WASHINGTON — The much-anticipated Make America Healthy Again Strategy released Tuesday in Washington did not include pesticide bans or other measures that would be directly hostile farmer interests, which incensed some environmental groups.
But it seems clear that soil health, precision farming and regenerative agriculture could play a major role in the MAHA movement to improve the health of Americans. Trump administration officials defended the EPA’s review processes for products, but they also believe technology can help produce healthier food with fewer inputs and chemicals.
(See related story: Draft MAHA Report Embraces Conservation Agriculture, Doesn’t Target Pesticides)
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins spoke at length about farm tech in a press conference about the MAHA Strategy release and next steps. Rollins called the EPA’s review of products, “arguably the most rigorous, the most data backed, the most scientifically deep review process in the world,” and that farmers stand by the process.
“A crop protection tool such as pesticides is absolutely essential for America not to compromise our food supply system at this point,” Rollins said during a Q&A portion with the media. But she added that precision technology will “completely change the game” on what crop protection tools will look like, especially with the capabilities emerging with artificial intelligence.
“You can send a drone across a field of corn and it can tell you down to a stalk where a particular bug is that needs to be eradicated,” Rollins said.
Zeldin said his office inherited a backlog of 14,000 pesticide reviews and 500 new chemical reviews in January, so IT upgrades and hiring more scientists in the chemicals office is likely to increase capacity in that office.
Zeldin added he was recently at San Diego State Univ. to see the first precision agriculture program ever launched in the U.S., which is now being replicated at universities elsewhere. “It’s very important, not just economically, but also for health, safety, environmental reasons for these farmers to be able to utilize these new technologies, which are expensive,” Zeldin said.
“But the biggest hurdle being encountered is the need for more advocacy and education on the innovations that are out there. What I noticed in my conversations with farmers is a strong desire to pursue any opportunity to improve health for our children, and to improve access to healthier food supply.
“The argument I've heard at farms across this country is that they proudly consider themselves to play a very key tip-of-the-spear role in feeding America to make sure America is healthy again. So I think this is maybe more personal to them than just about anyone else.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — fresh off a contentious Congressional hearing over vaccine access and his public health views — said MAHA leaders are focusing “narrowly” on nutrition and metabolic health, food quality, cumulative exposures, gut microbiome, precision agriculture and mental health.
Rollins said her office is working with DHHS to create new dietary guidelines, which she says will reset what advice Americans get and will impact how the USDA distributes its programs. The guidelines will reportedly prioritize whole, healthy and nutritious foods such as whole, fat, dairy, fruits, vegetables and meats, and suggest limiting highly processed foods and those high in sugar.
“Chronic disease is a challenge in our country. Most American children’s diets are dominated by highly processed foods filled with added sugars, unpronounceable ingredients and additives,” Rollins said. “We know the American food system is the safest in the world, but now we must do what it takes to make it the healthiest in the world.”
Rollins mentioned an upcoming “regenerative pilot program” at USDA that is built to address on-farm resource concerns while also providing farmers with usable outcomes-based conservation plans.
“Additionally, we will leverage existing funding from research agencies to produce applied science informing farmer decision making on regenerative agriculture. It is a new day at USDA,” she said.
