Trump Officials Balk at RFK Jr.’s Attack on Pesticides

The EU has much more stringent restrictions on farming, the food chain and additives. Glyophostate (ergo Roundup) is legal in most countries with some specific restrictions on it's use.

RFK continues to be a loose cannon. Messing up the global food chain could cause millions of deaths from starvation. But that's the worst case...haha.

Trump Officials Balk at RFK Jr.’s Attack on Pesticides

Some fear disruptions to the food supply chain

By Kristina Peterson, Josh Dawsey and Liz Essley Whyte, WSJ

• Robert Kennedy Jr.’s report on pesticides faces pushback over potential food supply chain disruption.

• The report highlights the impact of pesticides, singling out glyphosate and atrazine as problematic toxins.

• Trump officials are reviewing the report, while farm groups lobby against it, citing research on pesticide safety.

WASHINGTON—A bid by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to label pesticides as a potential cause of U.S. health woes has attracted pushback from some White House and agency officials who are concerned the move would disrupt the food supply chain, according to people familiar with the debate.

Kennedy, who is spearheading a coming report to “Make America Healthy Again,” wants to highlight what he views as the deleterious impact of pesticides, people familiar with the matter said. He previously campaigned on removing pesticides from the food supply.

White House officials have raised concerns about the pesticide push and are closely reviewing the coming report, the people said, though it wasn’t clear where President Trump himself stood on the issue. And some officials at the Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates pesticides, and Agriculture Department have cast doubt on Kennedy’s desire to cast weedkillers as harmful to health.

Trump pledged on the campaign trail to investigate pesticides as part of an effort to win support from Kennedy’s backers.

“Millions and millions of Americans who want clean air, clean water and a healthy nation have concerns about toxins in our environment and pesticides in our food,” Trump said at an Arizona rally with Kennedy in August, pledging to establish a panel of experts to work with Kennedy to investigate the causes of chronic health diseases.

The report, due to be released May 22 in an event with Kennedy and MAHA influencers, is an overview of potential causes of chronic disease in children, including food, lack of exercise, use of technology and time spent looking at screens, pesticides, and the medical system.

MAHA movement leaders are expected to preview the report at a Washington event Thursday.

In particular, the report is expected to single out glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, the most widely used weedkiller in the world, made by Bayer, people familiar with the planning said. The report is also expected to call out atrazine, a herbicide used on grasses and corn, as possible problematic toxins, the people said. Glyphosate is controversial abroad, but can still be used in the European Union, which no longer permits the use of atrazine.

“HHS, EPA, USDA and other federal partners are working closely to ensure the final report reflects gold standard science and practical considerations that will Make America Healthy Again,” a Health Department spokesman said.

“The MAHA Commission’s first report for President Trump will be a landmark assessment of what we know about the causes of America’s chronic disease crisis and what we need further research on,” said a White House spokesman.

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President Trump’s nominee for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., faced pointed questions from Democrats on his stance on vaccines and other issues. WSJ’s Kristina Peterson breaks down his confirmation hearing performance. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg News

Kennedy adviser Calley Means has helped coordinate much of the report, people familiar with the matter said, along with others. Means wrote about the dangers of pesticides in a book he co-wrote with his sister, surgeon general nominee Casey Means.

“You literally have these folks, including the farm industry, saying we don’t have enough research to take this poison out of the food,” Calley Means said on Donald Trump Jr. podcast in late April, but also added: “Pesticides are complicated. We’ve got to support the American farmer.”

Food influencer Vani Hari, who is close to Kennedy and Calley Means, said the MAHA report would represent the Trump administration “declaring war on these industries that are poisoning us.”

“There are people fighting to make sure that the truth gets included in the report and that it does not get watered down by any conflicts of interest,” she said.

Hari said the report would address topics such as substances sprayed on crops, heavy metals, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, air and water pollution, and ultra-processed foods.

One official involved in the discussions is Nancy Beck, according to people familiar with the discussion. Beck is a principal deputy assistant administrator at the EPA who previously worked for the American Chemistry Council, a group that has backed the safety of glyphosate.

“The Trump administration is working to solve big problems,” an EPA spokesperson said, while acknowledging “robust conversations” across the government. “President Trump made a fantastic choice in selecting Dr. Nancy Beck to work at EPA given her extensive civil service career.”

Farm and food groups are lobbying against parts of the report in meetings with White House officials, people familiar with the matter said.

Illinois farmer and National Corn Growers Association President Kenneth Hartman Jr. expressed concern that “the MAHA report will ignore the extensive research and testing on pesticides and cast doubt on the safe use of these technologies.”

More than 90% of soybean, corn and cotton crops planted in the U.S. are genetically modified to withstand glyphosate-based weedkiller, according to the Agriculture Department. American farmers apply almost 300 million pounds of glyphosate to their fields each year, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Trump appointees at the Agriculture Department are concerned about the report’s characterization of pesticides, a person familiar with the matter said, but was unclear what stance Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has taken.

A USDA spokesman said Rollins is working with Kennedy “to execute the president’s agenda alongside other members of the MAHA commission.”

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Trump called for the MAHA report in a February executive order, which specified looking into the potential threat posed by “certain chemicals.” The Make America Healthy Again Commission, which Kennedy chairs, is set to release a policy strategy in August based on the findings of the initial report.

Kennedy sued over pesticides in his past career as an environmental litigator. He helped win an initial $289 million verdict in 2018 against Monsanto, then the maker of Roundup, for a groundskeeper who developed cancer and said he wasn’t warned properly about the herbicide’s risks.

A Bayer spokesman said glyphosate is safe and has been tested extensively.

A branch of the World Health Organization said in 2015 that glyphosate was “probably carcinogenic to humans.” But its defenders note the U.S. EPA has said the weedkiller doesn’t cause cancer.