MAHA Report Will ‘Respect’ Glyphosate Safety, EPA Official Says

by Ryan Hanrahan

Progressive Farmer’s Jerry Hagstrom reported that “the initial Make America Healthy Again Commission report said glyphosate and other pesticides may have a negative impact on children’s health, but the upcoming MAHA report on recommendations for action will ‘continue to respect regulatory frameworks’ that have found glyphosate is safe, a high-ranking Environmental Protection Agency official said here Tuesday at the American Sugar Alliance’s International Sweetener Symposium.”

“The MAHA Commission is chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has said for years that crop protection tools damage children’s health. However, Nancy Beck, the EPA deputy administrator in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Protection, noted that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins are members of the commission,” Hagstrom reported. “The cane and beet growers, who make up the American Sugar Alliance, and other farmers have been worried the MAHA Commission might recommend banning glyphosate or at least restricting its use.”

“Beck, a political appointee with long experience in government and the private sector, said that she could not share the contents of the report, which is expected to come out shortly, but ‘we know pesticides are vital tools. We are going to get you those tools at the same time we protect children’s health,’” Hagstrom reported. “Farm leaders criticized the first MAHA report for not including input from producers, but Beck noted that the White House held meetings with farm leaders prior to the writing of the second report.”

“‘The science is still telling us that glyphosate is safe,’ Beck said, and EPA will continue to say that glyphosate is safe ‘until the weight of scientific evidence shifts,’” Hagstrom reported.

Deputy Ag Secretary Says Ag Will be Reflected in Report

Agri-Pulse’s Oliver Ward and Steve Davies reported that “Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden said Monday that U.S. ag will see its voice reflected in the second Make America Healthy Again Commission report, slated for release later this month.”

“‘I think that you will see when the second commission report is issued that you were heard and that you influenced the result,’ Vaden said during the American Sugar Alliance’s International Sweetener Symposium in Traverse City, Michigan,” Ward and Davies reported. “…’The team was intentional on engaging stakeholders from across the agricultural value chain,’ he told those at the symposium.

“Above all, Vaden stressed that the administration wants to see more U.S.-grown products on Americans’ plates,” Ward and Davies reported. “‘We have the most efficient, the most sustainable and the safest food supply the world has ever seen,’ Vaden said. ‘So making America healthy begins with making what’s on America’s plate American again.’”

White House Has Previously Stressed No Limiting of Pesticide Use

Politico Pro’s Grace Yarrow and Rachel Shin reported earlier in July that “Trump administration officials say the White House has no plans to crack down on pesticides in farming, despite a report led by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that called crop protection chemicals a danger to people’s health.”

“Agriculture industry lobbyists have been pushing back in meetings with White House officials against the Make America Healthy Again report, which linked pesticides to cancer and other diseases and slammed the chemical industry’s influence on toxicology studies,” Yarrow and Shin reported. “A plan for acting on that report, due in August, will not include new policy around pesticide use, a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told POLITICO.”

“The White House has conveyed a similar message to farm groups, according to the official and two other people familiar with the conversations, who were also granted anonymity to discuss details,” Yarrow and Shin reported. “The promise signals the White House’s eagerness to smooth over tensions with farm groups that have traditionally allied with President Donald Trump but felt alienated by Kennedy’s plans to overhaul the nation’s food supply.”