Former president Donald Trump says American agriculture “is built on science, technology, and innovation,” but a prominent supporter says the country needs the opposite — fewer pesticides and feedlots. “When Donald Trump gets me inside the building I’m standing in front of right now, it won’t be this way anymore,” said Robert Kennedy Jr. in a video filmed outside of the Agriculture Department headquarters in Washington.
Although seemingly remote, the possibility that Kennedy, best known as an anti-vaccine activist, might become agriculture secretary has created dismay in parts of the food and farm sector. Agriculture policy has been a secondary issue at best in the presidential campaign.
Trump has said Kennedy will help make America healthy again without specifying a role for him if he wins the Nov. 5 election. The GOP nominee was scheduled to join Kennedy and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in a digital town hall on Tuesday, an opportunity for clarity in Trump’s health care agenda, but the session was canceled on short notice due to “changes in Trump’s schedule.” It was the second time the town hall has been called off, reported Politico.
“America’s current ag policy is destroying America’s health on every level,” said Kennedy in a video posted on the internet last week. “It 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 mono-crops and feedlots, and finally, it destroys the health of consumers.”
The answer is to “encourage sustainable, regenerative farming,” “ban the worst agricultural chemicals,” and produce more “natural, unprocessed foods” to replace ultra-processed foods, said Kennedy. He has made similar videos calling for sweeping change at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration.
Kennedy’s proposals would mean “a wholesale change in politics and farm policy,” said Dana O’Brien, a biotechnology consultant, in an essay last month. “It represents a significant elevation of anti-technology thinking by a major party candidate for president of the United States and must be reconciled with the support many farm organizations are giving to the Trump campaign.”
U.S. farm groups generally stay out of election-year politics. Their members tend to be social and fiscal conservatives. Trump won the rural vote by landslide margins in 2016 and 2020.
Some Democrats say Kennedy’s policies should be a cause for concern in the agricultural community. “It could have real consequences for the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture and our ability to lead with innovation,” said a former Biden administration official.
Trump called for strengthening of the 2018 farm law, which he signed into law, in responses to questions posed by the largest U.S. farm group. “American agriculture is built on science, technology, and innovation, and we must stay ahead of China with our science investments,” he said. The former president said he would use tariffs to knock down barriers to U.S. food and ag exports.
“When China targeted our farmers, I sent $28 billion relief payments to protect our farmers from Chinese abuses. I will always side with Farmers in America,” said Trump.
A renewed Sino-U.S. trade war would halve exports of U.S. soybeans and slash corn exports by 84 percent, according to a study released by corn and soybean grower groups last week. Soybeans and corn are the biggest revenue generators among farm exports. “This work shows that a trade war would easily compound the adverse conditions that are placing financial stress on farmers,” said the American Soybean Association. The National Corn Growers Association said widespread tariffs can boomerang.