NORTH CAROLINA — One of the world’s largest agrochemical companies initiated a campaign to pass state laws limiting pesticide liability in response to thousands of suits alleging it failed to warn the public about weedkiller Roundup’s health risks. North Carolina is the most recent state to consider the legislation.
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Last week, the Senate Agriculture, Energy, and Environment Committee approved an amended version of the North Carolina Farm Act of 2025. Under a provision included in the most recent bill, pesticide manufacturers and sellers’ responsibility to warn the public about chemical health risks would be satisfied if products are approved by the Environmental Protection Agency and the State Pesticide Board.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hear the bill Tuesday.
Agro-chemical multinational Bayer has paid billions in settlements since it purchased Monsanto, manufacturer of weedkiller Roundup, in 2018. Bayer formed a coalition to lobby for federal and state pesticide liability laws as part of its strategy to manage thousands of lawsuits alleging the company failed to warn consumers of the health risk of glyphosate, a chemical contained in Roundup.
Bayer helped draft a section of the federal Farm Bill last year aimed at limiting pesticide liability, according to the Washington Post. Its lobbyists have pushed bills with similar language in around a dozen states.
“Proposed legislation at the state and federal level — such as bills being considered in a number of states — would simply ensure that any pesticide registered with the EPA and sold under a label consistent with its determinations is sufficient to satisfy requirements for health and safety warnings,” a Bayer spokesperson told Port City Daily.
Alternatively, environmentalist group Toxic Free NC argues the provision would set a precedent expanding immunity for polluting industries.
“This bill text has been unpopular in every state where Bayer has pushed for this legislation,” Toxic Free NC policy manager Kendall Wimberly said. “Our lawmakers need to put the health and rights of North Carolina communities above corporate chemical manufacturers. This section would set a dangerous precedent for polluting industries, and it must not remain in the North Carolina Farm Act of 2025.”
Bayer founded the Modern Ag Alliance — a coalition of nearly 100 agricultural organizations including the NC Farm Bureau — to advocate for similar provisions across the country. The group argues glyphosate is essential for safe and affordable food as the “backbone of modern agriculture.”
“Without additional legislative certainty, the efforts of the litigation industry threaten to drive up food costs and potentially impact Bayer’s leading R&D programs and other important investments which are essential to solving some of the world’s most important problems,” Bayer wrote in its strategic plan to address Roundup litigation.
North Dakota was the first state to enact the industry-backed labeling law last month and a Georgia version is awaiting approval from Gov. Brian Kemp.
Port City Daily reached out to the NC Farm Act of 2025’s lead sponsor, Sen. Brent Jackson (R-Pender), to ask about the provision but did not receive a response by press. Jackson is the owner of agriculture businesses including Jacksons Farming Company Inc, which has growers in six states. Jackson has received $79,400 from the NC Farm Bureau, $8,000 from Monsanto and $3,400 from Bayer in campaign contributions.
A 1991 Supreme Court decision upheld states and local governments’ authority to enact stricter pesticide restrictions than those included in federal law. The EPA does not classify glyphosate as carcinogenic but plaintiffs have relied on state failure-to-warn claims to sue Bayer for not warning about the pesticide’s cancer risk.
According to the National Agricultural Law Center, state failure-to-warn claims are used by plaintiffs in almost all pesticide injury suits, including cases involving glyphosate, paraquat, and chlorpyrifos.
Appeals Courts have issued split opinions in recent years regarding the use of state failure-to-warn laws in Roundup litigation. Bayer is seeking a Supreme Court review to challenge the standard.
The company argues state laws are preempted by Roundup’s federally approved label. It argues its recently pushed bills would not provide blanket immunity to plaintiffs who could seek damages under other claims, such as breach of warranty and design defect.
The NC Farm Act of 2025 provision notes the EPA label can only be rebutted if the manufacturer “knew or should have known” the “weight of scientific evidence” did not support its contents.
“Bayer stands behind the safety of glyphosate — backed by the EPA and all leading regulators around the world,” a Bayer spokesperson said. “It also supports legislation that would help keep crop-protection tools in the hands of American farmers.”
Glyphosate is the most widely used chemical weedkiller in the world. Monsanto first brought it to market in 1974 as the active ingredient in Roundup. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a branch of the World Health Organization, classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” in 2015.
Internal documents show Monsanto was aware of research linking Roundup to cancer decades ago. The company downplayed unfavorable assessments by its researchers, worked with EPA regulators to conceal agency studies, orchestrated campaigns to discredit independent scientists, and improperly influenced the peer review process with ghostwriting and other forms of research misconduct.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the EPA’s health risk assessment for glyphosate in 2022 after determining the agency ignored important evidence and failed to follow established procedures.
Four years earlier, an official with strategic intelligence firm Hakluyt sent an email to Monsanto quoting a White House domestic policy advisor who assured: “We have Monsanto’s back on pesticide regulation.”
The company also uses an “intelligence fusion center” to monitor journalists and activists involved in pesticide issues across seven countries, including musician Neil Young and investigative reporter Carey Gillam. Gillam wrote “The Monsanto Papers” in 2021, a book that details corporate corruption via a landmark lawsuit against the company from a groundskeeper with cancer.
Young, one of the founders of Farm Aid, championed against Monsanto, releasing “The Monsanto Years” with Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Reel in 2015. Young took issue with the company’s promotion and development of genetically modified organisms, including Roundup-Ready corn, soybeans and other crops; the seeds are created with a resistance to the glyphosate-based herbicide.
“Any restriction on local decision making regarding recourse for the use of chemicals that are known to impact ecosystems, public health, and quality of life is a bad thing,” New Hanover County Soil and Water Conservation Supervisor Evan Folds said.
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