Ag Front Group Shields Bayer in Controversial Roundup Liability Fights

For the past two years, the Modern Ag Alliance has been the leading public face of a campaign to quash tens of thousands of cancer claims surrounding the use of Roundup, the highly controversial and most widely used pesticide in the world. 

“Control weeds, not farming” and “American farmers need your help” proclaim its ads and billboards across America’s bread basket. And, most recently, its online ads have congratulated President Trump for his executive order declaring that production of Roundup’s primary ingredient, glyphosate, is “critical to the national defense” (see Part I of this series).

The Modern Ag Alliance (MAA) purports to now represent more than 110 agricultural organizations in the U.S. and claims that farmers need “crop protection tools” like Roundup “to ensure that [Americans] have a robust and affordable domestic food supply.” 

But a look below the surface reveals that Bayer AG, the German pharmaceutical giant that produces Roundup — and whose Roundup-related liabilities topped $11 billion last year —  launched the group in 2024 to help protect its bottom line and shield the company from rising public anger over the product’s cancer risks. Bayer’s lead lobbyist, Hallie Utley, serves as its CEO and board president.