Reports
Farm Bill
Programs and
the Role of Crop
Protection Tools
Key Insights
Implications for the 2025-2029 Farm Bill in a world without glyphosate:
Commodities
$2.89B
in lost net farm
income per year
income per year
Conservation
33.72M
additional tons
of CO2 per year
of CO2 per year
Nutrition
$1.45B
in additional costs to SNAP
and childhood nutrition
programs per year
and childhood nutrition
programs per year
Crop Insurance
$589.2M
in additional crop
insurance costs per year
insurance costs per year
Explore the Impact
Farmers
Glyphosate is an essential tool farmers use to control weeds and keep yields high. Without glyphosate, input costs would rise and crop yields would fall, squeezing farmers’ already thin margins.
87%
of crop acres
threatened
threatened
Glyphosate is used on 87% of corn, soybean, and cotton acres, and 98% of sugar beet acres.
2-2.5X
increase in
input costs
input costs
Crop protection costs would increase by 2-2.5 times.
$2.89B
lost net
farm income
farm income
Farmers would lose $2.89 billion in annual net farm income due to increased crop protection costs, based on the 2024 cost of production.
Consumers
Without glyphosate, consumers would face rising food prices at the grocery store due to higher production costs.
2.4X
increase in
food inflation
food inflation
Expected food inflation would surge by 2.4 times based on 2025 forecasts.
$10B
increase in
food costs
food costs
This would amount to almost $10 billion per year in added food costs for American households at the grocery store—especially for meat, milk, cheese, fruits and vegetables, and vegetable oils—when applying the report’s conclusions to 2023 USDA food at home spending.
Nutrition
If farmers lost access to glyphosate, production costs would rise, resulting in higher costs to key nutrition programs in the Farm Bill.
4.6B
meals
threatened
threatened
Nutrition programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) provide essential benefits to 42.1 million people every month and serve 4.6 billion meals every year.
$1B
in costs
to SNAP
to SNAP
Higher commodity production costs could add over $1 billion per year in food costs for SNAP, based on an additional one percent increase in CPI food inflation.
$1.8B
increase in
nutrition costs
nutrition costs
Childhood nutrition programs would face $1.8 billion in increased costs over the life of the 2025-2029 Farm Bill, based on an additional 1.9 percent increase in commodity procurement costs.
Crop Insurance
Farmers rely on the Farm Bill’s federal crop insurance program to provide a safety net. Without glyphosate, crop yields could fall and insurance payouts could rise, adding billions in costs to the program.
$3B
saved using
glyphosate
glyphosate
Glyphosate-enabled conservation practices saved the federal crop insurance program almost $3 billion from 2019 to 2023, and a savings of over $1 billion in 2019 alone.
$589M
increase per
year without
glyphosate
year without
glyphosate
Without glyphosate, crop insurance costs are expected to increase by more than $589 million per year over the life of the 2025-2029 Farm Bill, based on the most recent 5-year average.
Environment
Glyphosate is used in many conservation practices like cover cropping and no-till farming, helping to manage weeds with less impact on the environment.
30%
decrease in
carbon
sequestration
carbon
sequestration
Glyphosate-enabled cover cropping increases soil carbon capture by 30% and decreases nutrient losses by up to 17%—key conservation benefits that would be lost without it.
33.72M
additional
tons of CO2
tons of CO2
Without glyphosate, farmers would have to till up to four times more, increasing on-farm fuel emissions by 33.72 million tons of CO2. That’s the equivalent yearly emissions offset by 36.48 million acres of forest.
$632M
in conservation
investments
threatened
investments
threatened
Losing glyphosate would reduce farmers’ ability to engage in no-till farming and cover cropping, undermining the $632 million allocated in the farm bill to support conservation practices.
Our Conclusion
Losing glyphosate would have serious implications for the next farm bill. As farm production costs and food prices surge, policymakers would be forced to consider reducing benefits for nutrition programs and crop insurance, or increase federal spending to account for rising costs.