A room for every Iowan the poison has touched.
Iowa has the second-highest cancer rate in the country, and it's one of the only states where that rate is still rising. On October 24, 2026, farmers, families, researchers, and policy leaders get in a room, online, to organize around what happens next. No preset speakers. No fixed agenda. You help build the day.
It started with a bicycle ride.
In 2015 and 2016, a cyclist camped in fields across Iowa on a cross-country ride. A decade later he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and the research pointed straight back at what got sprayed along that route. He filmed dead soil as content. He didn't know he was breathing the cause.
That's the origin of this project. It isn't the point of it. The point is everyone else up and down those same fields, farmers, spouses, former ag workers, who's been carrying a version of that story alone for years, wondering if anyone else in Iowa carries it too.
Paraquat and Parkinson's might be the smaller problem.
Paraquat is manufactured primarily by Syngenta, with Chevron named as a co-defendant over its historical role distributing the chemical. Both are defendants in MDL 3004, a federal multidistrict litigation before Chief Judge Nancy Rosenstengel in the Southern District of Illinois, where more than 6,600 cases allege paraquat exposure caused Parkinson's disease. The court approved a qualified settlement fund in March 2026. That claim window is not going to stay open indefinitely.
But Iowa's second-highest cancer rate in the country, one of only a few states where it's still rising, is the larger version of this same question. The Iowa Cancer Registry projects 21,700 new cases in 2026 alone, across 87 of the state's 99 counties. Litigation over the chemicals implicated in that hasn't started the way paraquat's has. In February 2026, the administration invoked the Defense Production Act to grant new liability protections to glyphosate producers, Bayer chief among them, while more than 60,000 Roundup-related cancer lawsuits already move through the courts. What that shield actually blocks is still being tested.
Iowa builds the day, not us.
An Open Space unConference for the farmers, families, researchers, and policy leaders this has touched. No preset speakers, no fixed agenda. You help build the day.
The record, so far
Structured, thirty minute conversations with the people who live closest to this question, recorded as the route gets retraced through Iowa in 2026, alongside the exposure mapping and legal record behind the project. The aim is the same every time: honest testimony, transparent data, and a next step, not just a sympathetic ear.
Impacted Iowans and families
People who worked or lived beside these fields and got sick, or lost someone to it. A space for testimony and a next step, not just sympathy.
Farmers and ag community members
Transparent data and an open conversation about viable ecological and economic alternatives, built to avoid finger pointing.
Researchers and scientists
A venue to put peer-reviewed data on the record and connect with regional citizen science projects taking shape on the ground.
Advocacy and policy leaders
A way to turn ground-level testimony into something that can actually move policy.
Retroactive exposure mapping
The 2015 to 2016 cycling route logs, cross-referenced against state GIS spatial mapping, FOIA public records, and Iowa pesticide licensing databases, to verify specific chemical application windows along the route.
The replicable blueprint
A standardized legal and forensic framework, built from this process, that other exposed cyclists, farmworkers, and rural residents can use to document their own exposure history.
The litigation, on the record
Paraquat, manufactured primarily by Syngenta with Chevron named as a co-defendant, is the subject of MDL 3004, before Chief Judge Nancy Rosenstengel in the Southern District of Illinois. More than 6,600 cases are pending. The court approved a qualified settlement fund in March 2026. No final settlement has been reached.
What the research says
Restricted-use herbicides such as paraquat are linked in peer-reviewed scientific literature to elevated risk of neurodegenerative conditions, including Parkinson's disease. This investigation treats that literature as a starting point for tracing specific, local exposure, not as the end of the story.
Have you been sick since you worked this ground?
Have you lost someone the poison took?
Have you carried this alone, wondering if anyone else in Iowa carries it too?
You're invited to a gathering of the people of Iowa touched by the poison. Not a conference where you sit and listen, but a room where you organize, together, around what you need to do next. Bring your own passion and energy for how this has affected you, and for how we could collaborate to address it. It runs as an Open Space unConference: no preset speakers, no fixed agenda. The people who show up build the day together during the opening hour.
Impacted Iowans and families
A chance for validation, shared testimony, and practical next steps.
Farmers and ag community members
Access to transparent data, open dialogue, and viable ecological and economic alternatives.
Researchers and scientists
A venue for presenting peer-reviewed data and coordinating regional citizen science projects.
Advocacy and policy leaders
A path for translating ground-level community testimony into actionable policy traction.
This isn't built around speakers, but it's fair to want to know who's already planning to be in the room.
Nothing here is a fixed agenda, it's just a spark. Registrants are asked ahead of time what they want to talk about, and those topics shape the opening hour.
Paraquat, Parkinson's, and the closing MDL claim window
Glyphosate, cancer, and the new liability shield
Water quality tracking and the Cancer Tracking Working Group
What organizing looks like after the lawsuits
A participant driven gathering with no preset speakers or fixed agenda, where attendees build the schedule during the opening hour to work directly on local problems and solutions.
No fixed agenda
Participants build the schedule during the opening hour, so the conversations reflect whatever the community needs most right now.
Emergent topics and dialogue
Anyone can propose a discussion, ask a pressing question, or present field research live on site.
A collaborative atmosphere
Built to avoid finger pointing. Farmers and ag community members are welcomed in to explore practical alternatives without feeling accused.
Long-term citizen networks
Post-event channels connect citizen scientists, researchers, and local organizers for ongoing environmental and health monitoring.