President Donald Trump is investing in regenerative agriculture to appease the Make America Healthy Again base ahead of the midterm elections, a move that follows a disastrous blow to the movement’s anti-pesticide goals from the Supreme Court.Trump signed a sweeping executive order on Thursday to increase investment from the departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture in regenerative agriculture, a set of farming practices that reduces dependence on pesticides and chemical fertilizers to improve ecosystem health.The order came just hours after the Supreme Court sided with the pharmaceutical company Bayer in a landmark case shielding the company from liability for failing to warn that the herbicide glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup, may cause cancer.
The decision was a massive loss for the MAHA base of the GOP, which blames glyphosate for not only rising cancer rates among agriculture workers but also the increase in gluten intolerance and other metabolic dysfunction problems.Each year, roughly 280 million pounds of glyphosate are sprayed on nearly 300 million acres of farmland, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to its use as a weed killer, glyphosate is also used as a crop desiccant, in which farmers spray glyphosate on grain crops to make harvesting more efficient.The executive order directs HHS and the EPA to examine the health effects of glyphosate in the food supply, marking the first action the White House has taken specifically targeting the potential negative consequences of heavy glyphosate use in U.S. agriculture.Jennifer Galardi, senior policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation’s Restoring American Wellness initiative, told the Washington Examiner the executive order “is commendable and exciting” and should be seen as a win for the MAHA movement.“It’s an important step in understanding the connection between our food supply and chronic disease and solidifies the historic partnership across agencies in this administration,” Galardi said. “The farmers in America are talking and this administration is listening.” Glyphosate and the Trump administration
