The State of the States in Agribusiness, Part Deux
May 19, 2025 Although much of the attention when it comes to legislation focuses on the federal level, individual states see their fair share of proposed bills as well — both good and bad. To keep pace with this, the Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) has regularly held Lunch and Learn sessions for its members, updating them on the legislative activity taking place at the state level. I was privileged enough to be able to attend one of these in late March and here’s what I found out.
According to MACA members, state legislative activity involving agriculture has picked up recently. “We are seeing a dramatic increase in bills across the landscape that can be detrimental to what have been considered ag-friendly states,” said one member. One such example comes from the state of Missouri.
Steve Taylor, Executive Director of the Missouri Agribusiness Association, says his state has been trying to pass a bill to protect crop protection product producers from unnecessary lawsuits.
“It’s a simple one paragraph bill that says federal labels by EPA under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act are sufficient warning labels at the state level,” said Taylor. “This is mainly about glyphosate, which has been subjects to lots of lawsuits in the states. If we don’t do something, we could end up suing this product out of existence.”
This bill has passed the Missouri state House and the Ag Committee in the state Senate. “But it is being challenged with lots of misinformation by trial attorneys in the state,” he said.
Not all the state bills are negative towards agriculture, however. According to Julie Kenney, CEO at the Agribusiness Association of Iowa (AAI), her state is working on an ag education bill.
“Many ag companies are struggling to find qualified candidates for their positions,” said Kenney. “We have a bill in the works to expand ag education and appropriations that would provide grants to education programs to find new ag education teachers.”
Kenney added that AAI was also working to address the need for more commercial drivers’ licenses (CDLs) with a new bill that would lower the age someone in the state could gain HAZMAT endorsement from 21 to 18.
Grace Howe, Executive Director at the Wisconsin Agribusiness Association, said her organization was also working on CDL concerns. “Getting CDL drivers is hard, and experts note that the industry will be short approximately 80,000 CDL drivers in the coming years,” said Howe. “In Wisconsin, we are working on a CDL Grant Training Program to help get more drivers.”
Bruce Kettler, President/CEO at the Agribusiness Council of Indiana, reminded MACA attendees that it is important for state associations to keep reaching out to legislators.
“One of the things I’ve seen with a lot of the negative agricultural bills in Indiana, such as the ones involving treated seed or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances [PFAS], is that there is a lot of misunderstanding out there,” said Kettler. “It’s important we educate legislators on how our industry works.”
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