“Glyphosate Girl” Kelly Ryerson discusses ag-gag laws, how to reconcile herbicides with regenerative agriculture, national security risks from toxic chemicals, and how to develop healthy food and farming into a truly purple movement

Acres U.S.A. We have some news coming out of Florida that’s slightly concerning. Can you tell us about that?

Ryerson. Yes — it’s so important. This just popped up a few weeks ago. It was very quietly put into both the senate and house versions of Florida’s state-level farm bill — a provision that is really outrageous. It would effectively gag all people that criticize farming practices or any of the commodities that come out of Florida. It will make it so that if you criticize practices or pesticides, then you are going to be liable for defamation. The chemical companies and Big Sugar can come after you and sue you and effectively bankrupt you in the process — even if the critique is ultimately correct. It’s a method the chemical companies are using to silence all critics. 

There are several things are really frightening about this. First, of course, it’s unconstitutional — against the First Amendment — to limit free speech. Second, Florida has already passed anti-defamation laws around food. Already in existence is a law that says you can’t defame or even debate the health of a perishable food. So, for example, there’s the coating that is put on the outside of a lot of fruits and veggies, particularly fruits, and it’s not labeled. But a lot of people have reactions to it. And one woman has been sued for millions of dollars for defamation in Florida because she was criticizing a perishable item. It seems like that should be unconstitutional — to say people can’t say anything about these things — but, in fact, it went up through the court system, and it held as not against the right to free speech. 

So, Florida has taken this existing defamation law, and they’ve expanded it now by adding that you also can’t criticize agricultural processes or pesticides or the products that come from them. It’s a really broad-sweeping thing that will quiet all of the activists. But it’s not just activists — it’s nutritionists, it’s doctors, it’s journalists, it’s farmers; everyone who works in the food system could be impacted by it.

Acres U.S.A. What’s driving this? Having this coming out of Florida might be surprising. You would think Florida would be a free-speech type of place.

Ryerson. It is wild, because Floridians are proud of their free state. People moved here during COVID just to have that freedom, so now to have free speech stifled is really shocking to a lot of people.  

But there are a few things that are brewing behind the scenes that are leading to this. One is the ongoing arguments around Bayer and the pesticide liability shield. Bayer is standing on the brink of bankruptcy due to all of the glyphosate trials — 100,000 lawsuits at this point. Their stock price has plummeted, so they’re trying to set up these state- and federal-level liability shields so you can no longer sue any pesticide manufacturer if you get sick from exposure. 

It’s really close to actually happening. If you live in Georgia or North Dakota, you can no longer sue pesticide manufacturers when you get sick from exposure to any of 57,000 different pesticides. We just beat a bill like this in Tennessee. They’re trying to pass it in Kansas and Wyoming. Florida is coming up next. GT Thompson of Pennsylvania just slid it into the national House version of the farm bill, so that we will no longer be able to sue chemical manufacturers federally if we get sick from pesticide exposure. This covers paraquat, atrazine, glyphosate, etc. — all these pesticides that are connected to disease. 

It’s stripping American rights and handing all the power over to these foreign chemical manufacturers, like ChemChina. ChemChina manufactures paraquat, which causes Parkinson’s disease. China banned paraquat and then sells it here, and then they’re going to put in a liability shield so we can’t sue when we get Parkinson’s from paraquat. I’ve never seen anything like this. 

They’re trying to pass this in Florida, and many congresspeople seem more than willing to jump on board. The chemical companies lie and say, “No, of course you can still sue. It’s just about protecting farmers.” I testified in Kansas recently. The modern ag alliance showed up to testify, with nonprofits backed by Bayer — the Farm Bureau, the Soybean Alliance, etc. I argued that these organizations don’t stand for every farmer at all. In fact, some of our farm communities are the sickest we have, and that’s just dismissed. 

They tried to pass a law like this last year in Florida, but Floridians rose up and said, “This is insanity. Absolutely not. No liability shield for pesticide companies.” So, it disappeared. Well, the pesticide companies really want to have that protection in Florida because so many pesticides are used in the state, especially in sugar and citrus.