State AGs Seek to Prevent Extra Warning Labels on Weedkillers

The Des Moines Register’s Donnelle Eller reported Thursday that “Iowa, Nebraska and nine other states filed a petition Wednesday with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, asking it to adopt a rule preventing states like California from adding warning labels to chemicals that exceed the federal agency’s findings about their potential hazards.”

“The EPA regulates the use of chemicals, often requiring labeling that directs farmers on when and how products such as herbicides can be used, among other precautions,” Eller reported. “In its last review, the EPA determined that one of the most common herbicides, glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup and similar products, does not pose a cancer risk to people.”

“Iowa and Nebraska’s petition was prompted by California’s efforts to add warning labels to glyphosate products, saying the chemical is known by the state to cause cancer,” Eller reported. “Bayer, whose Monsanto unit makes Roundup, has paid billions of dollars to resolve lawsuits making that claim, and it maintains Roundup is safe, getting regulatory approval worldwide, including from the EPA.”

Why California Exceeds the Federal Label

Eller reported that “the International Agency for Research on Cancer identified glyphosate as ‘probably carcinogenic’ in 2015. California listed the chemical two years later as cancer-causing under its Proposition 65, which requires makers of hazardous products to warn consumers about exposure.”

“The requirement was challenged in court, and in November, a federal court sided with a district court’s permanent injunction preventing the warning label, saying it was unconstitutional,” Eller reported. “The 2015 IARC ‘conclusion is not shared by a consensus of the scientific community,’ the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote in its opinion.”

The Iowa Capital Dispatch’s Aaron Sanderford reported that “some academic studies have found that glyphosate has contributed to cancer when people are exposed to too much or apply it incorrectly. Bayer, which bought Roundup from Monsanto, removed glyphosate from the Roundup spray people use in their homes in 2023 after lawsuits were filed. Some farmers have said they don’t want to lose the ability to use the product in their fields.”

Why Farmers Say They Need Glyphosate

Sanderford reported that “glyphosate defenders say it controls weeds more cheaply and effectively than other options and point to EPA findings that the chemical can be safely used by following directions.”

Iowa Attorney General Brenna “Bird, who said she still lives on family-owned farm ground, said ag faces enough challenges without worrying about whether one state can ban something that farmers in other states rely on to control weeds,” Sanderford reported. “She said her family and Iowa farmers have been using glyphosate for decades without trouble. Bird said if they need to resort to different weed-control options it will add to the costs of farming and food.”

Eller reported that “Sherry Vinton, Nebraska’s director of agriculture, said glyphosate has provided a cost-effective way to control weeds, especially at a time when prices for corn, soybeans and other crops are below the cost to grow them.”

“Kevin Ross, who farms in Underwood in western Iowa, said using glyphosate allows farmers like him to avoid employing harsher chemicals,” Eller reported. “It also helps them lower their carbon emissions when growing corn, which helps California consumers maintain access to low-carbon fuel like the ethanol that much of Iowa’s nation-leading corn crop is used to produce.”

“Mark McHargue, president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau and a Merrick County corn and soybean farmer, said there is a limit to the number of tools farmers can use to grow food,” Sanderford reported. “He said American farmers often compete with growers from Argentina and other countries that use glyphosate with fewer restrictions. McHargue said farmers aren’t asking to put people at risk. They’re asking to have consistent rules, grounded in science, that are set at the national level.”

What Bayer is Saying

Progressive Farmer’s Todd Neeley reported that “in a statement to DTN, Bayer said it was ‘encouraged to see continued broad recognition and discussion on the importance of this topic for farmers and consumers alike — and the need for a solution to this issue created by the litigation industry.'”