The Iowa Senate Ag Committee has approved a bill that gives some liability protection to farm chemical companies, including Bayer, which makes the widely used weed killer Roundup.
Bill backers cite a 2020 EPA report that determined the main ingredient in Roundup is not a carcinogen. “This isn’t about emotion. It’s not about who said what. This is about true science and either you believe the EPA does true science or not,” said Senator Jeff Edler, a Republican from State Center who’s a farmer. “All this does it take away one little loophole in the way someone was able to construe whether they felt Roundup caused cancer.”
Republican Senator Dan Zumbach, who farms near Ryan, said companies like Bayer will stop developing and improving farm chemicals if their legal exposure grows.
“If we constantly put them in a position where the risk is so high that they say, ‘The heck with it. We’re not going to do it anymore,’ not just farmers but every person in this room will suffer,” Zumbach said. “There will be starving children for the lack of the availability of these products.”
Democrats on the committee opposed the bill. “What this thing does is it stops people who’ve been exposed to this and die and their farmer families to get compensation,” Senator William Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo, said.
Senator Nate Boulton, a Democrat from Des Moines, said he’s siding with farmers who contend they’ve contracted cancer from exposure to farm chemicals rather than a company concerned about profit margins.
“When I look at the wealthiest corporations on the planet, I have a hard time feeling like there’s a tug at my heart strings to make sure they’re going to be ok,” Boulton said.
A similar bill was introduced in the Iowa House, but failed to pass a key committee by this week’s deadline.