Every year, Iowa farms flood their fields with pesticides while Big Ag chemical companies give assurances of their products’ safety. Yet, as pesticide use has exploded, cancer rates have grown, too. 

The state now has the fastest-growing rate of new cancers and is second in cancer incidence overall. At the same time, pesticide companies like Bayer, maker of Roundup, have paid out billions of dollars to settle lawsuits alleging their products caused cancer and other illnesses nationwide. 

In Iowa and several other states, these companies have pushed bills that would give them immunity against many future lawsuits. Through lobbying and ad campaigns, they’re fighting for laws that would preserve their profits and block this avenue for justice.

When Iowa lawmakers first introduced this bill last year, we knew we could not let it pass. This year, we helped build a broad coalition of Iowans to successfully stop it again. 

This is a massive victory for people over pesticides — but the fight is far from over. Food & Water Watch will continue fighting with farmers and families as Big Ag’s efforts expand across the country.

How Pesticides Harm Farmers and Iowans

America is drowning in pesticides, and Iowans are some of the most impacted. Iowa farmers spread more pesticides, commercial fertilizers, and manure than any other state. The toll on public health has been immense.

Nick Schutt, a lifelong Iowan, knows this firsthand. He grew up on a farm and has lived amid fields all his life. When we first spoke with Nick in July 2024, he could list 17 members of his immediate family who have been diagnosed with cancer.  

“It seems like people around here are dying younger and younger all the time,” he said. “You go to their service, and everyone gets the general consensus: it was too early for them.”

It was no surprise to him that cancer rates are growing in the state. “I can’t believe Iowa’s not number one,” Nick told us, “with the gallons and gallons of chemicals and herbicides that I see going up and down the road every day.”

Along with various cancers, these pesticides are linked to Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, reproductive disorders, respiratory problems, and more.

In particular, the use of glyphosate-based herbicides, the most common in the U.S., has grown exponentially. In Iowa, the average rate of glyphosate applied per acre of soybeans jumped 238% from 1990 to 2023. 

Bayer’s Roundup is one such glyphosate-based herbicide. And while glyphosate has been linked with a cancer called non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the chemical cocktail in each bottle of Roundup may be even more dangerous. One toxicologist testified that Roundup is 50 times more toxic to our DNA than glyphosate by itself.

Big Ag Can’t Dodge Accountability

Pesticides are leaching into our water, land, and bodies — in Iowa and across the country. Yet the Cancer Gag Act and similar bills in other states aim to block a key path for accountability and justice. 

Chemical corporations like Bayer have emphasized the safety of their products, pointing to safety assessments from the Environmental Protection Agency. However, these assessments are rife with industry influence, and U.S. pesticide protections lag far behind those of other agricultural nations.

Because of this weak regulatory system, lawsuits are the main means of accountability.  But bills like the Cancer Gag Act would shield companies from many future suits. 

Two years ago, Rich Gradoville, a member of Food & Water Watch and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, found a tumor in his bladder. After surgery to remove it, Rich was declared cancer-free, but now needs regular doctor’s appointments for monitoring. “Bladder cancer was traditionally a smoker’s disease, and I’ve never been a smoker,” he said. 

Around that time, there had been a spill of hundreds of gallons of fertilizer in the East Nishnabotna River. A urologist told Rich that nearby communities would probably see a higher incidence of cancer. 

Whether from fertilizer, pesticides, or factory farm waste, Big Ag is putting Iowans’ health at risk, and Iowans deserve every avenue for justice.

“We might find out down the road that, similar to the tobacco industry, there was a lot more information about the effects of glyphosate on people’s health,” said Rich. “And if that’s the case, we should have the opportunity to hold Bayer responsible.” 

Big Ag Corporations Fight to Defend Their Bottom Line

When agrochemical giant Bayer bought Monsanto, the original maker of Roundup, it was no secret people were suing Monsanto for alleged harms of its products. Passing the Cancer Gag Act would have pushed that liability onto the people of Iowa, says John Crabtree. 

“To say the people of Iowa need to bear the brunt of cancer on their own so that Bayer can have a bottom line — that, frankly, is offensive,” said John. 

While speaking at a vigil and rally against the Cancer Gag Act, John pulled out a photo of his family taken in the 1970s. Of the eleven people in the photo, five had died of cancer. Just a month after the vigil, his sister was diagnosed with cancer. “Our family has already borne the brunt of the cancer epidemic in Iowa,” he said.

