In the fall of 2024, the Food & Water Watch Iowa team began noticing new advertising across the state. Agrochemical giant Bayer was promoting glyphosate, the active ingredient in its pesticide, Roundup. “And someone called ‘the Modern Ag Alliance’ took out full-page ads in newspapers around the state,” said Jennifer Breon, Food & Water Watch Iowa organizer. 

We quickly realized — these were the opening salvos in Bayer’s million-dollar battle for immunity against lawsuits linking Roundup to cancer. 

Iowa is drowning in pesticides and ranks second in the nation for cancer rates. In an average year, Roundup blankets over half the state. And in recent decades, cancer patients have received billions of dollars in settlement money from Bayer.

In response, Bayer shaped and lobbied for a state bill that we named the “Cancer Gag Act.” If passed, it would have denied sick Iowans the right to their day in court.

“We immediately reached out to our allies and like-minded environmental organizations who could bring their expertise and more ordinary Iowans to this fight,” said Jennifer. With just a few months of relentless, powerful advocacy, we successfully pressured state lawmakers to drop the Cancer Gag Act.

At our August Livable Future Live, we sat down with Jennifer, Food & Water Watch researcher Kat Ruane, and Nick Schutt, an impacted Iowan who joined our campaign. Together, they laid out the impact of pesticides on the state, Bayer’s battle to evade accountability, our successful win to stop the Cancer Gag Act in Iowa, and how the pesticide industry is taking its fight to the federal level.

How Pesticides Flooded Iowa and America

The Cancer Gag Act would have provided immunity for all pesticides, an umbrella term for many different kinds of chemicals that kill everything from insects to fungus to weeds. Since the 1970s, pesticide use in the U.S. has skyrocketed 300-fold, in great part due to the industry’s own design.

In 1974, agrochemical giant Monsanto introduced Roundup, a broad-spectrum herbicide — “meaning it essentially kills everything it touches,” Kat explained. Farmers couldn’t spray too much, or it would kill their crops.

“Monsanto swooped in in the ‘90s to solve this problem that they created,” Kat continued. They came out with “Roundup Ready” crops genetically engineered to resist Roundup. This allowed farmers to spray much more, leading to massive increases in how much Roundup farmers applied. 

Now, about 280 million pounds of glyphosate-based herbicides flood U.S. fields every year. Pesticide-resistant crops make up the majority of corn, soy, and cotton seeds.

Pesticide makers insist their products are safe — but by the 2010s, scientists were reaching a chilling conclusion. An abundance of research has linked pesticides to a variety of illnesses, from Alzheimer’s to Parkinson’s to cancer.

In 2010, the International Agency for Research on Cancer designated glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, as “probably carcinogenic.” This opened the floodgates for lawsuits against Monsanto, and then Bayer, after it bought Monsanto in 2018. In 2020, Bayer settled over 95,000 lawsuits, paying out $10 billion.

These lawsuits are cutting heavily into Bayer’s bottom line. But rather than face accountability for the possible harms of its products, Bayer moved to change the rules of the game. In the past few years, it has fought for pesticide immunity bills like Iowa’s Cancer Gag Act in an attempt to stop future lawsuits.

The Pesticide Industry Already Benefits from Underregulation

Pesticide immunity bills like Iowa’s Cancer Gag Act hinge on a single, outrageous idea: that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the final say on whether a warning label is good enough to protect us, and companies shouldn’t be held liable for anything that the EPA doesn’t require.

But U.S. pesticide regulations lag behind those of other countries. In fact, we spray millions of pounds of pesticides here that the European Union has banned.

Industry influence saturates the EPA’s pesticide registration process. Federal warning labels are largely based on industry-sponsored studies. “There’s very little third-party involvement,” Kat said, “which is a huge, huge conflict of interest.”

Additionally, in conducting the assessments that inform these warning labels, the EPA isn’t required to review studies that consider risks created by the pesticide formula as a whole, leading to concerns that the agency overlooks harms caused by the interaction between “active ingredients” and the rest of the formula.

In one lawsuit, a toxicologist testified that Roundup was actually 50 times more toxic to our DNA than glyphosate alone. EPA labels don’t incorporate that kind of information. 

