Last week, RFK Jr. appeared on Joe Rogan and directly contradicted his own previous statement on glyphosate, calling the pesticide “poison”, saying they are “designed to kill all life.” This comes less than a week after his long post on X stating his support for Trump’s EO welcoming the potentially cancer-causing chemical’s production in the U.S.
314 Action President talked to Salon.com to highlight RFK Jr.’s reversal, saying it’s “the ultimate betrayal” to the MAHA agenda. Key extracts from the story below:
Salon: MAHA feels betrayed by RFK Jr. reversal on glyphosate
- When President Donald Trump issued a recent executive order to increase the national supply of phosphorus, he called it “crucial to military readiness and national defense” and a “critical component” of military supply chains. As such, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act of 1950 to boost domestic production.
- Trump offered “immunity” from litigation against the producers of glyphosate-based pesticides, which have been associated with multiple kinds of cancers and developmental disorders. This class of chemicals have become a major villain in certain wellness circles, including the Make America Healthy Again movement. However, backing for Trump’s order came from an unlikely source: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- Kennedy’s support might come as surprise due to his decades-long history of opposition to herbicides, including a landmark case against agribusiness giant Monsanto, now part of Bayer, for the effects of glyphosate in Roundup, their signature weedkiller.
- Health and wellness expert Jillian Michaels, a proponent of MAHA, called the decision “devastating.” “It is not a conspiracy theory that glyphosate is linked to cancer,” Michaels said in an interview with NewsNation.
- “It’s time for [Kennedy] to resign,” Shaughnessy Naughton, the president of the science-forward political action committee 314 Action, and a former chemist and drug researcher, told Salon. Pointing to 314 Action’s RFK Watch coverage, Naughton called Kennedy’s decision-making “egregious” and a “disappointment” for MAHA, as Kennedy is perceived as having gone from being an environmental advocate to a corporate defender. “I just feel like it is the ultimate betrayal,” Naughton said.
- “He sounds like he wrote the press release for Monsanto, and I think this is a big problem for the MAHA movement.” She also expressed concern that the detrimental effects of glyphosate and other pesticides would go overlooked by both Kennedy and the Trump administration. “There will be a lack of standard science in determining how dangerous this will be, by this administration,” Naughton said.
- Naughton disregarded Kennedy’s statement, warning that the policy is “clearing the way for companies that produce this chemical not to have any liability.” “The national security claims they’re making are weak at best,” Naughton said.