UPDATE: HB 544 unfortunately passed in the Senate Agriculture, Food Production, and Outdoor Resources Committee on March 27. The pesticide immunity language was snuck into HB 1116, which is also up for a floor vote in the Senate at a moment's notice alongside HB 544/SB 14.
It is urgent to take action and STOP the bills in the Senate!

To skip below to the Action form, please click here! Thank you for speaking out on this important issue!

Dear Friend,

We are writing to ask you to help stop legislation in Missouri (HB 544) that will shield pesticide manufacturers from being sued by people who have been harmed by their products. Beyond Pesticides is a national, grassroots organization that represents community-based organizations and a range of people seeking to improve protections from pesticides and promote alternative pest management strategies that reduce or eliminate reliance on toxic pesticides.

This legislation is moving fast! Unfortunately, HB 544 passed in the House on Thursday, February 20, 85 to 72 and passed out of the Senate Agriculture, Food Production, and Outdoor Resources Committee on Thursday, March 27. The pesticide immunity language was snuck into HB 1116 in recent weeks and passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee on April 30, with no opportunity for public comments given the unpopular nature of this legislation. The bills can be raised at any time for a final vote on the Senate floor!

If this bill were to pass, it would strike a blow to consumer safety for all toxic products. In a climate with less regulation, the ability to sue creates an incentive for manufacturers to develop safer products that protect our health and the environment—not to mention the compensation it provides to those harmed.

Failure-to-warn claims serve as the basis for the overwhelming majority of pesticide injury litigation of the past decade, according to legal professionals, including Brigit Rollins, JD, staff attorney at the National Agriculture Law Center. Failure-to-warn is a legal argument grounded in the common law of state court systems across the nation. “Almost every pesticide injury lawsuit filed in the past ten years has included a claim that the pesticide manufacturer failed to warn the plaintiff of the health risks associated with using their product and that such failure caused the plaintiff's injury,” says Ms. Rollins.

Petrochemical-based pesticide manufacturers, predominately German-owned Bayer-Monsanto, are expanding their all-out push from last year when bills were introduced in Missouri, Iowa, and Idaho. We mobilized last year with little warning, and we were able to defeat these bills. Currently, bills have been introduced in eleven states and defeated in three. The focus of these bills is to protect chemical corporations, not people. 

>> Please ask your state Senator to OPPOSE HB 544/SB 14 and HB 1116 by clicking here.

Thank you!

Max Sano
Senior Policy & Coalitions Associate
Beyond Pesticides

The Targets for this Action are state Senators in the state legislature of Missouri.

Thank you for your active participation and engagement! The Action is a multi-step process, so please click submit below to proceed to step two, where you will be able to personalize comments before final submission. The comment maximum limit is 4,000 characters, so it may be necessary to delete some of our prepared message text if editing.

↪️ For more information, please see our Myths & Facts and Missouri resource page, as well as the Failure-to-Warn and Pesticide Immunity Bills resource hub.