Missouri House debate shows GOP split over bill to protect pesticide makers

Yahoo

19-02-2025

State Rep. Dane Diehl, a Butler Republican, speaks during an April debate (Tim Bommel/Missouri House Communications).
A bill to protect one of the world's largest chemical companies from charges it didn't warn customers that one of its most popular products causes cancer won first-round approval Tuesday in the Missouri House.
The legislation, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Dane Diehl of Butler, would make the label required by federal pesticide regulators 'sufficient to satisfy any requirement for a warning label regarding cancer under any other provision of current law.'
'This bill is going to put a process that has been around since 1947 as the gold standard,' for pesticide labeling, Diehl said.
Bayer urges Missouri lawmakers to pass bill critics say shields it from Roundup lawsuits
The bill passed on a voice vote so there was no test of whether it had enough support to win a majority in the 163-member House. The debate showed Republicans are not united on the bill.
'I can't sit by and let a bottle of a poisonous chemical just show up on the shelf where people can go, 'Okay, actually, you know what? The EPA label is on there. We're good',' said state Rep. Mark Matthiesen, a Republican from O'Fallon.
The immediate beneficiary of the bill would be Bayer, the German-based company that has its U.S. headquarters in St. Louis. Bayer makes Roundup, the brand-name glyphosate herbicide created by Monsanto, which Bayer acquired in 2018.
There are more than 25,000 lawsuits pending in Cole County against Bayer that allege glyphosate caused the plaintiff's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and failed to warn them about the potential danger. In 2023 Cole County, three plaintiffs were awarded $1.56 billion, though a judge later reduced that to $622 million.
There are tens of thousands of additional lawsuits pending across the country and Bayer has paid out at least $10 billion for jury awards and settlements.
Many backers of the bill focused on the lawsuits as a symptom of out-of-control litigation, blaming trial attorneys, who usually receive a substantial percentage of payouts in personal injury lawsuits.
'They earn a lot of money, Mr. Speaker, preying on the people of the state of Missouri,' said state Rep. Dean Van Schoiack, a Republican from Savannah.
For state Rep. LaDonna Appelbaum, a Democrat from St. Louis, the bad actor is Bayer. Appelbaum told the House she has stage 4 cancer and has never heard anything from Bayer, which is located in her district, explaining why the company backs the bill.
'Does anyone see this mark on the side of my face?' Appelbaum said. 'It's a slap. It's a slap in the face.'
Bayer isn't just relying on lobbying presence to make its case. Since late last year, an organization called the Modern Ag Alliance has spent tens of thousands of dollars to influence the legislature, airing radio ads in the St. Louis, Springfield, Joplin and central Missouri markets that portray glyphosate as a benign benefactor of humankind.
Roundup and products like it make no-till farming possible, said state Rep. Kent Haden, a Republican from Mexico.
'You take away these products and my next question is, how many in this body would like to go back to work in the fields and pulling weeds?' Haden said.
Better labeling to avoid lawsuits isn't so costly that it will force Roundup or glyphosate-based products off the market, said state Rep. Adrian Plank, a Democrat from Columbia.
'This keeps Missourians from having their due process in court,' Plank said. 'That's what this bill does.'
Glyphosate is one of the most widely used herbicide chemicals in the world and is a key ingredient in hundreds of products. Large amounts of Roundup and other glyphosate brands are made in China, which dominates the world market for herbicides and many fertilizers.
In the state Senate, that domination has attracted the attention of state Sen. Brad Hudson, a Republican from Cape Fair, who wants to ban the sale of Chinese-made pesticides in the state.
'This is a simple, common sense bill that demonstrates my love for our country and my opposition to foreign interference in our food supply and pesticide markets,' Hudson said in a news release.
No hearing has been scheduled for Hudson's bill.
The key vote on Diehl's bill will likely come Thursday, when the House generally acts on bills given initial approval earlier in the week. Last year, an identical bill passed 91-57, nine votes more than the 82 votes required for passage, but failed in the state Senate.
The vote isn't clear-cut, said state Rep. Darin Chappell, a Republican from Rogersville.
'Nobody on either side of this,' Chappell said, 'is somebody we all want to embrace and cuddle up to and say,' absolutely, these are the ones with the purest, wind-driven snow hands on this deal.'
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