Short Memories
Our Iowa legislators care more for Bayer than us
I like writing about nature, green and growing things, education, baseball and farmer philosophy. I enjoy coming up with the words to tell real life stories and agonizing stories that end with puns. I write a weekly postal history article and love the topics of agroecology and small-scale, diversified farming. I see my place as trying to encourage thought and maybe even ring the bells of hope, agency and dignity whenever I publish an article.
And yet, I am about to write about something that is important and is none of those - except that it is linked to so much of what I have been and am.
Some of you in Iowa might recall that I sent notes to you asking you to contact your state legislators to fight a bill that would provide pesticide companies with immunity to lawsuits alleging injury by their products. The good news is - the bill did not pass. The bad news? It was a very near thing, and it’s not going away. It will be back in 2025 in one form another.
What got me riled up enough to write something and put it in the Genuine Faux Farm blog? There is a new article put out by US Right To Know that illustrates who has received money from major pesticide companies, Bayer and Corteva (and to a lesser extent this year, Syngenta). (Full disclosure, you will find yours truly quoted a few times in there)
Here’s the kicker - key members of the Iowa Senate Ag Committee (Zumbach, Costello, Sinclair and Rozenbloom) who pushed the bill through the Senate are on this list. Jeff Edler (chair of the Senate Ag Committee) also spoke in favor of the bill but is not on this list, but you’ll find him on Corteva’s donation list.
The bill passed the Senate, but did not get out of the House Ag Committee, despite the presence of Derek Wulf (Vice Chair of the committee), who can also be found on this list. Despite failing to get out of that committee, there were multiple attempts until the final hour to get this piece of legislation through the House by pushing it to the Ways and Means Committee (where Bobby Kaufmann is chair) and then the Appropriations Committee (where Taylor Collins is Vice Chair). There were even efforts by Speaker of the House Pat Grassley to see if there was a way to get this bill passed as part of the Appropriations Bill.
All of the people I have mentioned here are on the list as having received campaign money this year from Bayer’s Political Action Committee. Some are also on Corteva’s list. It just happens that all of them are also Republicans - but that’s not my main point. The issue here is that each of these people, by their actions this past session have made it clear that they favor the needs and desires of multinational pesticide corporations over mine…
and yours.
And, lest you forget - Mike Naig is also on the list as receiving money from all three pesticide company PACs. He’s our Secretary of Agriculture, which houses the Pesticide Bureau. So, if you thought there might be someone in the Executive Branch that might provide a check for this legislation, it isn’t likely to be Naig.
On top of that, Brenna Bird, Iowa’s Attorney General received significant funding from Corteva and Syngenta. Is it a surprise that she has spent time on a lawsuit chasing after another state (California) because it wants to enact its own tougher pesticide regulations? If California wants to do its thing, that should be fine. I suspect Iowa wouldn’t like it much if California’s AG decided to try to force decisions on us.
The pesticide industry has been attempting to shape US law for decades to make it more favorable for them to continue making exhorbitant profits and increase our reliance on their products. I know some of you might say this is all “a part of doing business.” However, I hold the belief that large corporations, such as these, have plenty of power. It’s the role of government to check that power and provide individuals who possess less power the opportunity to hold giant corporate structures accountable and to protect individual rights and health.
At present, there are two major attacks (among others, I am sure) that are working to remove the few mechanisms that still exist to provide some balance. One of them comes in the form of this language that removes lawsuit immunity for pesticide corporations. The other is the continued effort to prevent local communities and governments from enacting stricter pesticide regulations if they wish to do so.
The court system currently allows individuals (like you and me) to seek remediation if we have been injured by a pesticide and it can be discovered that the company failed to warn us about the possiblity we could be harmed. As it stands, bringing a case to court is already difficult - requiring a great deal of effort on the part of the plaintiffs. And yet, Bayer has already paid (on behalf of Monsanto, a company they purchased) billions of dollars in settlements due to injuries from the herbicide RoundUp.
Let that sink in.
It isn’t (and wasn’t) easy to prove that Monsanto (now Bayer) knew their products could cause these injuries and that they failed to provide proper warning for that risk. And yet, they’re on the hook for billions of dollars because some individuals stood up and endured a difficult process that had a low likelihood of success - until one of them broke through.
Needless to say, Bayer and the other pesticide companies don’t like these results much, so they are throwing even more money at our politicians to prevent this from happening again. And it’s frightening to see how much progress they are making towards that goal.
What can we do?
Well, there is one thing we can do right now (or on Tuesday). We can vote against those who took money and actively fought for a multinational pesticide company that has its global headquarters in Germany. And, should they take office again - we can call them, write them, email them and push them to protect us - not the multi-billion dollar global conglomerates. This second option exists even (and maybe especially) for those who do decide to vote for the individuals on Bayer giving list. If you pick them, you should hold them accountable:
Joe Heglund is running against Zumbach - Senate District 34
Ryan Lee Roenfeld is running against Costello - Senate District 8
Nicole Loew is running against Sinclair - Senate District 12
Jarrod Johnston is running againt Wulf - House District 76
Phil Wiese is running against Kaufmann - House District 82
Jeff Poulter is running against Collins - House District 95
Rozenbloom, Edler and Naig are not up for election in 2024
There are a couple of individuals of whom I am aware spoke against this bill and I want to be sure to point to them as allies in this situation:
Eric Giddens - on the Senate Ag Committee - Senate District 38
J.D. Scholton - House District 1
Herman Quirmbach - Senate District 25 (not up for election in 2024)
I also know each of the following candidates personally and would vouch for the heart they have for learning, listening and doing their utmost to represent the people of their districts:
Shawn Ellerbroek is running against Pat Grassley (on Bayer & Corteva’s lists) - Iowa House District 57
Karen Varley - House District 23
Tommy Hexter - House District 53
At the national level, the House Republicans put forth a Farm Bill that included BOTH lawsuit immunity for pesticide companies and took away a local communities right to stronger pesticide regulations. On the flip side, I have been impressed with Senator Corey Booker’s efforts with respect to legislation that would help protect people from dangerous pesticides by sponsoring the PACTPA legislation, among others over the last several years.
Once again, you can take note that I those I am in opposition with are all Republicans and those I have called out with positive comments are Democrats. If you don’t like that, there is a simple solution - Republicans could stop working so hard on behalf of pesticide companies instead of the people. If there were a single Democrat who voted for this bill in the Senate, I would certainly have called them out here. Along with the 19 Democrats, there were four Republican Senators who did vote against this bill (Salmon, Alons, Lofgren, Taylor) and 30 other Republicans who voted for it.
Maybe it’s all about the money, which is why these individuals seem happy to cash the checks sent to them by Bayer, Corteva and Syngenta. But I thought the job they all applied for was public servant, not corporate slave.
I honestly think the big ag/big chem companies would be happy to depopulate the entire countryside of humankind, and also of all things wild and natural, so they can do as they wish with no concern or interference from people, trees, or wildlife that stand in the way of corn, beans, confinements, ethanol plants, and fast flowing pipelines of various wastes flowing into channelized ditches that once were streams and rivers. Make all the roads private - or replace them with conveyor belts.
How long before all of this so-called "farming" is just done with drones and robotic equipment?
Thanks for all this information, Rob. I, like many others I'll bet, know what ought to be done but have not worked hard enough to get the facts -- names and numbers and connections --- that you have provided. Your diligence and recommendations are greatly appreciated by those who know you as a sound thinker and a straight shooter.