Kennedy Targets Farm Policy, Has Plans

23 Oct 2024

OMAHA (DTN) -- Missouri farmer Blake Hurst is surprised that American farm groups aren't pushing back on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s assertions that agriculture is destroying America's health.

Kennedy has taken on a larger role in former President Donald Trump's campaign, as Kennedy vows to rewrite rules for agriculture by banning more crop-protection tools and rewriting the country's dietary guidelines.

"Current ag policy is destroying America's health on every level," Kennedy declared last week on a social media video in which he stood outside USDA's headquarters in Washington. Kennedy laid out what he would be pushing in the Trump administration to "Make America Healthy Again."

Talking about current farm policy, Kennedy said, "It also destroys the health of America's soil and water by tilting the playing field in favor of more chemicals, more herbicides, more insecticides, more concentrated monocropping and feedlots, and finally, it destroys the health of consumers."

Kennedy added, "When Donald Trump gets me inside the building I'm standing outside of right now, it won't be this way anymore. American agriculture will come roaring back and so will Americans' health."

Kennedy then said a new Trump administration is going to change the rules and "give farmers an off-ramp from the current system that destroys their health, wrecks the soil, makes Americans sick and destroys family farms."

Trump has said repeatedly recently that Kennedy will have a role in the administration if Trump is elected. "Everybody likes Bobby Kennedy. And he's so big into the health food and women things. Everything. He wants to do things in the environment."

Hurst, a former president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, wrote an op-ed criticizing some of Kennedy's views. In an interview with DTN, Hurst said he's not surprised farm leaders are being quiet about Kennedy's plans for farmers.

"Everything is so tribal," Hurst said. "We're in the Trump tribe and we don't want to criticize it. Trump did it so it has to be good, right? The second thing is there's an assumption we're supposed to take him (Kennedy) figuratively and not literally."

Hurst said he believes one of Trump's biggest successes economically in his first term was the administration's entire emphasis on deregulation.

"And I think you can draw a direct line from those efforts to the performance of the economy," Hurst said. "Some of the things RFK Jr. is talking about will lead in the other direction. Rather, it would be a 180-degree turn from the first term, so that has to be concerning."

Rod Snyder, a former EPA agricultural adviser in the Biden administration and a supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, said regulatory decisions on issues such as pesticide registrations involve a great deal of science and experts whose missions are to protect public health and the environment. Snyder said he's concerned Kennedy would set aside expert analysis for his own opinions.

"There's a huge risk to American agriculture if he ends up in a leadership role, and it just feels like it needs to be said out loud," Snyder said.

BANNING CROP PROTECTION TOOLS

A key claim Kennedy has made is that the next Trump administration would get tougher on banning farm chemicals.

"We're going to ban the worst agricultural chemicals that are already prohibited in other countries," Kennedy stated in the video posted on social platform X last week.

During his run for president, Kennedy said he would "weaponize" federal agencies to restrict farm chemicals.

DTN reached out to CropLife America about Kennedy's comments but did not receive a response.

OTHER TRUMP AND ALLY VIEWS

Kennedy's positions also run counter to the Trump campaign's responses to the American Farm Bureau Federation questionnaire on agriculture in which the former president said he would reverse Biden-Harris regulations.

"I will slash regulations that stifle American agriculture and make everything more expensive. I will implement transparency and common sense in rulemaking."

In describing plans for the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Trump's campaign stated to AFBF, "A Trump Administration will empower farmers and ranchers to be free of excessive regulations and be the most productive on their land."

Trump's campaign also championed access to biotechnology and included language in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to expand access to biotechnology and eliminate non-scientific barriers.

In the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 plan, the report criticizes the Biden administration for a "top-down, coercive approach" that the plan said is making energy more expensive through regulatory fiat. "This approach also has been applied to pesticides and chemicals as the Biden administration pushes the 'greening' of agriculture and manufacturing among other industrial activities."

Project 2025 calls for rolling back regulations with more limited government involvement and streamlining the risk evaluations for new chemical products. The plan also calls for reforming the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to consider beneficial effects of pesticides. The report suggests current ESA restrictions on pesticides leave growers with limited crop protection tools.

BIG VS. SMALL

Kennedy also sounds like Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, defending small farmers rather than "get big or get out" policies. "Big corporate farms are doing just fine, but small and medium farmers are squeezed to the point of collapse," Kennedy stated in the video on X.

Kennedy added, "We're going to rewrite regulations to give smaller operators a break."

Vilsack frequently talks about the loss of smaller farmers and the need to better support them, often pointing out that the country has lost more than 544,000 farmers since 1981. Vilsack often highlights the need to provide farmers with more ways to make money.

"I think it's important to support production agriculture," Vilsack said at an event in Omaha back in July. "We need to continue to do that for sure, and that's really important. But at the same time, can we be smart enough to create a companion program so that those small and midsize folks are benefiting from multiple sources of income?"

PUSH FOR REGENERATIVE AG

Kennedy said the next Trump presidency would focus on regenerative agriculture.

"We're going to encourage sustainable, regenerative farming that can build soils and replenish aquifers," Kennedy said.

Despite criticism from Republicans in Congress, USDA under Vilsack is spending $3.1 billion on 135 Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities projects meant to enroll as many as 25 million acres. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) also provided $19.5 billion to USDA conservation programs.

Kennedy said he had seen what some of the country's best regenerative farmers are doing. "They can literally green deserts, they rebuild depleted soils. Wells that have been dry for 30 years start flowing again. They re-heal the land, and some of them make a very good living doing it."

DIETARY GUIDELINES AND COOKING OIL

Kennedy also said corporations "hijack" the U.S. dietary guidelines, a complaint that health advocates have frequently raised over the years. Kennedy said the Trump administration would remove conflicts of interest from USDA dietary panels and commissions. He said this influence has helped drive more Americans to eat ultra-processed foods instead of natural foods.

Several agricultural trade groups rail on proposed changes to dietary guidelines. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association, for instance, criticized the advisory committee for suggesting consumers replace beef with more beans, peas or lentils. That same advisory committee this week declined to make recommendations on ultra-processed foods, pointing to a lack of studies on the issue.

Kennedy cites that "seed oils are one of the driving causes of the obesity epidemic," pointing to McDonald's making a shift from frying in beef tallow to seed oils in the 1990s. Kennedy added, "Americans should have every right to eat out at a restaurant without being unknowingly poisoned by heavily subsidized seed oils."

About half of the country's soybean oil goes into food processing, one reason groups such as the United Soybean Board have put more emphasis on promotion of high oleic soybeans.

DTN reached out to the National Oilseed Processors Association about Kennedy's claims, but the trade association did not respond.

MAHA BRAND

Kennedy was supposed to hold an online event with Trump on Tuesday under Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again," program. That event, despite a lot of promotion, was canceled.

The Biden administration also has highlighted the need for healthier food choices. The White House held a conference two years ago focusing on hunger, nutrition and health that laid out a blueprint for improving health outcomes nationally.

Kennedy is scheduled to speak at other upcoming events with Trump. Kennedy's MAHA website declares, "A vote for Trump is a vote for Kennedy."

See Kennedy's video on social platform x here: https://x.com/….