North Dakota and Georgia pass “Monsanto Protection Act”
Published: June 17, 2025
Category: Pesticides
Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have sponsored bills this year to protect pesticide makers from lawsuits—and in North Dakota and Georgia, they’ve passed. In April, North Dakota’s governor signed the so-called “Monsanto Protection Act” into law, making it the first state to shield global agrochemical maker Bayer from lawsuits over failing to warn customers that its popular weedkiller Roundup could cause cancer.
In May, Georgia’s governor passed a similar law, becoming the second state to shield pesticide manufacturers from some lawsuits claiming they failed to warn customers of potential dangers.
Bayer, which acquired Roundup when it purchased Monsanto in 2018, disputes the cancer claims—insisting glyphosate, an active ingredient in Roundup, is safe—and contends that a federally approved label on pesticides is sufficient to satisfy any duty under state law to warn customers.
The company is hopeful that success in North Dakota and Georgia could lead to others adopting similar legislation. Nine other states have similar bills in the works, but in one of them, Iowa, a pesticide immunity bill failed in the House after passing in the Senate.
Jay Feldman, executive director of Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Beyond Pesticides, worries that these new state laws could leave some people without any avenue to seek compensation for their injuries and losses. “The chemical companies should not be able to hide behind a weak regulatory system,” he said.
Source: AP News
To view source articles, visit:
https://apnews.com/article/bayer-roundup-pesticides-cancer-lawsuits-60e5dee80e2eb545ebde893762fb65d5 and
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