Kennedy's Allies Against Pesticides: Environmentalists, Moms and Manly Men

New York Times

20-05-2025

In Europe, the weedkiller atrazine has been banned for nearly two decades because of its suspected links to reproductive problems like reduced sperm quality and birth defects.
In the United States, it remains one of the most widely used pesticides, sprayed on corn, sugar cane and other crops, the result of years of industry lobbying. It has been detected in the drinking water of some 40 million Americans.
Now, American environmental groups that have long sought a ban are finding some unexpected allies: the Trump administration and its MAGA supporter base.
This week, a 'Make America Healthy Again' commission led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to issue a report on the causes of chronic illnesses in the United States. And Mr. Kennedy, who worked for years as an environmental lawyer fighting chemical companies, wants the report to highlight the harms of pesticides like atrazine, according to three people with knowledge of his efforts.
It is an unwieldy coalition, extending even to some men's rights influencers on alternative media, where commentary abounds on how toxic chemicals are threatening masculinity.
They are taking on an influential agricultural and chemicals lobby that has long rebuffed attempts to strengthen restrictions on atrazine and other pesticides, at a time when the Trump administration is rolling back government restrictions on industries, not imposing new ones.
Mr. Kennedy has a vocal movement behind him.
'We're calling for a ban of 85 pesticides that have already been banned in other countries,' said Zen Honeycutt, who leads a coalition of mothers opposed to pesticides and genetically modified organisms, at a national conference of Make America Healthy Again supporters ahead of the report's publication.
'These pesticides cause reproductive damage, and we have a reproductive crisis in our country today,' she said at the meeting, attended by farmers, health influencers and conservative activists, as well as several administration officials. 'Do we want the American population to be able to procreate or not?'
Lori Ann Burd, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, a group that has long sought a ban in the United States of atrazine and other pesticides, sees an uneasy but potentially powerful alignment of interests.
'There's an epic battle brewing over the direction that the administration is going to take on toxic chemicals,' she said. 'This is the movement that helped to elect Trump,' she said. 'But we're also up against some of the most powerful corporate lobby groups in the country.'
The showdown is the latest chapter in a long battle over pesticides like atrazine, long valued for its efficacy and affordability in controlling weeds and increasing crop yields. Each year, American farmers spray the pesticide on about 75 million acres of farmland, roughly equivalent to the area of New Mexico.
But atrazine can also run off into streams and rivers, contaminating water sources and harming aquatic life. In humans, it is an endocrine disruptor linked to preterm delivery, birth defects and low sperm counts, and possibly to thyroid, ovarian, and other cancers. Some sixty countries ban the use of atrazine, manufactured by Switzerland-based Syngenta, which was acquired by the Chinese state-owned chemical company ChemChina in 2017.
Syngenta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The federal agency led by Mr. Kennedy, Health and Human Services, referred questions to the White House, which declined to comment.
In America, the farming lobby has fought attempts to regulate the chemical. During the first Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency rolled back restrictions on the use of several pesticides, including atrazine. That rollback came under Nancy Beck, a former chemical-industry lobbyist who at that time led the agency's toxic chemicals program.
Today, Ms. Beck is back at the E.P.A. as principal deputy assistant administrator overseeing the Office of Chemical Safety. In recent weeks she has pushed back against mentioning pesticides in the MAHA commission report, according to the three people with knowledge of the commission's discussions.
Kailee Tkacz Buller, a former seed oil lobbyist who is chief of staff at the Department of Agriculture, has also pushed back against focusing on pesticides in the MAHA report, citing concerns over disruptions to the food supply chain, one of the three people said.
That came after 79 Republican senators, led by Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, urged the Trump administration to resist efforts from 'activist groups promoting misguided and sometimes malicious policies masquerading as health solutions.' In their letter, the Republican lawmakers accused environmental activists of all stripes of 'advancing harmful health, economic or food security policies under the guise of human health.'
On Tuesday, a coalition of farm groups, including the National Corn Growers Association, issued a statement urging the Trump administration to 'consider the consequences' of a report that suggested U.S. farmers were harming Americans through their production practices.
'We urge President Trump to ensure that the MAHA Commission report is based on sound science and evidence-based claims rather than opinions and preferences of social influencers and single-issue activists with little to no experience in actual farming or food production,' the groups said.
MAHA supporters are unfazed.
