Two major developments aim to reshape the pesticide landscape in America — both benefit Big Ag and jeopardize the public’s health. It’s not too late if you act now! Action Alert!
THE TOPLINE
- President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order prioritizing continued access to glyphosate, potentially limiting future state-level liability claims tied to cancer risks.
- Bayer proposed a $7.25 billion settlement to cap current and future lymphoma lawsuits, effectively containing past liability while policy changes protect future sales.
- The proposed Farm Bill (Sections 10201 and 10205–10211) would preempt state pesticide laws, expand immunity for manufacturers, and deregulate products like “biostimulants”—a category that has included GM pesticide-treated seeds such as BASF’s Poncho/VOTiVO.
President Trump has issued an Executive Order to “ensure an adequate supply” of glyphosate, the cancer-causing active ingredient in one of the world’s most-used herbicides. The order argues that loss of access to the weedkiller would “result in economic losses for growers and make it untenable for them to meet growing food and feed demands,” thus making it “crucial to the national security and defense.” The order does not explicitly grant legal immunity to Bayer, the manufacturer of Roundup (and the exclusive manufacturer of glyphosate in the US), but it opens the door. If implemented aggressively, it could shield future sales from state-level failure-to-warn lawsuits.
The day before the EO was issued, Bayer proposed a $7.25 billion settlement to resolve current and future lymphoma claims tied to glyphosate exposure.
Taken together, these actions secure glyphosate’s persistence in our food supply: past liability is set to be capped, and future liability is likely to be strictly constrained via the EO. Obviously, this is hardly the way to “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA).
All this happening at a time when the science increasingly recognizes glyphosate not only as a potential carcinogen, but also suggests potential liver and kidney toxicity, respiratory/lung effects under inhalation or higher-exposure scenarios, endocrine-disrupting activity, and disturbance of the gut microbiota’s composition and function—with formulation, dose, and real-world relevance still actively debated.
But it doesn’t stop there.
As we warned previously, the proposed Farm Bill (Sections 10201–10207) contains sweeping pesticide immunity language that would preempt states and localities from imposing any requirements related to pesticide sale, labeling, or use beyond what the EPA allows. No state, no town, no court could hold a manufacturer accountable as long as its label meets federal standards — even if emerging science shows harm not yet reflected on that label.
Given the EO protects glyphosate, this liability shield is now about protecting the tens of thousands of other pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, rodenticides, and chemical mixtures used in our homes, schools, parks, and food system.
The Farm Bill goes further and includes several other sections aimed at loosening federal regulation on pesticides. For example, Section 10201 exempts “plant biostimulants,” “nutritional chemicals,” “vitamin hormone products,” and “plant-incorporated protectants” from EPA regulation. Don’t let these names fool you: this is a backdoor method for getting genetically modified (GM) or gene edited (GE) products onto the market with little to no scrutiny. Consider the following: BASF was able to get Poncho/VOTiVO, a GM Bt seed treatment mixed with a neonicotinoid insecticide, registered as a “biostimulant.” These kinds of GM or GE soil treatments are the next phase of agricultural technology, and lawmakers are trying to deregulate them.
For the MAHA movement that helped return President Trump to office, this is a gut punch. Americans demanded cleaner food, fewer toxic exposures, and freedom from corporate capture. Instead, the administration is siding with chemical manufacturers over families.
RFK Jr. publicly supported President Trump’s Executive Order despite his longstanding opposition to health-harming chemicals like glyphosate. Clearly there is tension between RFK Jr.’s desire to confront special interests and advance the MAHA agenda and the administration’s political ties to some of those same special interests. This was evident as far back as the September 2025 MAHA Commission’s Strategy report, which stated that the EPA will work to ensure that Americans are aware of the agency’s “robust review procedures” for pesticides.
These actions—combined with RFK Jr.’s rejection of our health claims petition and failure to settle our homeopathy lawsuit initiated under the Biden administration, not to mention his misguided approach on GRAS reform—tell us something important: change is not going to come from the top-down, but from the bottom up. We need sustained grassroots pressure to achieve the MAHA agenda.
There is already a bill in Congress that aims to counteract Trump’s Executive Order. We must support it, alongside staunch opposition to the chemical industry giveaways in the proposed Farm Bill.
Action Alert!
