Safe Fields and Food

Wayne County, Mississippi, in a quiet southeast corner of the state, is home to about 20,000 people surrounded by forest and farmland. But Wayne distinguishes itself in two ways: it is home to a Sipcam Agro plant that processes the toxic herbicide paraquat. Within the U.S., the plant is the largest single emitter of paraquat. Wayne County also sees high rates of Parkinson’s disease deaths, in the top 7% of all U.S. counties that reported Parkinson’s deaths between 2018 and 2024. Troves of evidence have long linked paraquat to Parkinson’s, the world’s fastest-growing – and incurable – neurodegenerative disease. In March, Syngenta announced it would stop producing paraquat. But Syngenta’s exit doesn’t mean paraquat will stop entering the U.S. Instead, other companies and other facilities – like the one in Wayne County – will fill the gap, likely increasing the amount of paraquat they handle.

Multinational agriculture technology company Syngenta announced last Tuesday (March 3) that it will cease global production of the herbicide paraquat by the end of June, including at its facility in Iberville Parish. U.S. farmers commonly use the highly toxic paraquat for weed control. Much of the paraquat used by the farmers enters the country through New Orleans, according to a recent report by Coming Clean, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas and Pesticide Action and Agroecology Network. Along the way, workers at the ports and in the company’s facilities risk exposure to the chemical. A 2017 Environmental Protection Agency memo noted that paraquat is so toxic that “one sip can kill,” and that even minimal contact can cause serious injury to the eyes and skin. Inhaling paraquat can also cause lung damage, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Exposure to the chemical is associated with Parkinson’s disease

Syngenta announced that it would cease global production of the toxic herbicide paraquat by the end of June 2026, at a time when public awareness of paraquat’s harms is rising. Across the U.S., farmers and farmworkers have shared their stories of developing lifelong health conditions after being exposed to paraquat. Thousands of lawsuits are pending in U.S. courts, alleging Syngenta failed to warn people of paraquat’s documented links to Parkinson’s disease. And bills to ban or restrict paraquat have been introduced in at least twelve states. 
“It’s great to hear Syngenta is turning off the tap to a major source of paraquat to the U.S. But SinoChem’s corporate business model hasn’t changed,” said Judith Robinson, Executive Director of Coming Clean. “Its facilities will continue to pollute the air and water from the UK to Cancer Alley. Its pesticides are nearly all derived from fossil fuels that contribute to climate change. If you’re concerned for your health because paraquat has been sprayed on your food for years, you should also be concerned about the many other toxic herbicides that remain and could replace it.”

While paraquat is prohibited from use on farms in China, continued imports to the United States are protected from trade barriers. Paraquat was recently put on a 37-page list of products that were exempt from tariffs President Donald Trump put on China. “The health and environmental harms of paraquat will be felt in U.S. communities for generations, while profits from paraquat sales overwhelmingly flow to Chinese companies,” researchers wrote. Imports to the United States rose from just 11 million pounds in 2012, according to the report from advocacy organizations Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Coming Clean and the Pesticide Action Network. The report was produced as part of a research series from the advocacy groups that’s examining the harm of pesticides. “Foreign-owned agrochemical companies are profiting while our essential farming communities suffer,” said Judy Robinson, executive director of Coming Clean, in a statement.

“EPA doesn’t need to wait for new science to ban paraquat in the United States. Credible research meeting EPA’s “gold standard” tenets has already been submitted to EPA’s public docket demonstrating that exposure to paraquat causes harm to farmworkers, farmers, and rural communities, and that its continued registration for use poses an unreasonable risk to these communities. Study after study has shown that people who use or are exposed to paraquat are more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease and other adverse health conditions. The evidence of harm is strong enough that over 70 countries have already banned this toxic pesticide from use. Meanwhile, EPA has declined to review this evidence. Now, by suggesting that we need to wait for “accurate new studies [to] reveal additional risk,” EPA is attempting to push the regulatory reset button to buy chemical corporations profiting from paraquat sales more time.

Paul Friday remembers when his hand started flopping in the cold weather – the first sign nerve cells in his brain were dying. He was eventually diagnosed with Parkinson’s, a brain disease that gets worse over time. His limbs got stiffer. He struggled to walk. He couldn’t keep living on his family farm. Shortly afterward, Friday came to believe that decades of spraying a pesticide called paraquat at his peach orchard in southwestern Michigan may be the culprit. The pesticide, a weed killer, is extremely toxic. With evidence of its harms stacking up, it’s already been banned in dozens of countries all over the world, including the United Kingdom and China, where it’s made. Yet last year, its manufacturer Syngenta, a subsidiary of a company owned by the Chinese government, continued selling paraquat in the United States and other nations that haven’t banned it.

The southeastern Louisiana city of St. Gabriel has zero major fast food chain restaurants, pharmacies or laundromats. But there are nearly a dozen chemical facilities within city limits and at least 30 within a 10 mile radius. St. Gabriel is home to the Syngenta agrochemical facility, which repackages a popular but highly toxic farming pesticide known as paraquat under the brand name Gramoxone before it is distributed to other states. The plant is owned by the Chinese company SinoChem Holdings Ltd.  A report released in October by Coming Clean, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas and Pesticide Action and Agroecology Network warned of the dangers of paraquat exposure. Banned in over 70 countries, it remains one of the most commonly used chemicals by farmers in the United States for weed management — with the largest point of entry in the last eight years being the Port of New Orleans, according to Jim Vallete, a contributing researcher to the report. 

A new analysis showed the harmful life cycle from production to application of a widely used pesticide in North Carolina. The chemical paraquat is a quick-acting herbicide used for weed control. Long-term exposure to paraquat has been associated with thyroid cancer, impaired kidney function, childhood leukemia and Parkinson’s disease. The study "Designed to Kill: Who Profits From Paraquat?" looks at SinoChem Holdings, a Chinese-owned company selling tens of millions of dollars in paraquat to the U.S. each year. Kendall Wimberley, policy manager for the group Toxic Free NC, pointed out it is despite the fact China has banned the chemical. Wimberley argued we should not consider simply banning a pesticide like paraquat but look at the bigger picture."The need to get off of this pesticide treadmill, and we can't just ban one chemical at a time," Wimberley contended. "We need to be looking at these as classes of chemicals."