How the agriculture and food industries challenged MAHA heavyweights and reshaped RFK, Jr.’s ‘reform’ agenda

In meeting after meeting at the White House this summer, administration officials held talks with scores of leaders from the food and agriculture industries. Farm officials accompanied Calley Means, a top adviser to Health Secretary and MAHA Commission leader Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on a visit to U.S. farm fields.

Companies and industry groups representing every link in the nation’s food supply chain moved with urgency. An initial assessment report released by the commission in May criticized products from pesticides to processed food, setting off alarm bells at big food and agriculture companies.

After backlash from the agriculture industry, which criticized the report’s contents and a lack of engagement from the administration during its writing, the commission changed tack. As it drafted the follow-up report, the commission sought input from farmers, food makers and retailers. 

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[The] follow-up report stopped short of seeking to rein in pesticide use. Instead it promised research on “cumulative exposure across chemical classes,” and ways that agricultural technology can help lower pesticide volumes. 

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