How Abusive Preemption Undermines Rural Democracy and What We Can Do About It
As we approach the anniversary of the first 100 days of the second Trump administration on April 29th, we have seen corporate power over the government reach unprecedented levels. While corporate capture of policymaking is not new, the influence of big business is now more blatant than ever in a system already built to benefit corporate bottom lines.
For decades, large corporations have built power in state legislatures, usually at the expense of local communities. One of the primary tools they have used for their benefit are preemption laws—sweeping measures that prevent local governments from enacting regulations on vital issues. These laws have also become increasingly common at the federal level, which invalidate laws at all levels of government below and are often modeled on state-level preemption laws.
Preemption has long been used to both help and harm rural communities. Traditionally, it ensured uniform state laws and allowed local governments to build on minimum standards, like state civil rights laws that set a floor to prevent abuse rather than a ceiling to limit reform. However, in recent years, corporate interests have increasingly exploited preemption to override local control.
Much of rural America has been shaped by “abusive” preemption laws pushed by agribusiness, energy companies, and other corporate interests in profound ways. These laws have allowed corporations to exploit land and resources and tied the hands of county or local governments. Preemption laws have also been leveraged by corporate-backed religious extremists to push culture war issues. A notable example is North Carolina’s 2016 HB2, the first-in-the-nation “bathroom bill,” which restricted transgender people from using public restrooms aligning with their gender identity. This law also blocked local governments from enacting anti-discrimination ordinances.
Many of these abusive preemption measures have been pioneered in rural states, where corporations and extremists exploit economic anxieties to stoke divisions, using racial and cultural divides as wedges to advance their true political goal: total control through resource concentration.
The Agribusiness industry has been particularly successful at replicating this preemption strategy in multiple states, often disguising these policies as “pro-farmer” while the real beneficiaries are corporate shareholders. One of the earliest abusive agricultural preemption laws, Iowa’s HF519 in 1995, eliminated the ability of communities to have local control in the siting or regulation of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), also known as factory farms. Thirty years later, Iowa leads the nation in number of hogs, and its pork industry interests are booming. As these interests of consolidated agribusiness blossomed, the state lost thousands of family farmers, its rural poverty increased, and it came to lead the nation in water pollution from agricultural runoff. Iowa faces the fastest rising cancer rate and the second highest total incidence of cancer in the country, and the higher-than-average use of glyphosate alongside nitrates in drinking water likely contributes to the state’s illness epidemic.
The latest battleground for preemption laws is the pesticide industry, which has been pushing for state-level legislation known as "Bayer bills" because of its connection to the German agrochemical giant Bayer (which bought Monsanto in 2018). Model legislation, introduced in four states in 2024 and expanded to eight states in 2025, would prevent legal action against manufacturers of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides for their health and environmental impacts. Major chemical companies, including Bayer and Syngenta, have poured millions into lobbying for these laws, despite mounting evidence linking their products to serious health conditions like cancer and Parkinson's disease. In response, state legislators in Iowa (where the bill was introduced in 2024 and 2025) are building a grassroots movement of farmers and rural community members to oppose these policies.
In a recent victory, Iowa’s Bayer bill was defeated in Iowa after it failed to receive enough votes in the House. This is an example of co-governance, where grassroots power works in tandem with legislators, working to protect the basic welfare of the people. Bayer and other chemical companies have conducted a years-long lobbying and information campaign to control the narrative, arguing that these bills would actually protect farmers—in reality, the legislation benefits their bottom line at the expense of independent farmers, public health, and rural communities. For more information about this legislation and different approaches to it, see SiX’s toolkit on the topic.
A central reason as to why corporations have been particularly successful at passing abusive preemption policies is that rural communities often face structural barriers to advocacy while corporate lobbyists maintain a constant presence in every statehouse across the nation. Everyday citizens struggle to have their voices heard while lobbyists have mostly unlimited access to legislatures across the country. However, state legislators can resist industry influence by listening to the voices of rural residents and advocating for policies that protect communities, not corporations.
Actions You Can Take to Combat Abusive Preemption:
- Make It Clear: It’s Us (The People) Versus Them (Corporations and Oligarchs) — Working-class people across the United States and world, urban and rural, conservative and liberal, have a lot in common. Corporations, industries, and the rich that exploit our resources and amass wealth from our labor do not share our interests. Our fight is with them, not with each other.
- Strengthen Local Control Over Land Use and Agriculture – Advocate for policies that restore the power of county and municipal governments to regulate corporations in their own communities.
- Organize Against Industry-Backed Preemption Laws – Support grassroots movements opposing preemption bills like the "Bayer bill" by inviting rural community members to share their stories and testify, countering corporate narratives.
- Increase Legislative Engagement in Rural Areas – Go to where the people are. Hold listening sessions in rural communities to document the impacts of preemption laws, amplify concerns about corporate influence, and build coalitions across political divides.
- Expose the Role of Corporate Lobbying – Investigate and publicize the financial ties between agribusiness, chemical companies, and lawmakers who push preemption bills, making clear who benefits and who suffers from these policies.
- Support Family Farmers and Rural Economies – Invest in small farms, sustainable agriculture, and fair economic opportunities to counteract the consolidation of corporate power in rural America.
A sustainable and equitable agricultural future depends on shifting power away from corporate interests and back to the people. This moment requires coordinated, collective action against corporate dominance by rooting in shared values and community-based solutions. By working in a collaborative governance stance, state legislators, alongside rural communities, can resist corporate overreach and challenge abusive preemption policies.
If you are a state legislator interested in working on preemption issues in rural communities, please contact the SiX Agriculture and Food Systems program at agriculture@stateinnovation.org.