Kate Geagan, MS, RD

Trump 2024: “We’re going to get toxic chemicals out of our food supply” Trump 2026: “Glyphosate is critical to national security” A new Executive Order doubles down on the same system that bankrupted farmers, monopolized the food supply under the control of a few multinational corporations, and contaminated America’s food system. We cannot eliminate glyphosate overnight. But we should be taking steps to reform this broken system, not doubling down on it. The fact that U.S. agriculture has become so reliant on glyphosate should scare us into immediate, dramatic reform of our food system. Trump’s declaration that “glyphosate-based herbicides are a cornerstone of this Nation’s agricultural productivity and rural economy” exposes deep structural problems in our food system: Our over-reliance on chemicals and herbicides to produce more and more commodity crops is bankrupting our farmers and rural America. This broken system is the reason we are in a crisis today where over 60 farmers go out of business a day, and the rest require constant federal bailouts just to survive. Trump also claimed in his EO that glyphosate-based herbicides allow “farmers and ranchers to maintain high yields and low production costs.” But the opposite is true. Farmers have lower production costs and higher profits when they reduce or eliminate their use of glyphosate and other herbicides. Keeping them reliant on herbicides only benefits the pesticide industry. Finally, Trump’s claim that glyphosate enables farmers to produce “healthy, affordable food” could not be farther from the truth. The science that alleged glyphosate is safe was retracted after the paper was exposed for relying on false information that came directly from Monsanto. This Executive Order is bad news for independent farmers and MAHA.