A tense Oval Office meeting last week put President Donald Trump in the middle of a clash between Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s team and a top agriculture lobbyist over pesticides, farmers’ health, and the U.S. food supply.
“The confrontation, which one attendee called ‘shocking,’ exposed a sharp fault line in Trump’s coalition — the push by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA movement to reduce conventional pesticides vs. farming interests determined to preserve them,” Axios reported.
Secretary Kennedy and his MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement see pesticides as a product that is making Americans sick, while the farmers largely warn that restricting the use of pesticides would make food prices more expensive for consumers and cost farmers — who are already struggling — billions of dollars.
Trump had planned to sign an executive order later that day to promote alternatives to conventional pesticides and to study their effects, Axios reported. American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall opposed the signing of the order, expressing concern that it would send a signal that would undermine Americans’ confidence in the safety of the U.S. food supply.
Duvall represents more than 5 million farming and ranching members.
South Dakota farmer and former USDA official Jonathan Lundgren was also present at the Oval Office meeting and supported the president’s executive order.
“One of the take-home messages I really wanted [Trump] to understand is that the farmers were sick right now,” Lundgren told Axios. “We’re literally killing our farmers with these food systems.”
“It was intense in there,” Lundgren told Axios. “They were arguing. It was back and forth.”
Axios added that “Lundgren said Duvall’s decision to forcefully confront Trump was ‘shocking,’ and that the president appeared concerned and ‘wanted to understand why Zippy was so worried.'”
“Several other farmers at the meeting echoed Lundgren’s support for regenerative agriculture, a farming approach focused on improving soil health and reducing reliance on pesticides.”
Trump asked aides for their advice on signing the executive order. Ultimately, he decided to sign it. Later, Duvall agreed to support it.
“Mike Tomko, an American Farm Bureau Federation spokesperson, disputed the idea Duvall wasn’t in favor of exploring pesticide alternatives,” Axios reported. “He said Duvall’s concerns about the executive order centered on the ‘insinuation that our food supply is not safe.'”