Draft MAHA Strategy Report Shows No Pesticide Restrictions

By Ryan Hanrahan

The New York Times’ Dani Blum, Benjamin Mueller, and Alice Callahan reported that “a highly anticipated White House report on the health of American children would stop short of proposing direct restrictions on ultraprocessed foods and pesticides that the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has called major threats, according to a draft of the document that was reviewed by The New York Times.”

“The report, if adopted, would be good news for the food and agriculture industries, which feared far more restrictive proposals than the ones outlined in the draft,” Blum, Mueller and Callahan reported. “Through his ‘Make America Healthy Again’ movement, Mr. Kennedy has sought to overhaul the nation’s diet by pushing those industries to make major changes.”

“The draft report says that environmental regulators will work with ‘food and agricultural stakeholders’ to ensure that the public is aware of and confident in existing pesticide review procedures. It described those procedures as ‘robust’ and did not propose new restrictions,” Blum, Mueller and Callahan reported. “It also says the Trump administration will back research on technologies to try to help farmers reduce pesticide use and on the health effects of Americans’ cumulative exposure to chemicals.”

“The draft reviewed by The Times does not mention how the proposed research and the new policy initiatives would be funded or how much money might be allocated to them,” Blum, Mueller and Callahan reported.

“The Times obtained the draft of the new report from a former federal official. An industry official confirmed that it was nearly identical to a copy the administration had recently shown the official at the White House,” Blum, Mueller and Callahan reported. “Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, on Thursday would not verify the draft. At this stage, any draft would go through a number of revisions before it is finalized. The document The Times reviewed was labeled ‘pre-decisional’ and dated Aug. 6.”

White House has Previously Said No Pesticide Restrictions

Politico Pro’s Grace Yarrow and Rachel Shin reported in mid-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. The MAHA Commission’s decision to issue a report detailing the problems with pesticide use and criticizing the industry has sown widespread distrust among agriculture lobbyists, who argue it gave the impression that U.S. food products are not safe.”

Official MAHA Strategy Report Release Remains Delayed

The Hill’s Joseph Choi reported that “the anticipated release of the second report by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission has been delayed as the White House says scheduling will take some time. The second MAHA report was expected to be released this week, but the White House said the paper would be submitted by its Aug. 12 deadline, with some scheduling still needing to be coordinated.”

“‘Following a robust interagency process involving extensive stakeholder feedback, the MAHA Commission is on track to submit its Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy report to the President on August 12th,’ White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement,” according to Choi’s reporting. “‘The report will be unveiled to the public shortly thereafter as we coordinate the schedules of the President and the various cabinet members who are a part of the Commission,’ Desai said.”

Draft Report only Mentions Ultraprocessed Foods Once

Blum, Mueller, and Callahan reported that “ultraprocessed foods, which make up about 62 percent of the calories consumed by U.S. children, are explicitly mentioned in the draft of the second report only once, in a line about the administration’s effort to define them. The near-omission of ultraprocessed foods from the draft report raises questions about the administration’s appetite for regulation, which the food industry is likely to vehemently oppose.”

“The draft does describe prioritizing ‘whole, healthy’ foods in federal programs like those providing meals in schools,” Blum, Mueller and Callahan reported. “It suggests offering these foods in ‘MAHA boxes’ for food stamp recipients.”

Draft MAHA Strategy Report Shows No Pesticide Restrictions was originally published by Farmdoc.