RICHMOND, Va.—A bill banning the pesticide paraquat died last week in the Virginia House of Delegates after the chamber’s Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee voted 22-0, with little explanation, to carry the measure over to next year for consideration.
Parquat is used across more than 200,000 acres in Virginia on various crops, including corn, soybean, cotton and tobacco, according to the Agribusiness Council, an industry group that opposed the paraquat ban. The alternative to using paraquat would require the use of multiple other pesticides, argued the Virginia Farm Bureau, which also opposed the ban.
Although 70 countries ban the pesticide, no state in the U.S. has banned paraquat. Some are considering the idea as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is rescinding several regulations. Opponents of the bill said parquat is allowed as a pesticide by the EPA under strict rules.
Paraquat is lethal to humans in a single swallow. The pesticide is rapidly absorbed by the human body, and there is no antidote. Even a small amount causes organ failure.
Supporters of the bill to ban paraquat, including the Environmental Working Group and the Michael J. Fox Foundation, point to it making up less than 2 percent of the pesticide use in Virginia. They also note that a 2024 National Institute of Health study found harms caused by the chemical.
The study, by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles and the University of Southern California, found “further indication that paraquat dichloride exposure increases the risk of Parkinson’s disease.”
Jim Jones, a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pollution prevention official who worked to pass the bill, said the effort will come back next year. “By then, a couple of other states will likely have taken action, which I think will make it a little easier for the Virginia legislature to not be the first out of the gate,” he said.
Jay Ford, Virginia policy manager for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, added that he didn’t have qualms with delaying the paraquat bill until next year. “That’s a piece of legislation and a conversation that requires a lot more daytime,” said Ford. “A new administration that’s been here a month, talking about that kind of wholesale change seems like an unreasonable timeline.”
Del. Nadarius Clark, D-Suffolk, the bill’s sponsor, attributed the vote to delay consideration until next year to “some miseducation and misinformation going on around there. … This is a specific bill about a unique pesticide, nothing more, nothing less. … Some people don’t like change and letting things go, but it’s going to be better for our farmers and our community.”
The state’s newly elected chief executive, Gov. Abigail Spanberger, is a moderate Democrat and former CIA officer and congresswoman who served on the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, where she worked to preserve and promote Virginia’s rural interests.
In Congress, she introduced the Growing Climate Solutions Act of 2021, a bill that created a program to compensate farmers for adopting voluntary land use practices to deal with climate change, including those that “prevent, reduce, or mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.”
Among Spanberger’s first administration appointments was Katie K. Frazier, the former chief brand officer for Farm Credit of the Virginias, which provides financial support to farmers. Frazier also is a former executive director of the Virginia Agribusiness Council, a group that also opposed the paraquat ban bill.
In an address to the House Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources committee at the start of the session, Frazier said a priority of the Spanberger administration is “to provide steady leadership during an uncertain and challenging time across our farm economy.
“We are committed to maintaining and growing our Commonwealth’s number one and number three private sector industries of agriculture and forestry by building on the diversity of our industries and seizing opportunities for growth across all sectors,” said Frazier, while also wanting to support farming conservation measures.
Jack Bledsoe, Spanberger’s press secretary, declined to comment on whether Spanberger favored carrying over Clark’s bill.
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Virginia Correspondent
Charles Paullin is a Richmond, Virginia-based reporter focusing on energy and environment issues. He’s won several awards for his previous work covering state policy with the Virginia Mercury and local news with the Northern Virginia Daily in the Northern Shenandoah Valley. His first reporting gig was with the New Britain Herald in Connecticut, a couple years after attending the University of Hartford, where he first studied sports journalism.