'Big Ag, Big Food, Big Pharma, the pesticide companies, all of these companies are the delivery mechanisms for toxins,' said Tony Lyons, co-president of the newly established MAHA Institute, which hosted the MAHA conference. 'Our government agencies shouldn't be protecting a handful of the most powerful companies on earth, protecting their profits over the welfare of its own citizens.'
MAHA advocates say recent remarks from Mr. Trump and Mr. Kennedy signal a different approach under the second Trump administration.
Since allying with Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Trump has complained about how the United States spends 'billions and billions of dollars on pesticides,' compared to the European Union, yet has worse health outcomes. He has pledged that his administration would 'ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides.' Mr. Kennedy is looking into pesticides seriously, Mr. Trump said, 'because maybe it's not necessary to use all of that.'
For his part, Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly called atrazine 'extraordinarily toxic' and has said that pesticides are significant contributors to chronic health problems and cancer.
The anti-pesticide cause is finding supporters among online commentators who speak out on issues they consider important to men, such as infertility.
'There has never been an era in human history where men are losing more. More men than ever are infertile,' Jackson Hightower, a men's health influencer with more than a million followers across various social platforms, said in a recent video. 'No one seems to be talking about how a major contributing factor to this is our food supply. And we have so much evidence to support the dangers of spraying our crops with chemicals like atrazine.'
Research has shown there is some evidence globally of declining fertility among men. Studies have pointed to numerous factors that could be causing a decline, including chemical exposure and lifestyle choices like alcohol consumption, poor diet and lack of physical activity.
Calley Means, an adviser to Mr. Kennedy who played a key role in orchestrating his endorsement of Mr. Trump, said he believed the country was 'seeing one of the most significant realignments in American politics in American history.' He is the brother of Dr. Casey Means, Mr. Trump's nominee for Surgeon General and another Kennedy ally.
'We've galvanized a movement of moms, of independents, of young people,' Mr. Means said, 'a revolutionary coalition of people who are going to change American politics.'
All of this is happening as the Trump administration pursues a deregulatory drive that has few parallels in American history. The E.P.A., under Administrator Lee Zeldin, is revising or repealing more than 30 regulations aimed at protecting the air, water and Earth's climate.
There is also the question of how much influence Mr. Kennedy, as health secretary, can have over pesticide policy. Though the Federal Drug Administration, which is under his agency, can regulate pesticide residues in food, it is a different agency, the E.P.A., that regulates pesticide use.
The E.P.A. is currently updating its mitigation proposals for atrazine, including revising its levels of concern for atrazine in water. But whether pesticides are targeted in the MAHA commission report, set to be issued on Thursday, is seen as an early test of the government's approach. The report is expected to be a broad overview of the potential causes of chronic disease in children, including chemical exposures, food, lack of exercise and too much screen time.
'I think if President Trump stands up and gets this out to the American people, he will go down as a historical figure who changed the trajectory of chronic disease,' said Vani Hari, widely known as the Food Babe, a popular author and activist close to Mr. Kennedy.
The E.P.A. said in a statement that the Trump administration was 'having robust conversations across government about how to drive economic growth while protecting human health and the environment.' The agency pointed to Dr. Beck's extensive civil service career before her time working as an industry lobbyist, saying Mr. Trump had made 'a fantastic choice' in selecting her to work at the agency.
Traditional environmentalists, meanwhile, remain wary of MAHA's controversial positions on lifesaving vaccines and more.
As health secretary, Mr. Kennedy has broken with his predecessors by not advocating for vaccination, for example casting the decision to vaccinate against measles as a personal one. During an appearance last month by Mr. Kennedy at a conference focused on solving the global plastic trash crisis, environmentalists said they had steered him away from talk of vaccines.
Even on pesticides, Mr. Kennedy's scientific justifications aren't always sound. He has suggested that chemicals in the water might be responsible for 'sexual dysphoria' in children. In a segment aired by CNN, he said that atrazine could 'forcibly feminize' frogs. 'What this does to sexual development in children, nobody knows,' he said.
(While there is research on atrazine feminizing male frogs, there is no evidence that the chemical similarly affects humans.)
Jay Feldman, executive director of the environmental advocacy group Beyond Pesticides, said he hoped Mr. Kennedy's unorthodox claims did not undermine the effort to regulate pesticides. For years he worked alongside Mr. Kennedy to raise awareness of the risks of pesticide exposure.
'It's unfortunate when you have an active player who has been a leading voice on environmental protection for most of his life attach himself to something so controversial,' he said. 'The question is, will everything he does now be dismissed?'