Let’s break down the two gifts to Big Ag in the first draft of the 2026 Farm Bill:
ONE: 1986 Act-style Liability Shields
- Why it’s happening: Bayer (which bought Monsanto) is losing tens of billions of dollars in state court cases over Roundup causing cancer.
- They’re doing everything they can to STOP the lawsuits.
- They are pushing state bills across the country for liability-shields like the vaccine industry has with the 1986 Act.
- They tried to put the same shield in the federal budget, but Americans found out, got loud, and said “NO!”
- Now they’re at it again with another must-pass US bill, trying to change the rules in congress because they can’t win in courts.
- They’re doing everything they can to STOP the lawsuits.
- Why this matters: If the Farm Bill passes with this language, a case before the U.S. Supreme Court right now would be dismissed because the law changed and the plaintiff with cancer who won in lower courts would no longer have a legal basis for his claim. No one else would either, completely ending accountability for the poisoning of Americans by a massive international company that values profits over human lives.
Section 10205 would effectively shield pesticide manufacturers from lawsuits alleging injury or death from using their products, just like the vaccine industry’s “1986 Act.” And it’s the same scenario too – Americans are getting cancer or other illnesses and dying because they used certain pesticides without knowing the same safety information the industry knew; Americans are suing and winning. So Big Ag is working to end-run the courts and change the law instead, to stop the lawsuits. Bayer (which acquired Monsanto), for example, has paid out tens of billions of dollars in lawsuits from Americans with cancer after using Roundup, and they are not done. Section 10205 would stop states from being able to supplement and fact-check EPA labels and safety assessments, and eliminate American’s 7th Amendment right to a trial for injury. It would stop a case before the Supreme Court right now by saying the federal government is the final and only say in these claims. The section appears to allow liability, but the conditions are narrow and unlikely – the company must have knowingly committed fraud and already been penalized under FIFRA.
TWO: Deregulation of gene-altered plants
- “Plant-Incorporated Protectants,” (PIPs) which add genetic material to a plant so it will produce its own pesticide, would automatically be exempt from regulation by the EPA unless the EPA Administrator specifically says it should be.
- Why this matters: Did you know there are already 53 registered PIPs? You could be eating modified soy, corn, cotton, plums, potatoes, and papayas – with more in the pipeline. This proposed law change basically fast-tracks new gene-altered plants to farms and tables. But why? The EPA already has the ability under law to choose to exclude a PIP from regulation. This Farm Bill gift would make deregulation automatic and put the burden on the EPA to justify oversight and safety-testing of gene-altered products that will be in our food.
Source: https://www.epa.gov/pesticides/biopesticides
Conclusion
Industry is pulling out all the stops. It affects their bottom line, their market share, for transparency and science to be disclosed, for toxic load to become an issue, for health to be a political priority – all of these things affect the industry. That’s why we’re seeing this court case [Describe Durnell] eclipsed by a Farm Bill provision that makes the decision for the court.
The industry is mad, and pulling all political levers. So we have to get loud now. If industry is the only ones providing “solutions” to Congress, and to our state lawmakers, and to the executive branch, then the outcome will not be good. Not for America, not for transparency, not for accountability, or long term health.