The president says the herbicide is essential for national defense while MAHA activists claim the White House is favoring Bayer and Big Ag.
Invoking the Defense Production Act, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 18, propelling the domestic production of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides.
The decision sparked widespread backlash among Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) proponents who are fighting to prevent herbicide and pesticide manufacturers from gaining immunity from legal actions.
Known as the “Glyphosate Girl,” Kelly Ryerson is the founder of the Glyphosate Facts website and co-executive director of regenerative farming initiative American Regeneration.
On Feb. 19, she told The Epoch Times that the order “signals to Bayer and Big Ag that the White House supports them and won’t concede to the concerns of MAHA.”
“It doubles down on a system that is making us a sick population and killing our soil, and we already have a limited number of harvests left. It is a very short-term fix for the real problem in national security, which is disease and infertility in both the body and our farming systems.”
Through its subsidiary Monsanto, Bayer is the only U.S. producer of glyphosate, which is the key ingredient in Roundup. It is the most widely used herbicide in history, according to the Global Glyphosate Study.
Today, 280 million pounds of glyphosate are sprayed on 285 million acres of U.S. farmland every year, according to the nonprofit Center for Food Safety, which advocates for organic and sustainable food.
Shortages of phosphorus and glyphosate would create a risk to national security, Trump declared in the executive order.
Health Secretary: Trump’s Order ‘Puts America First’
As an environmental lawyer in 2018, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. helped win a $290 million lawsuit against Monsanto in a case where a man said his cancer was caused by Roundup.
On Feb. 19, he defended Trump’s move.
“Donald Trump’s Executive Order puts America first where it matters most—our defense readiness and our food supply,” Kennedy said in a statement to The Epoch Times on Feb. 19.
“We must safeguard America’s national security first, because all of our priorities depend on it. When hostile actors control critical inputs, they weaken our security. By expanding domestic production, we close that gap and protect American families,” Kennedy added.
Elemental phosphorus is a key ingredient in the formulation of glyphosate, which the White House said is essential to maintain food security. According to the executive order, the Department of the Interior has designated elemental phosphorus as a scarce material.
The executive order called glyphosate-based herbicides “the most widely used crop protection tools in United States agriculture” and “a cornerstone of this Nation’s agricultural productivity and rural economy, allowing United States farmers and ranchers to maintain high yields and low production costs while ensuring that healthy, affordable food options remain within reach for all American families.”
Last year, Bayer CEO Bill Anderson said the company may stop making glyphosate because of liabilities from the lawsuits.
A day before the president signed his executive order, Bayer announced Monsanto submitted a proposal for a $7.25 billion class‑action settlement.
The settlement, which still needs approval by a judge, would cover current and future claims for people who were exposed to Roundup and developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The proposed settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing, the company said.
Bayer agreed to a separate $10 billion settlement in 2020 regarding non-Hodgkin lymphoma claims.
Trump’s executive order was also issued after the Supreme Court agreed to hear a Roundup case in April. Bayer filed the appeal against a $1.25 million award to a Missouri man who alleged that Roundup caused him to develop blood cancer.
