Iowa AG petitions EPA to prevent California from requiring a warning label on weedkiller

Iowa and California, which have warred over the coastal state's regulations on pork and egg production, are girding for battle again, this time over the California’s efforts to require warnings labels on a popular weed killer.

Iowa, Nebraska and nine other states filed a petition Wednesday with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, asking it to adopt a rule preventing states like California from adding warning labels to chemicals that exceed the federal agency’s findings about their potential hazards.

The EPA regulates the use of chemicals, often requiring labeling that directs farmers on when and how products such as herbicides can be used, among other precautions. In its last review, the EPA determined that one of the most common herbicides., glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup and similar products, does not pose a cancer risk to people.

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Iowa and Nebraska’s petition was prompted by California’s efforts to add warning labels to glyphosate products, saying the chemical is known by the state to cause cancer. Bayer, whose Monsanto unit makes Roundup, has paid billions of dollars to resolve lawsuits making that claim,. and it maintains Roundup is safe, getting regulatory approval worldwide, including from the EPA.

“There’s no way that a state like California should tell a farmer in Nebraska or Iowa how to farm,” said Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, who filed the petition along with Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers.

Calling the labeling misleading, Bird, a Republican, said the petition seeks to protect Iowa and other farmers’ “right to farm.” She and Hilgers held a news conference in Omaha, Nebraska, on Wednesday. to announce the move.

Here’s what to know about the petition.

What’s California's beef with glyphosate?

The International Agency for Research on Cancer identified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic” in 2015. California listed the chemical two years later as cancer-causing under its Proposition 65, which requires makers of hazardous products to warn consumers about exposure.

The requirement was challenged in court, and in November, a federal court sided with a district court’s permanent injunction preventing the warning label, saying it was unconstitutional. The 2015 IARC “conclusion is not shared by a consensus of the scientific community,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote in its opinion .

Why do farmers need glyphosate?

Bird, who grew up on an Iowa farm, noted that glyphosate not only kills weeds, which compete with crops for water and nutrients, but helps reduce erosion since farmers don’t have to till the soil to kill weeds. Tillage stirs the soil, making it more vulnerable to wind and soil erosion.

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Sherry Vinton, Nebraska's director of agriculture, said glyphosate has provided a cost-effective way to control weeds, especially at a time when prices for corn, soybeans and other crops are below the cost to grow them.

“These crops are important to our economy," Vinton said. “When farmers do well, Main Street does well and all our communities do well.”

Kevin Ross, who farms in Underwood in western Iowa, said using glyphosate allows farmers like him to avoid employing harsher chemicals. It also helps them lower their carbon emissions when growing corn, which helps California consumers maintain access to low-carbon fuel like the ethanol that much of Iowa's nation-leading corn crop is used to produce.

It doesn’t make sense that “California is trying to push regulations on other states,” said Ross, past president of the National Corn Growers Association, adding, “I’m glad that out attorney generals in these two states are pushing back.”

Also joining the petition: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina and South Dakota.

Iowa and other states have tried to protect glyphosate use. Last year, the Iowa Senate passed a bill that would help shield Bayer from lawsuits stemming from failure to warn users of potential health risks.

What else is Iowa and other states battling with California over?

Iowa also has been involved in a squabble with California about its treatment of sows and hens. The battle over breakfast, as U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, dubbed it, centered on California's voter-approved Proposition 12, which sharply increased the amount of space sows, laying hens and calves must be allotted on farms whose pork, eggs or veal are marketed to the nearly 40 million residents of California, the most populous U.S. state.

Last year, about 30% of U.S. egg producers complied with California's prohibition on caging laying hens. But less than 5% of hog operations can meet Proposition 12's requirement that a pregnant sow have at least 24 square feet of space to move around in.

Hog farmers in Iowa, the nation's largest pork and egg producer, said it would cost them millions of dollars to meet the requirement and do little to improve animal welfare. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state’s animal welfare law last year., as U.S. producers struggled with record losses .

Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com or 515-284-8457.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa AG petitions EPA to prevent California from requiring a warning label on weedkiller