Glyphosate: The Silent Killer in Your Backyard, Front Yard, and the Air You Breathe
If even the tiniest drop of Roundup splashed onto your skin, would you wash it off or let it soak in? Would you open a bottle of weed killer and breathe it in just to see what it smelled like? Would you let your child (or pet) play on a lawn that was just sprayed for weeds or pests?
Did you know that…?
1. Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana lead the nation in the use of glyphosate-based weed killers, topping the charts in the U.S.
2. Glyphosate was patented as an antibiotic (kills bacteria), and today, it is found in 80-90% of grain-based foods we eat! It is marketed as being safe for animals and humans, but recent studies link it to cancer. It seems as if there is conflicting research about this widely used product.
3. Glyphosate is not only used to kill weeds, but it is also sprayed on the crops themselves to kill the crops being purposely grown, so they are ready to harvest sooner than if they were left to die naturally? This process allows the farmer to clear the field before the onset of unfavorable weather. It is done out of convenience in corporate farming.
In 2019, the State of Iowa saw approximately 21.56 million pounds of glyphosate applied to crops, making it the state with the highest usage in the United States for that year. Since then, Iowa’s total glyphosate usage has been estimated at approximately 24 million pounds per year. That is ~83.8 pounds of glyphosate per 100 acres of planted corn (13.9 million acres of corn) and ~130.1 pounds of glyphosate per 100 acres of planted soybeans (9.5 million acres of soybeans). That is a lot of poison that is applied to crops that our livestock eat (and we eat them) and that goes into a ton of processed foods we eat like high fructose corn syrup, corn starch, dextrose, soy protein isolate, vegetable oil...the list goes on and on.
In March 2025, the Iowa Senate passed Senate File 394, a bill designed to protect pesticide manufacturers from lawsuits, especially those related to health risks of products like glyphosate-based herbicides, if their labels meet EPA standards (which in my opinion are low). Senator Michael Bousselot championed the bill (shame on him), leading the debate and pushing for its approval.
However, the Iowa House of Representatives halted its progress. House Speaker Pat Grassley expressed concerns about public perception and the potential impact on individuals' ability to seek legal recourse for harm caused by these products. The bill passed the Senate with a 26–21 vote on March 26, 2025, but it hasn't become law yet. As of April 3, 2025, it's still under review by the House Judiciary Committee.
This latest debate is a prime example of how big pharma and big ag influence our politicians. It is a battle between supporting our farmers and the dangerous yet convenient agricultural practices of modern-day farming and addressing major public health concerns. Iowa, being a major user of glyphosate-based herbicides, is at the forefront of this issue. The state has one of the highest cancer rates in the nation, which has been linked to various factors, including extensive use of agricultural chemicals. These chemicals not only saturate our food supply, but the runoff into our water systems and the air they contaminate are killing more than just weeds and unwanted pests.
It's upsetting that Bayer, the maker of Roundup, aggressively markets the safety and economic advantages of glyphosate-based herbicides through extensive public relations campaigns, including television ads. Big pharma and big ag spend big bucks to sway public opinion and legislative decisions, all to safeguard their product's image (just like tobacco companies did years ago).
Additionally, Bayer has been lobbying for state and federal laws that would provide legal immunity from claims that Roundup causes cancer, emphasizing that the product has been deemed safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other regulators, which is crazy talk. That is like saying smoking cigarettes is safe when done in low doses.
To Bayer's corporate leadership, the regulators and lawmakers who shape public policy, and anyone who believes glyphosate is safe: would you add a drop (about 0.05 milliliters) to your coffee every morning? Or even a tenth of a drop to a glass of water before drinking it?
As mentioned above, Iowa has one of the highest cancer rates in the United States. According to the 2024 Cancer in Iowa report, the state has the second-highest rate of new cancer cases nationally and the fastest-growing incidence rate. In 2025, an estimated 21,200 Iowans are expected to be diagnosed with cancer, with approximately 6,300 deaths anticipated. And according to the Iowa Environmental Council, environmental exposures, such as pesticides and radon, along with lifestyle factors like smoking, alcohol use, and obesity, are contributing to the state’s elevated cancer rates. Wake up, People!
Since I was a kid growing up in Fenton, Iowa farmers have gone from hours of manual labor in their fields to loads of chemicals and GPS driven tractors that drastically reduce the number of hours spent in the fields that once took weeks of manual labor to clear the weeds from.
I am not so certain that all these conveniences are all for the better. Convenient, maybe. Deadly, no doubt. The corn and soybean fields that surround Fenton, Iowa, no longer need anyone to manually walk or even ride up and down the rows, eliminating unwanted weeds. Round-up-ready seeds and spray-on herbicides do all the work that a group of ambitious teenagers and farmers once did.
Recently, while I was visiting my childhood home, I just stood back and took in the scenery, reminiscing about how it once looked decades ago, endless fields of green, gorgeous sunrises, and even more beautiful sunsets. Today, amongst the fields that surround those three acres I grew up on, stand hundreds (maybe thousands) of windmills; too many to count. And as I sat observing the severe changes in the landscape, there was a heavy mist that sat above the fields of corn. It was a humid summer morning. Mom and I were curiously talking about this heavy layer of fog that seemed to hover over miles upon miles of cropland when she made a statement that took me by surprise, “the humidity from the corn is full of chemicals.” I never thought of it like that, but she was right. The air smelled a little like manure from the hog confinement across the road, which was normal depending on the direction of the wind, but it also smelled metallic, not like the pure natural air I remembered as a kid. The amount of chemicals in and on our crops likely evaporate with the moisture from the plants and, in that process, fill the air we breathe.
We have sold our souls to the devil in the name of convenience and money. We are destroying our natural resources for shelves upon shelves of colorfully packaged ultra-processed foods that are full of soy and corn products which are only poisoning us. And, if the food we are shoveling in our faces does not kill us, the air and water certainly will.
Good luck, Law Makers. Remember, your job as an elected official is not about power or party lines — it’s about protecting the people you serve. Every decision you make should be for the wellbeing and safety of those who trusted you with their vote. Your job is to stand up for what’s right, even when it’s hard.
