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How an executive order on glyphosate spawned a full-blown MAHA meltdown
President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a rather wonky executive order that invoked the Defense Production Act to ensure “an adequate supply of elemental phosphorous and glyphosate-based herbicides” in the U.S.
The move was immediately praised by key agriculture industry leaders. Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation lauded the administration “for affirming that food security is national security.”
“Phosphate fertilizers and effective products reviewed and approved by the EPA enable farmers to protect the health of their crops while using fewer natural resources,” Duvall said in a statement.
Kip Tom, a major commodity farmer who served as ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture in the first Trump administration, was also quick to praise the move: “All Americans should be proud of @potus decision to protect critical elements that are essential for our national security.”
It took no time at all for all hell to break loose within MAHA — and in full public view. For many leaders within MAHA, glyphosate is not simply an herbicide that underpins the American agricultural system, but a litmus test: You’re either for radically reducing or even eliminating glyphosate use over growing concerns about cancer and other health issues, or you’re not. And it’s now abundantly clear that the Trump administration is not.
“This move betrays the very MAHA voters who put this administration in power,” said Kelly Ryerson, co-executive director of American Regeneration, key MAHA leader and a longtime critic of glyphosate, in a statement. “It stands in direct opposition to the President’s original promise to address the contribution of pesticides to chronic disease.”
Alex Clark, a conservative wellness influencer affiliated with Turning Point USA, has been documenting the furor on her social channels. “The right is captured by Big Glyphosate,” she wrote Thursday. Clark told the Wall Street Journal: “It feels like MAHA is going through a breakup, or just found out our husband was having an affair.”
Last straw: There were already plenty of signs that MAHA was not going to get traction on reining in glyphosate in any way shape or form with this administration. For starters, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has been deregulating on plenty of issues that MAHA cares about, like PFAS and other contaminants, and he has an industry-friendly stance on pesticides. Perhaps the biggest wake up call came late last year when the Trump administration’s solicitor general urged the Supreme Court to take up German chemical giant Bayer’s push to effectively shut down thousands of lawsuits claiming its glyphosate causes cancer. (Note: Glyphosate used to be made by Monsanto. Bayer bought Monsanto back in 2018.)
MAHA advocates were definitely pissed when this happened, but they could sort of rationalize that perhaps HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had nothing to do with it.
The idea (or perhaps wishful thinking) that Kennedy maybe just wasn’t in the loop was shattered this week when the secretary was quoted in the New York Times fully backing Trump’s executive order on glyphosate.
“Donald Trump’s executive order puts America first where it matters most — our defense readiness and our food supply,” Kennedy said in the statement. “We must safeguard America’s national security first, because all of our priorities depend on it.”
Flip-flop: It’s hard to overstate how big of a flip-flop this is for RFK Jr. Less than a decade ago as a plaintiff’s attorney, Kennedy was part of the legal team that won a $289 million jury verdict against Monsanto in a case that argued the company knew the weedkiller caused cancer.
“The jury found Monsanto acted with malice and oppression because they knew what they were doing was wrong and doing it with reckless disregard for human life,” said Kennedy, at the time. He and others had represented a man who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after using glyphosate on the job as a groundskeeper.
When he was running for president in 2024, Kennedy argued that glyphosate is “one of the likely culprits in America’s chronic disease epidemic” and said his USDA would limit its use, particularly for drying out crops right before harvest.
This post from 2024 resurfaced this week as MAHA allies melted down over what they see as a complete betrayal. “RFK Jr, blink twice if you are being held against your will,” wrote podcaster and MAHA supporter Anna Matson.
Last week, during a podcast interview with RFK Jr., comedian Theo Von raised the topic of glyphosate, and Kennedy spoke at length about his litigation against Monsanto and the various ways the company had downplayed human health risks. Von said he thought it was “crazy” that the product was still on the market.
“It’s a problem because all the row croppers are dependent on it right now,” Kennedy said. “There’s other technology that is emerging right now that actually — I looked at one yesterday it’s a tractor attachment that uses lasers to kill weeds. If they can make that affordable … that will be the answer because they can kill bugs and they can kill weeds.”
“There is a future that we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Kennedy said. “But right now if you banned glyphosate outright it would put out of business 80 percent of our farmers.”
Von replied: “Wow, so we’re kind of dependent upon something that we know makes us sick.”
“Yeah,” Kennedy said. “We are.”
The EPA has long maintained that glyphosate is not a carcinogen and poses no risk to public health when used according to the label. Several other countries have agreed with this assessment. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, however, has classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic.”
Big Food vs. Big Ag: Throughout my reporting on these topics I keep noticing the same theme: The Trump administration leans into the politics of bashing Big Food, but steers clear of ever really criticizing Big Ag. Kennedy often argues that we are being “mass poisoned” by ultra-processed foods and often brings up food additives, GRAS, soda in SNAP and so on. He generally will only touch on pesticides if pressed by the media.
