New Report Highlights Costly Impacts to Farmers Without Glyphosate Access

November 14, 2024

A new report by the Directions Group finds that losing access to glyphosate—the most widely used herbicide in the U.S.—would have adverse repercussions for the upcoming Farm Bill, impacting American farmers and underscoring glyphosate's role as the backbone of modern farming.

The research shows that without glyphosate, farmers, consumers, and taxpayers would face a combined $74 billion in additional costs over the course of the 2025-2029 Farm Bill, equivalent to $15 billion annually. Key Farm Bill implications include: 

  • Commodities: Farmers would bear a $2.89 billion net farm income loss every year, undermining the effectiveness of commodities programs like Price Loss Coverage (PLC) and Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC), which would not offset farmers’ lost income. Farmers impacted include those producing corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, peanuts, sorghum, oats, and barley—all vital to our domestic food supply. 
  • Nutrition: Food inflation could double, resulting in an even higher grocery bill for Americans and adding $7.1 billion to the cost of nutrition programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) due to higher commodity prices. 
  • Crop Insurance: Crop resiliency to extreme weather events like drought and floods would falter, incurring $2.946 billion in additional costs to crop insurance programs due to increased “prevent plant” claims.
  • Conservation: The Farm Bill’s $632 million investment in conservation programs like cover cropping would be undermined, reversing two decades of environmental gains in carbon capture, sediment loss, and nutrient runoff reduction. Farmers would need to till their fields up to four times more frequently, increasing on-farm fuel emissions by an estimated 33.72 million tons of CO₂ per year. 

For over 50 years, American farmers have used glyphosate to control weeds, keep yields high, and implement conservation practices that use less land and resources. All of this is at stake if access to this tool is compromised—as the new evidence further demonstrates. Policymakers have the opportunity to make informed decisions that have the interests of American farmers—in addition to consumers and taxpayers generally—in mind as our agriculture sector continues to meet the demands of today and the challenges of tomorrow. 

Explore the full report here: https://report-directionsgroup.com/