while conserving the soil by tilling it less.
“It is the most important product in global agriculture,” Liza Lockwood, Bayer's medical affairs lead in its crop science division, said during a recent Missouri Senate committee hearing.
Some farmers have echoed that assertion. If lawsuits force Roundup off the U.S. market, they contend that Chinese-made products may be the only alternative.
“Losing access to this one safe and effective tool will set off a domino effect that will threaten family farmers and our state’s economy,” Kevin Ross, a farmer from southwest Iowa, said to Iowa lawmakers. Ross detailed how, for 50 years, the American-made product has increased soil quality, decreased water runoff and helped struggling farmers turn a profit.
An expanded field for legislation
Last year, Bayer focused its lobbying efforts on Missouri, Iowa and Idaho — home, respectively, to its North America crop science division, a Roundup manufacturing facility and the phosphate mines from which its key ingredient is derived. Though bills passed at least one chamber in Iowa and Missouri, they ultimately failed in all three states.
This year, legislation providing legal protection against failure-to-warn claims already has passed the North Dakota House without any opposition. Similar bills have cleared initial committees in Iowa, Mississippi and Missouri and are pending in legislative committees in Florida, Oklahoma and Tennessee. A bill failed to get out of a Wyoming committee by a deadline.
Bayer officials said Monday that legislative efforts also are in the works in Georgia, Idaho and the U.S. Congress. A promotional campaign from the Modern Ag Alliance, a coalition that Bayer supports, has targeted an even wider array of states.
New to the cause this year is the Protecting America Initiative, an organization concerned about China’s influence on the U.S. economy and tied to Richard Grenell, President Donald Trump’s envoy for special missions and former acting director of national intelligence. The group ran a television ad Sunday in central Missouri during the Super Bowl urging support for the legislation. It said it has invested six figures to run the 30-second spot more broadly across Missouri and Iowa.
It also parked a truck containing a portable billboard outside the Iowa Capitol on Monday, encouraging support of the bill to stop Chinese-made chemicals from “infiltrating American farms.”
Concerns about cancer and pesticides
Ads supporting legislation that could limit Bayer's legal liability have emphasized the importance of its weed-control products to agriculture.
"Farming’s hard,” one Facebook advertisement says. “But it’s a little easier with glyphosate.”
That ad offended Kim Hagemann, a suburban Des Moines resident who showed up to a crowded subcommittee meeting to share her opposition with lawmakers.
“Bayer is right, farming’s hard, but dealing with cancer is even harder,” said Hagemann, a member of one of the groups that organized Monday's protest.
Though some studies associate Roundup's key ingredient glyphosate with cancer, the EPA has said it is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans when used as directed. Yet the numerous lawsuits against Bayer allege glyphosate does cause a cancer called non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
One of the many attorneys involved in the lawsuits against Bayer is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services. Though the health agency oversees the Food and Drug Administration, it does not control the EPA and its labeling requirements.
The legislation supported by Bayer would provide a defense against failure-to-warn claims not only for Roundup but for other pesticide products that follow EPA labeling guidelines.
Richard Deming, a cancer physician in Des Moines, said it often takes decades to determine a cause-and-effect connection between cancer and long-term exposure to low levels of chemicals. He said public policy should focus on mitigating that risk, not providing “immunity from responsibility.”
“I don’t think that ag chemicals causes as much cancer as cigarette smoking," Deming told the AP after speaking to lawmakers. But studies suggest "there’s clear association between ag chemical exposure in the state of Iowa and cancer incidence.”
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Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.