It may be politically easier to take on Big Food (agriculture holds significantly more power on Capitol Hill), but focusing on the food industry while allowing ag to maintain the status quo just isn’t going to fly with the MAHA moms. Sure, many of them fully back the crusade against ultra-processed foods. But they also know that they can choose to not feed ultra-processed foods to their families. What they have far less control over is exposure to chemicals like pesticides, PFAS, microplastics and heavy metals — and they simply do not trust any regulatory agency that may try to assuage their fears.
All of this leaves the Trump administration in a pickle, particularly as Republicans try to bolster their position heading into the midterm elections. The MAHA moms voted for a crackdown. This administration is more often doing the opposite.
About that workout video: Of course, all of this drama came on the heels of Kennedy posting what can only be described as a bizarre workout video with Kid Rock from his official government account — the video was widely mocked and spawned some funny throwback references to Arrested Development. It’s been a weird week!
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What I’m reading
Brooke Rollins’ chief of staff leaves USDA after a year (Politico). “Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins‘ chief of staff, Kailee Tkacz Buller, left the department Thursday,” reports Grace Yarrow. “Tate Bennett, who joined USDA as principal deputy chief of staff last month, is taking over the role effective immediately. She was most recently director of rural policy at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank that Rollins founded in 2021.”
The MAHA coalition is falling apart (New York Times). “It’s been a bumpy year for public health. Even so, last week’s precedent-breaking news that the Food and Drug Administration wouldn’t even bother to consider Moderna’s new mRNA flu vaccine for approval felt like a dark revelation,” David Wallace-Wells writes in an opinion piece. “Maybe none of this should be all that surprising. Under the health and human services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the entire federal public health apparatus was assembled in the spirit of Covid resentment, which, more than any principled program of reform, has been the glue holding an otherwise fractious Make America Healthy Again governing coalition together. Although it draws its name from MAGA, the MAHA coalition has always held itself up as something different — a more coherent project, growing out of deepening public disenchantment with scientific and medical authority and aimed at restoring public trust. This was always a self-aggrandizing mythology.”
RFK Jr.’s next overhaul: America’s baby formula guidelines (Wall Street Journal). “When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. summoned infant-formula executives to Washington last spring, he arrived with a list of questions about seed oils, heavy metals and how U.S. formula stacks up against Europe’s,” reports Sabrina Siddiqui. “Nearly a year later, the administration is unlikely to act on some of the more contentious priorities championed by MAHA activists, such as calling for the removal of seed oils from formula, according to people familiar with the matter. Since launching its review, the first federal effort of its kind in decades, the administration has grappled with the practicalities of overhauling one of the most tightly regulated sectors of the U.S. food industry, the people said.”
Trump’s surgeon general nominee to finally get hearing (The Hill). “Casey Means, Trump’s nominee to be U.S. surgeon general, is scheduled to appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) on Feb. 25,” reports Joseph Choi. “She was originally scheduled to appear virtually before the HELP Committee in October, but this was delayed after she went into labor. Means will appear before the committee in-person next week. Means has close ties to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ agenda, being the sister of White House senior adviser Calley Means. A Stanford Medical School graduate, Means left the surgeon track and did not complete her residency, something others in the public health space have held against her and a criticism Democrats on the committee are likely to pick up on during the hearing.”
Ultraprocessing. Dyes. Sugars. An expert helped me navigate the grocery store. (Boston Globe). “Standing in the store, I peer down at the bag in my hands and feel an unfamiliar sense of optimism. The sourdough-rye snack chips I like are actually not that unhealthy, and arguably don’t even fall into that dreaded category we’ve all heard so much about: ultraprocessed foods,” writes Tal Kopan. “This is according to Jerold Mande, a nutrition expert who happens to be my shopping companion for the day. I should know — I’m a political reporter in the Globe’s Washington bureau who has written some of those headlines and spent the past year and a half covering the rise of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ movement, including its focus on the nutrition and chemicals of our nation’s food. At the same time, as a mother of young kids, I’ve been plagued with self-doubt about my family’s own shopping and eating habits.”
Democrats revive a once-taboo idea: Capping grocery prices (Washington Post). “As voters keep indicating that grocery prices are a top concern, Democrats are exploring a new idea for what the government could do to bring down the cost of food,” writes Julie Z. Weil. “But the proposal itself shows how hard it is to reduce food prices in a politically palatable — or financially feasible — way. On Thursday, the Center for American Progress, a prominent left-leaning think tank that often cultivates policy ideas later adopted by the Democratic Party, proposed a two-year freeze on the prices of 22 food items, such as strawberries and steak. Grocers would voluntarily agree to capping the cost of food in exchange for paying lower fees on credit card transactions, according to the proposal, which was written by a group led by Jared Bernstein, who chaired the White House Council of Economic Advisers during Joe Biden’s presidency.”
Corn refiners respond to troubling, inaccurate coverage in 60 Minutes piece (Corn Refiners). “The Corn Refiners Association, which represents the American corn refining industry and its nearly 10,000 employees, recently submitted a letter to 60 Minutes to express concern with the program’s portrayal of American refined corn products. ‘We respectfully urge you to ensure that future coverage reflects the scientific and regulatory facts regarding these ingredients, food safety, ingredient regulation, and the agricultural economy,’ CRA President and CEO John Bode said in his message to 60 Minutes.”
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