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# High pesticide-use counties often have higher-than-average late-stage cancer rates
- URL: https://www.investigatemidwest.org/high-pesticide-use-counties-often-have-higher-than-average-late-stage-cancer-rates/
- Published: 2026-03-16T15:19:16.000Z
- Updated: 2026-03-16T15:19:16.000Z
- Description: Glyphosate data analysis shows connection to most aggressive forms of cancer across the nation’s agricultural heartland.
- Author: Ben Felder, Investigate Midwest
- Tags: Health, Environment, Data Harvest, agriculture, Bayer AG, cancer, pesticides and cancer, cancer cluster, cancer data accuracy, cancer rates in Iowa, data analysis, epidemiology, TP::Explainer, farming communities, health disparities, Iowa, late-stage cancer, Midwest, Monsanto, North Dakota, North Dakota farming, pesticide, pesticide access for farmers, pesticide exposure, pesticides-and-cancer-2026, Pesticides, public health, rural health, toxic chemicals, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-06-18 04:56

Seventy-one percent of counties that spray the most glyphosate have late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma incidence rates above the national average, [according to a new data analysis from the advocacy group Food and Water Watch](https://www.investigatemidwest.org/content/files/www-foodandwaterwatch-org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2603%5Frb%5Fglyphosatecancerclusters.pdf).

Last month, Investigate Midwest, in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s StoryReach U.S. Fellowship, [published an investigation](https://www.investigatemidwest.org/pesticide-use-and-cancer-risk-rise-together-across-americas-heartland/) that found 60% of the top 500 counties for pesticide use had overall cancer rates above the national average.

Food and Water Watch’s data analysis, which also found that most high-pesticide-use counties had cancer rates above the national average, included late-stage diagnosis, the stage of many plaintiffs who have sued large agricultural companies over cancer diagnoses.

The analysis looked at the top 20% of counties for glyphosate use and found that most were in the upper Midwest. Nearly three out of four of those counties had late-stage cancer rates higher than the national average.

Nearly 100,000 lawsuits have been settled by pesticide makers, most by Bayer, the maker of Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide.

“A lot of the strongest cases that are able to make it into litigation are the more aggressive, late-stage (cases),” Amanda Starbuck, a researcher with Food & Water Watch, told Investigate Midwest.