Bayer’s ongoing struggle with Roundup plaintiffs was a top story throughout 2024, as it had been in previous years. Whether or not glyphosate will continue to be available to farmers is an open question.
Glyphosate—the main ingredient in Bayer’s Roundup herbicide—remains the most widely used herbicide in the United States, used on a wide variety of crops and an average of 87% of corn, soybean and cotton acres. But in January, a study showed that repeated glyphosate use accelerates weed resistance. Above a combine harvests pink-eye peas, a short season crop, in central Oklahoma. (Journal photo by Lacey Vilhauer.)
On Jan. 26, a Pennsylvania jury ordered Bayer to pay an unprecedented $2.2 billion to John McKivison, who blamed his non-Hodgkins lymphoma on Roundup. The verdict was reduced to “only” $400 million by a Philadelphia judge in June. Damage awards for Roundup injuries are routinely reduced by 90%, Bayer said.
Since Bayer paid $63 billion to acquire Monsanto in 2018, about 165,000 claims have been filed in the United States against the company for personal injuries allegedly caused by Roundup. They all came from the lawn and garden side of the Roundup business; Bayer announced it is discontinuing glyphosate from its lawn and garden division, although it remains available to farmers.
Bayer wins in court more often than it loses, but in this high-stakes game, “most” is not good enough. In 2020, Roundup settlements cost the company $11 billion. As of December 2024, there are 4,373 open Roundup lawsuit cases in federal MDL (multi-district litigation) in California.
In May, Bayer’s new American CEO, Bill Anderson, laid out a two-pronged strategy of continuing to vigorously contest Roundup lawsuits in courts and to insist on its safety while working on a substitute that, he said, could be introduced as early as 2028. He called it the first revolutionary advance in the field in 30 years.
Drought continued
The 2024 drought continued to affect farmland in several ways. The drought centered mostly in Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and west Texas. Central Kansas and southern Nebraska saw poor soil moisture throughout the summer. The Midwest saw small degradations across the region, despite the western and southern Midwest receiving some decent moisture.
Field Editors Kylene Scott and Lacey Vilhauer covered stories about the Smokehouse Creek fire in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandle, where more than 1 million acres burned in March. Scott noted the relief efforts that followed, and Vilhauer chronicled a veterinarian’s perspective on rebuilding the cattle herd.
In eastern Kansas, along the Missouri border, there were reports of heat stress. Central Kansas also saw reports of dry ponds and fear of total crop failures. Dry conditions, dry vegetation and low streamflow values were seen across western South and North Dakota and Wyoming.
Besides stressing crops, affecting yields and drawdowns of aquifers, the drought also contributed to lower Mississippi River levels through the fall because water tables had not recovered from the 2023 drought. The Mississippi saw several periods of recurring low water and dredging—in one case only relieved by water from the disastrous Hurricane Helene that flooded the Appalachians with unprecedented amounts of rainfall in North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia.
Late-autumn rainfalls helped Midwestern water tables and Mississippi River levels as weather patterns finally shifted to La Nina.
Stories of intrigue
Rural real estate also captured readers’ interest as stories noted that farm and ranchland values were holding up in light of interest rates that stayed at a 20-year high for most of the year. Experts like Farmers National’s Paul Schadegg said the rate of increase in values had slowed in most regions of the High Plains.
Vilhauer wrote a story about 70 horses in Oklahoma that died from eating feed that contained monensin.
A story by Amy Bickel about goats providing a creative livestock option caught the attention of many readers.
Despite drought conditions, many regions reported above average wheat, corn, soybean and sorghum crops as noted by the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates’ reports that were regularly filed by David Murray. The HPJ’s popular All Aboard Wheat Harvest and All Aboard Fall Harvest with correspondent reports continued to get international followers.
Also, a new feature about poultry production provided some of our highest reads in our newsletter series.
HPJ also took a bow as it noted 75 years of its relationship with readers and the farm and ranch industry as each month the writing team looked at different segments in agriculture with a historical eye.
Port investments
Other developments included a flood of federal money for ports and terminals made news in 2024 with funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act). In FY2024, the BIL appropriated $450 million to the Port Infrastructure Development Program.
Among these were many projects directly concerned with moving grain. The Hennepin Barge Terminal and Soybean Logistics Asset Project near Chicago was granted $38,582,711 to build a new,700-foot loading dock, conveyor systems and storage systems for soybean meal, soybean oil and soybean hulls near Chicago to more efficiently move these products.
A grain elevator at the Port of Houston Authority’s turning basin was awarded $25,359,216.
At Hardin, Illinois, the Hardin Illinois River Terminal Elevator Project was awarded $9 million to build two new storage bins, one at the Hardin facility and one at the Jerseyville facility under the same ownership, along with a new loadout conveyor belt and river cell loading tower at the Hardin terminal and other improvements.
In October, the Port of Kalama, Washington—already one of the West Coast’s largest grain terminals — received a record $26,323,386 for a rail expansion project, its largest single grant ever. This funding was said to increase the port’s grain terminal efficiency by 25 to 30%.
Pesticide changes
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule on Dec. 2 that would ban most uses of chlorpyrifos on food, with exceptions for 11 feed and food crops. Chlorpyrifos is the most widely used organophosphate pesticide in the U.S., with millions of pounds sprayed every year.
David Murray can be reached at [email protected].
