The North Carolina House has sent a dramatically slimmed-down Farm Act barreling toward the finish line, approving the latest version in a 110-2 vote Wednesday after stripping out two of last year’s biggest political landmines: a proposed ban on retail raw milk sales and a controversial shield for pesticide manufacturers from some cancer-related lawsuits.
As reported by WRAL, lawmakers spent months reworking the annual agriculture package after bipartisan blowback. The narrower version quietly surfaced late Tuesday, just hours before the House floor vote, with negotiators yanking the most explosive provisions. That retreat earned the bill some fresh Democratic praise and a new round of questions from public-safety advocates who are not exactly packing up their files yet.
What Made The Cut In The New Farm Act
According to the NC General Assembly bill page, the conference report on Senate Bill 401 is still a grab bag of farm-friendly and regulatory changes, even without the headline-grabbing fights.
The package includes a study on how to protect water supplies for agricultural use, repeal of a points system that had been used to punish hog farmers, carveouts for property used for composting and animal-waste processing, and tweaks for the propane industry. It also lowers penalties for illegal shrimping and quietly hands public-school students two extra excused absences if they are headed to livestock shows instead of homeroom.
Pesticide Immunity Fight On Ice
One of last year’s fiercest debates centered on language critics said would have given pesticide makers broad legal cover if they followed federal Environmental Protection Agency labels, potentially cutting off some failure-to-warn lawsuits before they ever reached a jury.
As Carolina Journal reported, that provision sailed through the Senate in 2025 as part of Senate Bill 639. It did not reappear in the House’s SB 401 conference package this week, a notable omission that trial lawyers and environmental advocates had been watching for closely.
Why Roundup Still Looms Over Raleigh
The Roundup saga has been the giant corporate shadow hanging over these talks. Bayer proposed a roughly $7.25 billion settlement in February 2026 to address tens of thousands of cancer claims tied to its flagship weedkiller, on top of roughly $1011 billion in earlier settlements that have weighed on both state and national policy debates.
Those massive legal and financial stakes were repeatedly cited by opponents of the earlier bill language, who argued the pesticide immunity provision would tilt the playing field toward manufacturers and away from people seeking compensation, according to Reuters.
Lawmakers Weigh In
On the House floor, Democratic Rep. Pricey Harrison did not hide her relief that the most controversial items were gone. She told WRAL, “This is a much better bill than what was initially filed.”
Harrison still opposed a provision that exempts some agricultural buildings from certain building-code requirements, warning that loosening standards could invite disaster. She pointed back to the massive 2022 fertilizer-plant fire in Winston-Salem as a cautionary tale of what can happen when things go wrong around industrial materials.
Rep. Jimmy Dixon, the Republican lead negotiator on the bill, struck a very different tone. He said he knew of “no opposition to any particular section” in the revised measure, a claim that underscored how broadly the conference report was embraced on the floor despite some lingering pockets of concern.
What Happens Next
With the conference report adopted and the 110-2 House vote recorded on June 10, the Farm Act is now teed up for enrollment and presentation to the governor, according to the NC General Assembly bill history.
If Gov. Josh Stein signs the measure, the various studies and regulatory changes will start to roll out, with the nuts and bolts likely worked out through agency rulemaking and any follow-up legislation lawmakers decide they still need. For now, though, the raw milk fight and the pesticide immunity battle are on the sidelines, not in the statute books.