These and other deficiencies in federal pesticide oversight have led numerous courts to disagree with the EPA’s conclusions about the health and environmental hazards associated with pesticide use.  

The EPA is failing to properly assess pesticide applications or require adequate warning labels for the hazards of approved products. And this is a primary reason people have been forced to rely on litigation after the fact if they get sick from using a pesticide.

One Iowan’s Fight to Leave the Door Open for Justice

Nick Schutt is one of the many Iowans whose families have been devastated by cancer. He grew up on his family farm in Iowa. Now, he farms part-time while working for the Hamilton County Solid Waste Department. In recent decades, 17 of Nick’s close family members have received cancer diagnoses. 

“I truly believe the chemicals in the water we drank and were exposed to are a major factor in how much cancer we’ve had in our family,” Nick told us. “We all grew up on rural water.”

At Hamilton County Solid Waste, Nick is continuously trained on chemicals he might come in contact with and spills that might happen on-site. There, he learned that the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) designates any spill over five gallons as a reportable offense. 

“So how is it that five gallons is a reportable offense to the DNR, but farmers can apply thousands of gallons of glyphosate, Roundup, and the DNR and the EPA are fine with it?” he wondered.

Nick was one of many impacted Iowans who joined our fight against the Cancer Gag Act. In February, he spoke at a rally and vigil during a lobby day, sharing his story loud and clear for lawmakers to hear.

For Nick, the Cancer Gag Act is personal. “Bayer shouldn’t be writing the rules for us here in Iowa, or anywhere else,” he said. “It’s up to a judge to decide whether a lawsuit has merit.” 

Despite the many stories like Nick’s, the pesticide industry has callously blamed attacks against glyphosate on the so-called “litigation industry.”

“People are losing their lives, and filing a lawsuit is a long and arduous process,” Jennifer emphasized. “No one does this for frivolous reasons.” 

Food & Water Watch Takes on Pesticide Immunity Bills in Iowa and Beyond

Iowa wasn’t the only state to face its own Cancer Gag Act. Bayer pushed similar legislation in 12 other states, and it’s been defeated in nine. Despite this resounding defeat, Bayer and their allies are now moving to pass pesticide immunity language through multiple federal bills. 

“This has really been an all-hands-on-deck moment for the pesticide industry,” Kat said. “As a part of that, they’re spending big.” Bayer and the Modern Ag Alliance have poured millions of dollars into lobbying to win immunity at the state and federal levels.

Fortunately, we’ve already beaten their corporate cash with people power, and we’re prepared to do it again.

Our victory in Iowa taught us many lessons on how to defeat this legislation. As Jennifer explained, just naming the bill the Cancer Gag Act was a critical decision. “The name captured the horrific intent behind the bill and made it synonymous with silencing cancer victims,” she said.

We also centered the stories of those most impacted. And we organized newsworthy events that would elevate our message through the media. 

Crucially, we presented the Cancer Gag as a choice for lawmakers. They could either support corporate profits at the expense of their constituents or defend their constituents against the greed of these Big Ag behemoths.

Our win in Iowa showed that when we all band together and tell our stories like Nick did, do the research like Kat did, and build coalitions as Jennifer did, we can defend our communities and defeat corporate power.

Watch the Full Event!

To learn more from Nick, Kat, and Jennifer, watch the full recording of Toxic Silence: A Fight Against Legal Immunity for Pesticide Companies.

Resources and Actions

• Check out our fact sheet about Iowa’s Cancer Gag Act!
• Read more about the campaign for pesticide immunity at the federal level.
• Read this op-ed by Food & Water Watch Factory Farm Organizing Director Krissy Kasserman, opposing Cancer Gag Act language in her home state, North Carolina. 
• Learn more about how corporations covered up the risks of pesticide use in this YouTube Video from More Perfect Union.
• Join us for our next Livable LIVE on Wednesday, September 17. We’ll discuss the health and environmental impacts of artificial intelligence (AI). Sign up here!
• We have various volunteer teams and events happening across the country — check out opportunities to join our work near you!
• Your generosity helps fight for a livable future for all! Donate to Food & Water Watch!