US Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina M. Khan is slated to participate in a Community Listening Session on April 20 in Nevada, Iowa, regarding the sale of OCI Global’s Wever, Iowa-based Iowa Fertilizer Co. LLC (IFCo) to Koch Ag & Energy Solutions LLC.

The hosts of the listening session are listed as the Iowa Farmers Union, State Innovation Exchange (SIX) and State Reps. Elinor Levin (D), Megan Srinivas (D), and J.D. Scholten (D).

“This is an opportunity to share your perspectives on the recent acquisition of Iowa Fertilizer Co. by Koch Industries, what it means for your family, your farm, and for the future of our rural communities in Iowa,” IFU said on its Facebook page. While spaces are limited and RSVP’s are requested, the 10:30-12:00 pm event at the Gatherings on 6^th Street is expected to be streamed online.

Koch announced in December that it was buying IFCo from OCI Global for $3.6 billion (GM Dec. 22, 2023). Since that time, the IFU, all 36 members of the Iowa House of Representatives (GM Feb. 16, p. 1), some 18 farm and environmental groups (GM Jan. 26, p. 1), and Iowa Auditor Rob Sand (GM Feb. 2, p. 1) have asked the FTC, the US Department of Justice, and Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird (R) to investigate the acquisition.

The fact that state and federal dollars helped fund the Iowa Fertilizer plant in Wever is a major contention, especially since the deal was sold to taxpayers at the time as helping to increase competition in the fertilizer market. IFU’s Board of Directors in February referred to the proposed sale as “a slap in the face for taxpayers who invested about $550 million (as well as $1.2 billion of Iowa Finance Authority bonds)” to build the plant.

“The stated justification for the tax subsidies was to increase competition in the nitrogen fertilizer supply – a critical input for corn, the Midwest’s major crop,” the IFU said in a February statement. “In fact, the Brandstad/Reynolds administration cited Koch Industries’ market dominance as the reason why the investment was necessary. Now we are on the cusp of those tax dollars being used to increase Koch’s anti-competitive stranglehold.”

Iowa State Senator Jeff Reichman (R) has expressed enthusiastic support for the deal (GM Feb. 9, p. 1).

Bayer AG, reeling from major jury awards against it on Roundup, has issued an open letter on glyphosate, saying that American agriculture is at risk. The letter ran in major media outlets, including Politico, the Washington Post, the St. Louis Dispatch, the Jefferson City News Tribune and the Des Moines Register, as well as on Bayer’s own website at https://www.bayer.com/en/glyphosate-letter.

In the meantime, the formation of Modern Ag Alliance, a group of more than 60 national and state agricultural organizations, including the National Corn Growers Association and the American Soybean Association, was announced on April 9 to promote the ongoing use of glyphosate.

In its letter, Bayer stressed that Roundup has been thoroughly evaluated and certified multiple times by the US EPA, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and all other leading safety and regulatory bodies around the world as safe to use.

“It has enabled millions of American farmers to have better yields and lower their weed control input costs – and the only group to categorize glyphosate as a probable carcinogen is an affiliate of the World Health Organization, which is not a regulatory body and did no original studies,” the letter states. “It puts other everyday things like drinking hot beverages, a barber’s occupational exposure, and eating red meat at the same level of safety hazard as glyphosate.”

Bayer said it wins court cases when juries have access to all the relevant evidence and scientific information. “So the litigation industry fights to prevent EPA’s rigorous analysis and science-based conclusion that Roundup is safe to use from being shown in court,” said the letter. “Instead, they rely on junk science to mislead juries.”

Bayer noted that it is the only domestic manufacturer of glyphosate. “If this keeps up, farmers will be left with two options – grow less food or rely on foreign supplies of the product,” the company said.

Bayer said it plans to continue to provide US farmers with Roundup to ensure a safe, abundant, and economical food supply. “But there’s a limit to what we can do,” it added. “We hope others will soon recognize how high the stakes go, well beyond one product or industry to touch upon fundamental American values and interests.”

Modern Ag, whose motto is “Control Weeds, Not Farming,” is a major backer of a bill that passed the Iowa Senate on April 2 that would grant immunity to pesticide companies from civil lawsuits related to damages caused by US EPA-approved pesticides (GM April 12, p. 27). Bayer lobbied for the bill and argued that Americans should be able to trust the EPA label as enough protection.

In addition to Iowa, Idaho, Missouri, and Florida are also considering similar bills, according to reports from Civil Eats. Additionally, CropLife America is seeking to pass a federal law barring states from passing their own laws that restrict pesticide use based on risks.

Bayer received some good news earlier this month when a Missouri judge slashed almost $1 billion from a $1.5 billion jury verdict that was one of the largest in the six years the company has been fighting thousands of claims that its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer.

While Judge Daniel Green in Jefferson City, Mo., refused to grant Monsanto’s post-trial requests that he order a new trial or throw out the entire verdict, he instead slashed the punitive-damages portion of the award by more than 60% to about $550 million, according to Bloomberg, citing court filings.

Bayer’s Monsanto unit has been hit with multiple nine- and 10-figure verdicts over Roundup in the last six months. With so much legal exposure, the company’s new chief executive officer has faced difficult decisions about whether to spin off part of the pharmaceutical-agrochemical conglomerate or put a unit into strategic bankruptcy (GM March 15, p. 1).

Bayer, which bought Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018, said it will still ask Missouri’s appellate courts to review the entire verdict. “While the court reduced the unconstitutionally excessive damage award, the company believes that the court did not apply the law correctly on damages,” the company said in an emailed statement.

Jurors had awarded the three plaintiffs a total of $61.1 million in actual damages and $500 million each in punitive damages in November over claims that years of using Roundup on their lawns and gardens caused non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The order reducing the verdict was expected because the US Supreme Court has said punitive damages must be proportional to compensatory awards underlying them and has limited punishment judgments to 10 times actual damages.

Green reduced the punitive damages to about $550 million to meet the Supreme Court threshold. He also ordered Bayer to post an $800 million bond to guarantee payment of the verdict if it’s upheld on appeal. Bayer had asked for a $50 million bond, court documents show.

In January, a state court jury in Philadelphia ordered Monsanto to pay more than $2.2 billion to a former landscaper. That award is also likely to be cut.

Two years ago, Bayer set aside as much as $16 billion to resolve more than 100,000 cases over Roundup. The conglomerate now faces a second wave of lawsuits alleging glyphosate and other elements of the herbicide are carcinogens. The company said earlier this month that it has won 14 of the last 20 cases to go to trial.

Bayer agreed to transition from the glyphosate version of Roundup to new active weed-killing ingredients in the US consumer market by the end of last year.