Securing a Major House Vote Against the Pesticide Industry

In a significant setback for the pesticide industry and a victory for farmers, farm workers, and communities everywhere, the House of Representatives recently rejected an effort to shield pesticide manufacturers from legal accountability. Buried within a Farm Bill packed with corporate handouts was a “legal immunity” provision that would have prevented people harmed by toxic pesticides from seeking justice in court. 

Despite an all-out effort from pesticide manufacturers, the House delivered a shocking public defeat to the industry. The legal immunity language and two other industry-friendly provisions were stripped by a vote of 280 – 142. 

At stake was more than a policy detail. It was whether farmers, farmworkers, families, and entire communities would retain a basic right: the ability to seek justice when they are harmed. Backed by millions of dollars and a coordinated national strategy, pesticide corporations have been working toward immunity on every front — the courts, state legislatures, federal agencies, and Congress. In response, a broad, cross-partisan effort has emerged, turning the issue into a national political test: are our legislators for the people or for the merchants of poison?

Building on decades of work on these issues, Friends of the Earth mobilized a wide range of stakeholders, connecting them with policymakers and bringing both political muscle and grassroots energy to the fight. Years of building relationships with pesticide advocates across the country and thwarting similar pesticide industry efforts in Congress positioned Friends of the Earth and our allies to act quickly and effectively when it mattered most. 

Friends of the Earth first successfully fought to oppose similar attacks by Big Pesticide in the 2018 Farm Bill. Then in 2023, we organized a letter signed by more than 115 locally elected officials to block industry efforts to roll back local and state laws restricting pesticides. In the ensuing years, we coordinated an extensive public pressure campaign to prepare members of Congress for the next inevitable fight, including tens of thousands of emails from Friends of the Earth members. 

As industry’s push for legal immunity heated up in 2025, Friends of the Earth and our allies organized a Congressional Briefing to educate members of Congress about what was really at stake: pesticide industry profits over people’s health.  We celebrated a huge win, working behind the scenes to help strip legal immunity language from a spending bill in January 2026. 

And along with individuals and organizations across the political spectrum, we took the fight to the steps of the Supreme Court at the People vs Poison rally in April. Friends of the Earth demanded legal accountability for pesticide corporations that are raking in billions while people suffer. 

But the biggest victory came on the House floor, where the culmination of work from Friends of the Earth, our members, and a growing cross-partisan coalition beat back Big Pesticide’s efforts to take away our rights by a huge margin.  

This win is an indication that the political winds around pesticides are changing. For the first time in over a decade, the House was forced into a direct, on-the-record vote — lawmakers had to publicly choose: people’s health or corporate profits. The vote showed immense bipartisan support for upholding accountability for the pesticide industry, with nearly all Democrats and 73 out of 217 Republicans supporting it.   

Congress can no longer ignore the growing grassroots pressure demanding action on toxic pesticides — people have had enough. People are saying enough to rising rates of cancer, infertility, and learning disabilities; enough to contaminated drinking water; enough to collapsing biodiversity; and enough to a system that leaves farmers economically trapped while chemical companies reap record profits.  

Moving forward, this critical victory in the House proved something essential: when people organize and demand accountability, they can beat even the most entrenched corporate interests. The future may be looking brighter for people everywhere who want to hold public health in higher regard than pesticide industry profits.