Bill to ban the use of herbicide paraquat in Va. advances with narrow vote

The use of the controversial herbicide paraquat has been banned in 70 nations across the world, including in China where it is manufactured, but is used widely in Virginia. A bill that would make the commonwealth the first state to implement a total ban on the use and sale of the chemical cleared a House of Delegates committee Wednesday.

“This is not just about the people applying the chemicals. It is about the neighbors who live nearby, the families who never consented to exposure, and the workers who may not have had full information about the risk,” said bill patron Del. Nadarius Clark, D-Suffolk.

Studies have identified paraquat, a common weed killer used on several different crops in the commonwealth, as a possible cause for Parkinson’s Disease. While the EPA has allowed the use of the chemical with some safety restrictions, the agency’s director Lee Zeldin recently announced a review of paraquat that will require companies to prove it is safe to use in real-world scenarios.

Clark’s bill would allow retailers to sell out of their current inventory before the full ban on the sale and use of paraquat would begin in July 2027.

“Virginia’s farmers have many alternatives to manage weeds,” said Scott Faber, an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law and the vice president of the Environmental Working Group. “Farmers in other major agriculture producing countries where paraquat has been banned, like Brazil and Canada, grow all of the same crops as Virginia’s farmers, just without paraquat.”

However, many farmers are against the idea of the ban. They said in Friday’s committee hearing that the alternatives to paraquat are not as effective and would take multiple different substances to remove the weeds, which will add costs to farmers. 

Trey Davis with the Virginia Agribusiness Council said that paraquat is used on an estimated 300,000 acres of state farmland and has required specifications and training for usage.

“Taking away one of these tools via the legislature would undo the sound scientific backed process that we have here in the commonwealth, and would significantly hurt our farmers,” Davis said.

The bill advanced out of the House subcommittee by a narrow vote of 6-5. It now heads to the full House Agriculture Committee for the next debate.

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