WASHINGTON – Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is standing firm in his defense of a White House executive order to ramp up production of the weedkiller glyphosate.
That’s the very herbicide Kennedy once condemned in court as a “probable carcinogen.”
Now the Trump administration is treating this toxic pesticide as if it were a matter of national defense. And it’s invoking the Defense Production Act, a power typically reserved for wartime emergencies, as justification.
Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in American agriculture. It has been linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma in thousands of lawsuits that have cost manufacturers tens of billions of dollars.
As a trial lawyer, Kennedy in 2018 helped secure a landmark $289 million jury verdict against Monsanto, arguing the company knew glyphosate exposure increased cancer risk.
But the chemical he once portrayed as a poison is now being framed as essential infrastructure that’s “critical to national security.”
The following is a statement from EWG President and co-Founder Ken Cook:
This isn’t a policy adjustment, it’s a total surrender to the chemical industry.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. built his political brand by holding chemical companies accountable for poisoning communities. Now he is defending a federal order designed to accelerate production of the very pesticide he once called dangerous.
He has officially traded the health of America’s children for a seat at the table of power.
The rationale for liability protection Kennedy is now championing for a weed killer he considers carcinogenic, and is found in most Americans, is remarkably similar to the rationale for liability protection for vaccine manufacturers that he has vehemently opposed.
It’s just another glaring example of Kennedy’s betrayal of his professed values and the long-held positions he used to sell MAHA supporters on voting for Trump.
One important difference between the administration’s approach to vaccines and glyphosate is that no compensation mechanism will be offered to people injured by glyphosate after Monsanto/Bayer is shielded from liability.
In the face of an administration that habitually never shows its work, the public has a right to know what plans the administration has implemented to advance the ‘emerging technology’ Kennedy mentions. Where are those plans? Who is developing them? Does the Agriculture Department agree glyphosate should be phased out – is that the formal position of the Trump administration?
To the concerned parents who put their trust in his promise to ‘clean up the food supply,’ this is the ultimate betrayal.
The real national security crisis is not a temporary disruption to glyphosate supply. It’s the epidemic of chronic disease devastating American children. It's the cancer clusters in agricultural communities that RFK Jr. himself acknowledges.
It's a food system so saturated with pesticides that the U.S. uses 25% of global pesticides, despite being 4% of the world's population.
If anyone still wondered whether ‘Make America Healthy Again’ was a genuine commitment to public health or a scam concocted by President Trump and RFK Jr. to rally health-conscious voters in 2024, the administration’s ramping up the use of glyphosate answers that question.
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The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.
