Georgia passes bill to shield pesticide makers from some lawsuits. Will Kemp sign it?
Amid major lawsuits over the health effects of the weedkiller Roundup, Georgia passed a bill during the 2025 legislative session that shields fertilizer, plant growth regulator and pesticide manufacturers from liability if they fail to warn consumers about health risks beyond what federal regulators require.
The measure is awaiting Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature.
If the bill goes into law, any pesticide registered with Georgia’s commissioner of agriculture or the Environmental Protection Agency automatically meets state warning label requirements if it uses an EPA-approved label or matches the latest federal health risk assessment.
The bill was contentious in this year’s session, with proponents arguing it needed to be introduced for the sake of the agriculture industry’s success. Those concerned about it becoming law fear the EPA’s requirements aren’t always stringent enough to protect consumers.
“It’s essential to recognize that EPA assessments may not always reflect new or emerging scientific data about health risks,” Rep. Karla Drenner (D-85) said in session. “By restricting the duty to warn only to EPA approved labels, this bill effectively undermines the responsibility of manufacturers to alert consumers to potential risk that may not have been fully assessed by the EPA or that may become clearer over time.”
Advocates said the bill protects products and companies that are key contributors to farmers and the industry’s success. They also suggest that without the protections laid out in the bill, lawsuits against chemical companies could lead to products being banned or companies being shut down, meaning American farmers would have to source these products from other countries.
“The science behind the chemical compounds used in agriculture in the U.S. are subjected to the most rigorous regulatory structure of anywhere in the world,” Rep. Steven Meeks (R-178) said in session. “We need to make sure we can continue to have those (chemistries) manufactured domestically here in the U.S. under our rules, regulations and safety protocols.”
The passage of this bill comes amid legal turmoil for a large German-based biotech company, Bayer, as thousands of lawsuits nationwide allege the company failed to warn about cancer risks associated with the popular weedkiller, Roundup.
Many opponents of the bill argued that it was a part of a broader, nationwide effort by Bayer to limit its liability for harm caused by its products, particularly Roundup.
“This bill ... is not unlike a bill that sits on legislative desks in states all across this country.” Rep. Stacey Evans (D-57) said in session. “This bill is not about farmers. This bill is about Bayer. Roundup causes cancer – that is not a debate anymore. A lot of people got hurt. A lot of people got sick … and now Bayer wants to ask us to take (liability) away.”
Last month, when the bill passed through both legislative chambers, it was around the same time Bayer was ordered to pay $2.1 billion by a jury in a Georgia state court, according to Mark Woodall, legislative chair for the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Bayer recently asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block Roundup litigation, according to media reports, claiming that federal requirements should override state failure-to-warn lawsuits since the EPA has determined glyphosate doesn’t require a cancer warning.
The primary chemical in Roundup is glyphosate, which is commonly found in many pesticides.
Sen. Sam Watson (R) and Rep. Robert Dickey (R-134), both farmers who supported the bill, considered glyphosate a vital tool for America’s agriculture industry.
“If you take products like (glyphosate) away from farmers in the United States, if you put (those) manufacturers out of business in the United States, well, guess where the food is going to come from, and guess where the product is going to come from, not the United States,” Watson said. “It’s gonna come from Mexico. It’s gonna come from China. It’s gonna come from every country around the world except America.”
“I’m a farmer, and I know what it takes to farm,” Dickey said in session. “It takes these plant protection products that I depend on to be able to be successful, to be able to grow crops. I can fight the weather, I can fight bad markets, I can fight disease, but I can’t fight the courts taking away our plant protection products in this state.”
Proponents said there are still pathways to sue if needed, just not for failure to warn labels.
“If there is a different cause of action that an individual would like to take against any product, we don’t take away that ability in this bill,” Meeks said. “This is only based on the label that is approved by the EPA and the wording that is on that.”
Environmental concerns also arose from opponents on widespread spraying of potentially harmful chemicals.
“We cannot overlook the environmental consequences of pesticide use,” Drenner said. “While agriculture is indeed crucial to Georgia’s economy, our land, water and biodiversity must also be safeguarded. Limiting accountability for pesticide manufactures could result in more hazardous chemicals being released into our environment with long-term, irreversible consequences for Georgia’s natural resources.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, “(glyphosate) can persist in the environment for days or months, and its intensive and large-scale use can constitute a major environmental and health problem.”
Repeated applications of glyphosate and its commercial formulations reduce biodegradation, increasing groundwater contamination risks, according to a series of studies from the NIH. “Glyphosate and its commercial formulations can produce detrimental effects on the human nervous system. These investigations have shown that glyphosate can cross and affect the blood–brain barrier and cause various types of short-term or long-term disturbances in the human nervous system.”
Environmental groups weren’t in support of the bill either.
“Bayer’s Roundup legislation is a classic example of how Big Money corporations undermine the public interest in state legislatures across the U.S.,” said Woodall. “The farm lobby in Georgia has been completely subverted by giant agribusiness.”
Georgia was the first state to pass this kind of legislation.
There is speculation that Kemp will sign the bill next week, according to Woodall, but when asked, the governor’s office said Kemp is in a review period for legislation.
“Our office has 40 days following the last day of the legislative session to thoroughly review all legislation that received final passage in the Georgia General Assembly. We will provide an update at the conclusion of that process,” said Garrison Douglas, press secretary for Kemp.