Stories like John’s made it even more galling to see the pesticide industry rally around this bill. Bayer specifically has seen falling profits; it’s spent $11 billion settling 100,000 cancer lawsuits related to Roundup. Passing the Cancer Gag Act would have helped it avoid future losses. It amounts to a corporate bailout.

The pesticide industry formed the Modern Ag Alliance just to advocate for bills like the Cancer Gag Act. It deployed hundreds of thousands of dollars on TV, news, and social media ads and sent lobbyists to the State Capitol. 

This fight pits some of the biggest, richest agrochemical companies in the world against farmers and families, many of whom have been personally affected by cancer. 

How Iowans Came Together to Stop the Cancer Gag Act

To counter pesticide giants’ power and oppose this bill, Food & Water Watch joined with allies and people across the state, including farmers, labor unions, healthcare workers, and environmental advocates. Our allies came from across the political spectrum and from all walks of life.

“As soon as you start picking on people with cancer, you’re picking on the majority of people in Iowa, because everybody you talk to has cancer or knows someone,” said Brenda Brink, who lives north of Des Moines surrounded by fields and the pesticides sprayed onto them. She herself has been diagnosed with cancer. 

Brenda saw through Big Ag’s bogus messaging that this bill would hurt American farming. “These companies say ‘We’ve got to protect our agriculture’ — but they’re not protecting agriculture. Farmers are dying of cancer,” she said. 

We nicknamed the bill the “Cancer Gag Act” to be crystal clear about its intentions — silencing people suffering from cancer. We raised public awareness to make this bill so noxious that many elected leaders wouldn’t touch it. 

With allies, we drove thousands of messages and calls into legislators’ offices. Ahead of one hearing, Iowans sent more than 300 comments against the bill in just 24 hours. We confronted elected officials who supported the bill, like Rep. Bobby Kaufman. Thousands of Iowans standing against the Cancer Gag Act drove even more media attention. 

One of our biggest actions took place on February 10 at the State Capitol, where we rallied with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and more than 150 supporters. The event began with a vigil and powerful speeches from Iowans impacted by cancer, including Nick, Rich, John, and Brenda. Legislators needed to hear directly from Iowans with cancer, whose rights they’d be taking away if they passed this bill.

People Power Defeats Corporate Power and the Cancer Gag Act

In April — just hours after we released a letter with 30 organizations opposing the Cancer Gag Act — the Speaker of the State House, Pat Grassley, revealed that the bill did not have the votes to pass. But Bayer wasn’t done yet. It jumped into a final-ditch effort to push the bill through, lobbying Governor Reynolds and Senate and House leadership directly. 

With our allies, Food & Water Watch leapt into action, driving nearly 600 calls to state lawmakers in the last week of the legislative session. Ultimately, we beat Bayer’s efforts. Iowans had made their opposition to the bill crystal clear. In May, the legislative session ended without the passage of the Cancer Gag Act.

“I’m excited that enough legislators saw this issue for what it was,” said John Crabtree. “And I know why that happened: because so many people turned out. They called, emailed; went to our vigil and to meetings in their districts. People stood up and voiced their concerns — that’s why it didn’t go through.”

We Continue the Fight Against Big Ag in Iowa

Stopping this bill was an incredible feat of people power against some of the biggest Big Ag corporations in the world. 

But as we take this moment to celebrate, we know the fight isn’t over. The pesticide industry is working across the country. In total, twelve pesticide immunity bills have been introduced in state legislatures, with two passed and one still moving. 

At the federal level, pesticide corporations are pushing the Agricultural Labeling Uniformity Act, which would curb states’ and communities’ ability to protect people from harmful uses of pesticides. Proponents of the measure are also working to include it in this year’s Farm Bill. 

“We’re keeping vigilant because they’ll try to do this in so many ways,” said Brenda Brink. “So even though the session has ended, I don’t trust them a little bit.”

Now, along with opposing Cancer Gag Act bills elsewhere, Food & Water Watch is also fighting other threats to Iowans’ health. That includes federal budget cuts for rural water and healthcare programs, to pay for tax cuts for corporations. We’re also working to pass the Clean Water for Iowa Act to protect people from dangerous water pollution from factory farms. 

The lessons of this victory will be key in these battles: We can defeat corporate power with a large, diverse coalition working strategically, and by countering industry narratives with the reality of those on the ground. With supporters like you, we will continue fighting and winning for Iowa’s farmers and families.