Iowans protest a pesticide bill at a rally organized by Food and Water Watch on Feb. 10, 2025 in the Iowa Capitol Rotunda. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch).
Bayer, the biotech company and manufacturer of Round Up, has substantially increased its spending on lobbying in Iowa since the introduction of a pesticide labeling bill in 2024.
In 2025, according to client reports published by the state, Bayer paid lobbyists $123,250. Reports for 2024 show $86,099 spent. Between 2021 and 2023, years before the pesticide labeling bill was introduced, Bayer spent annually between $20,000 and $30,000 on its lobbying efforts.
An analysis of lobbying data from Food & Water Watch, an environmental group that organized protests and lobbied against the bill, found Bayer’s spending in the cycles since the law was introduced is nearly double what the company spent the decade prior, from 2013 to 2023.
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A statement from Bayer said lobbying is a “normal part” of the company’s political engagement, as it is for many other companies.
“Lobbying is a regulated activity and we engage in an ethical and transparent way across the different divisions of the company – Agriculture, Pharmaceuticals and Consumer Health – to support the company’s positions on a number key issues in these industries,” the statement read.
Jennifer Breon, an Iowa organizer with Food & Water Watch said Bayer is “wasting its money in Des Moines.”
“Iowans are struggling through a mounting public health crisis with industrial agriculture at its core,” Breon said in a release. “We will not allow Big Ag corporations like Bayer to leverage their ill-begotten pesticide profits to boost private coffers at the expense of the sick.”
About the pesticide bill
The high-profile pesticide labeling bill does not mention Bayer or its most common pesticide ingredient glyphosate, though the two have been the focus of the bill.
To date, Bayer has spent more than $10 billion settling lawsuits in which customers claim the pesticide product Roundup, which contains glyphosate, gave them cancer.
The bill, which was introduced and did not advance in 2024 or 2025 in Iowa, would block someone from suing a pesticide company that followed proper labeling rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Supporters of the bill argue there would still be other claims an individual could make to sue a pesticide company.
Bayer and Modern Ag Alliance, a coalition of agricultural interest groups across the country, worked to get introduced in a handful of states this year. Versions of the bill were signed into law in North Dakota and in Georgia.
Opponents of the bill in Iowa, including Food & Water Watch, dubbed it the “cancer gag act.” They argue that pesticide products can cause cancer, and that the bill takes away an Iowan’s right to pursue legal recourse.
Bayer holds that its product is safe to use, and also that continued litigation, which have payouts in the billions, will lead to a lack of the product’s availability in the country. This in turn, the company argues, would be detrimental to farmers and to American food supplies.
“Bayer stands behind the safety of our glyphosate-based products which have been tested extensively, approved by regulators and used around the globe for 50 years,” the statement from Bayer said. “The EPA has an extremely rigorous review process which spans multiple years, considers thousands of studies and involves many independent risk assessment experts at the EPA.”
This year the bill, Senate File 394, drew lots of attention at the Iowa State Capitol and passed from the Senate with a vote of 26-21 in March, but the House did not take up the bill.
By the numbers
In addition to the figures spent by Bayer in 2025 and 2024, Modern Ag Alliance, which Bayer is part of, spent $10,000 lobbying in 2025. Other groups, like Iowa Corn Growers Association, Iowa Soybean Association and the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation also registered in support of the bills both years.
Food & Water Watch’s lobbying budget for 2024 totaled $498, and in 2025, $1,351. In 2025, the group’s lobbyist declared a position on 13 bills.
The bill was also opposed by several legal groups, including the Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers, the Iowa Association for Justice and the Iowa State Bar Association, which all have substantial lobbying budgets.
The Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers spent $25,000 on lobbying in 2025, though the group declared on more than 80 bills. The Iowa Association of Justice spent $98,625 in 2025 and registered on more than 230 bills in 2025. The Iowa State Bar Association spent $123,921 on lobbying efforts but registered on more than 240 bills this year.
Spending by these groups did not perceptively increase following the introduction of the pesticide labeling bill.
Lobbyists on behalf of Bayer also registered on bills outside of the pesticide labeling file, with around 60 declarations in 2025.
Bayer and Modern Ag Alliance are also pushing for similar bill at the federal level and submitted a letter to Congress on the issue in May, urging lawmakers to take up a bill. The letter was signed by more than 350 agricultural interest groups.
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