Across food and agriculture policy, the Trump administration continues to advance an agenda shaped by corporate influence—weakening accountability, sidelining public health, and constraining states’ ability to protect the people. Recent developments around chemical regulation, nutrition policy, and market concentration underscore how deeply corporate capture continues to shape federal and state food and farm policy. Despite rhetoric from the Trump administration around combatting corporate influence and combatting chemical exposure and nutritious food—issues we have been actively working on—they have consistently delivered wins for industry at the expense of the people, including a successful push, in defense of pesticide-maker Bayer, to have their case considered by the Supreme Court.
To read more about these issues, see Civil Eats’ piece on what the shutdown revealed about food and agriculture policy and get up to date federal food and ag info in the Civil Eats federal Food Policy Tracker.
Below are updates on federal actions that have impacts on your work and communities. We will continue to monitor these issues and be in touch with further resources and information as they become available. If you need assistance on any of these issues or others, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team at [email protected]
Chemical Industry Continues to Push Complete Immunity at Federal and State Levels and with SCOTUS:
- Farm States Are Targets for Dangerous Pesticide Immunity bill: 2026 is the third year that pesticide companies have been pushing a dangerous pesticide immunity bill in states across the country. Known in some states as the “Bayer bill,” as the text comes directly from German chemical maker Bayer, maker of glyphosate (Roundup), it’s a classic big business-sponsored preemption bill, prohibiting legal action against pesticide makers for harms such as cancer, parkinson, and birth defects that their products may cause.
- Now in seven states with potentially a dozen more bills expected, there is a coordinated effort at the federal level, SCOTUS, and state levels by multi-national chemical companies to prevent farmers, rural community members, and families from taking action when they are harmed by companies products
- RESOURCE: Up to date resource sheet on the Bayer Bill from SiX, including scientific studies on the health harms of glyphosate and paraquat; narrative suggestions and talking points; template legislator testimony; background on Bayer lawsuits; organizing tactics; sample questions of records and more. Also includes a tracker with links on where the bills have been introduced so far this year.
- Pesticide Companies Push Fraudulent Study: On November 28, 2025, a scientific journal formally retracted the most influential and foundational studies on glyphosate safety after Monsanto company documents proved that Monsanto secretly wrote the paper and paid outside scientists to put their names on it. The fraudulent study was cited over 800 times (top 0.1% of glyphosate research), including by EPA, and it shaped regulatory decisions worldwide for 25 years
- A Study Is Retracted, Renewing Concerns About the Weedkiller Roundup. The New York Times
- New findings raise questions on safety of weed killer Roundup. News Channel 6 Now
- While Many State Legislators Denounce Pesticide Immunity Bills, SCOTUS Takes up Bayer’s Case In Win to Chemical Industry. In January 2026, The Supreme Court agreed to hear Durnell v. Monsanto, which addresses the question of whether federal pesticide product registration law, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, “preempts a label-based failure-to-warn claim where EPA has not required the warning.” SiX will be watching the case closely and will follow-up with further opportunities for state legislators to engage.
States Continue to Feel Ripple Effect of the Federal Attacks on SNAP in the Fall:
- SNAP-Ed, the longstanding educational arm of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was one of the many casualties of the “Big, Ugly, Bill” HR.1 that eliminated the program in July. For more than three decades, SNAP-Ed has helped millions of food-insecure Americans make healthier food choices but funding ended on Sept 30th.
- Some states, like Georgia, have found additional funding sources to keep their SNAP-Ed programs intact for about a year while others like Colorado, are already experiencing significant losses from the September funding cliff, starting with staff layoffs at nutrition programs. The end to these programs come at a time when food prices are at a record high, and public nutrition experts says that reducing the infrastructure and staff for community nutrition work will have a cascade of long-term consequences and will exacerbate Americans’ poor metabolic health and likely drive even more reliance on ultra-processed foods, a sharp contrast to the new federal recommended guidelines.
- SiX is hosting a Rapid Response Room on nutrition programs in the states with National Farm to School Policy Network on Feb. 6th at 11:00am PT / 2pm ET. Please join us! Email [email protected] for zoom access.
With Lapse in ACA Subsidies, Farmers Remain Especially Vulnerable:
- Affordable Care Act subsidies have lapsed thanks to gridlock in Congress and millions of Americans have elected to go without health insurance due to astronomical premium payments. Farmers are particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in health insurance prices and availability of coverage. Farmers will often have a second off-farm job just to get health insurance but with ACA subsidies gone, it is vital that states take action to support farmers, rural community members and folks most impacted by the loss in coverage. Read more about farmers’ struggles with healthcare premiums in this piece by Civil Eats.
- Response: States can expand Medicaid. See the resources below that should cover many of your questions on about implementing medicaid expansion and obstacles you may encounter:
- Check out our Medicaid Defense Toolkit to provide resources for legislators, advocates, and organizations in the 2026 legislative session.
- How OBBBA Punishes Medicaid Expansion States
- Medicaid Provider Taxes: A Critical Source of Medicaid Funding for States
- How Medicaid State-Directed Payments Support Critical Health Care Providers – Commonwealth Fund
- Who is Harmed by Medicaid Work Requirements?
- Tracking the Medicaid Provisions in the 2025 Reconciliation Bill | KFF
- Republicans in Congress Considering Harsh Medicaid Cuts That Would Shift Costs to States, Leave People Uninsured
- Check out our Medicaid Defense Toolkit to provide resources for legislators, advocates, and organizations in the 2026 legislative session.
We hope you find these resources useful. If you have questions, comments, or want to connect so we can strategize on any of these issues, please contact us at [email protected]. We are here to help!