Pesticide Manufacturer Spent More Than $200K Lobbying in Iowa

By Cami Koons

Bayer, the biotech company and manufacturer of Roundup, 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. on its lobbying efforts. From 2021–2023, years before the pesticide labeling bill was introduced, Bayer spent annually from $20,000–$30,000. 

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 nearly doubled what the company spent the decade prior, from 2013–2023. 

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. 

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 would block someone from suing a pesticide company that followed proper labeling rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Supporters of the bill argue there would still be other claims an individual could make to sue a pesticide company. 

The bill was introduced in the Iowa General Assembly in 2024 but did not advance that year or in 2025. This year the bill, Senate File 394, drew lots of attention at the Iowa State Capitol and was passed by the Senate, 26-21, in March, but the House did not take up the bill. 

Bayer and Modern Ag Alliance, a national coalition of agricultural interest groups, worked to get the bill 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 and that continued litigation, which have payouts in the billions, will lead to a lack of the product’s availability. This, 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.” 

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, including the Iowa Corn Growers Association, the 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 trial lawyers group 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 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.

Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: [email protected]. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on Facebook and Twitter.