Final week, Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voiced his assist for President Donald Trump’s government order geared toward boosting the manufacturing of glyphosate. That is disappointing for a lot of causes — mainly that the herbicide marketed as Roundup has been deemed a “possible human carcinogen” by the World Well being Group’s Worldwide Company for Analysis on Most cancers.
The Particulars of Trump’s Government Order
Trump’s order, handed February 18, is meant to guard home manufacturing of elemental phosphorus — one of many key substances used to make glyphosate-based herbicides, in addition to sure army units1. It could additionally defend the manufacturing of the herbicides themselves, granting restricted authorized immunity to producers in the event that they’re following federal directives. And it will get much more surprising: the order was handed by invoking the Protection Manufacturing Act, an influence sometimes reserved for wartime emergencies.
On Sunday, Kennedy posted an announcement on social media platform X acknowledging the toxicity of pesticides whereas additionally supporting Trump’s transfer by arguing it was obligatory for nationwide safety and stability2.
“Sadly, our agricultural system relies upon closely on these chemical substances,” he wrote. “I assist President Trump’s Government Order to deliver agricultural chemical manufacturing again to the US and finish our near-total reliance on adversarial nations.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s Reversal on Glyphosate
The transfer is shocking given Kennedy’s previous as an environmental lawyer, significantly in view of his landmark 2018 win towards Monsanto, which produced Roundup earlier than its 2018 acquisition by Bayer. Kennedy secured a $289 million jury verdict towards Monsanto by arguing that the corporate knew concerning the elevated most cancers threat attributable to glyphosate publicity, which contributed to his shopper’s most cancers.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. constructed his political model by holding chemical corporations accountable for poisoning communities. Now he’s defending a federal order designed to speed up manufacturing of the very pesticide he as soon as referred to as harmful,” says EWG President and co-founder Ken Cook dinner. “He has formally traded the well being of America’s youngsters for a seat on the desk of energy.”
MAHA vs. MAGA
For some specialists, this transfer deepens the schism between supporters of Kennedy’s Make America Wholesome Once more platform and the present administration.
“It’s been a 12 months. Not a single factor has been completed by the EPA to cut back our youngsters’s and households publicity to pesticides,” Mothers Throughout America founder Zen Honeycutt, a distinguished MAHA activist, replied to Kennedy’s publish on X. “We love you Bobby however this administration must preserve their phrase.”
In 2014 alone, over 276 million kilos of glyphosate have been sprayed on crops within the U.S., up from 1.4 million in 1974, in accordance with authorities knowledge3. “Within the U.S., no pesticide has come remotely near such intensive and widespread use,” wrote the authors of a 2016 research in Environmental Sciences Europe4.
The Environmental Safety Company’s official stance on glyphosate is that it’s unlikely to be carcinogenic to people when used as directed, although quite a few educational research have linked publicity to the chemical to an elevated threat of lymphoma particularly5.
Sources:
- https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/02/promoting-the-national-defense-by-ensuring-an-adequate-supply-of-elemental-phosphorus-and-glyphosate-based-herbicides/
- https://x.com/SecKennedy/standing/2025760500793909389
- https://www.consumershield.com/articles/glyphosate-usage-trends
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27752438/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31342895/
