By Brian Mann
President-elect Donald Trump won farm country by wide margins in this month's election, with rural voters helping fuel his return to the White House.
But some farmers, economists, analysts and others in the agriculture industry are voicing alarm over Trump plans that could disrupt America's $1.5 trillion food industry.
Trump moved this past week to put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the Food and Drug Administration. A nomination requires confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
In a column published on Friday, soybean farmer Amanda Zaluckyj called the choice "a literal middle finger to agriculture, which constituted a key piece of Trump's base."
Writing in the trade journal Ag Daily, she described Kennedy as "an absolute danger" to the American farm industry.
"He has gone as far as saying he would 'weaponize' regulatory agencies to eliminate the use of pesticides," Zaluckyj said, adding that Kennedy has "voiced strong opposition to the scientific consensus" on farm industry practices.
Zaluckyj isn't alone in raising questions about Kennedy's role. In an essay published in September, before Kennedy was named to head HHS, biotech analyst Dana O'Brien described Trump's "embrace" of Kennedy as "a threat to American agriculture."
"The elevation of Kennedy by Trump is chilling," O'Brien wrote in the online trade journal Agri-Pulse. "It represents a wholesale shift in politics and farm policy."
Kennedy has a long track record voicing conspiracy theories, including baseless claims that Wi-Fi causes cancer and "leaky brain"; that school shootings are attributable to antidepressants; and that chemicals in water can lead to children becoming transgender.
Some agriculture experts worry similar unproven or unscientific views could now reshape U.S. farm and food policy.
"His distrust of genetically modified seeds is longstanding and in opposition to thousands of scientific studies," wrote Blake Hurst, a farmer and former head of Missouri's Farm Bureau, in the journal Agri-Pulse.
Hurst described Trump's ties to Kennedy as an "unholy alliance."
Kennedy has long condemned industrial food corporations as well as Big Ag trade groups, which he says have driven an obesity epidemic in the U.S. while polluting farmland and bankrupting smaller family farms.
"America's current ag policy is destroying America's health on every level," Kennedy said in a video posted on social media last month.
"Corporate interests have hijacked the USDA's dietary guidelines to make natural, unprocessed foods an afterthought."
Kennedy is calling for restrictions on a host of food additives and dyes. He wants to reduce the dominance of ultra-processed foods; he's called for reforming the SNAP food assistance program — formerly known as food stamps.
In naming Kennedy to head one of the nation's most powerful food regulatory agencies, Trump appeared to embrace that vision: "For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex," Trump said on the social media platform X.
According to Trump, under Kennedy's leadership, "HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives."
Trump's decision to make Kennedy a major player in U.S. food policy has also drawn support from some farmers.
Sid Miller, a farmer and rancher who serves as Texas Agriculture Commissioner, praised the selection.
"Today, more than two in five adults and over one in five children in America are obese," Miller, a Republican, wrote in an essay posted on the Texas Department of Agriculture website.
"This didn't 'just happen' — it is the outcome of misguided public policy and corporate influence," Miller said.
Concern over tariffs' impact on farmers
Kennedy's nomination isn't the only Trump move raising concern among farmers and others in the industry. They're also voicing alarm over Trump's proposal to levy stiff tariffs on Chinese goods.
A study released last month by the National Corn Growers Association found a tariff-driven trade war with China could cost U.S. soybean and corn farmers as much as $7.3 billion in annual production value.
"This burden is not limited to the U.S. soybean and corn farmers who lose market share and production value," the study's authors predicted. "There is a ripple impact across the U.S., particularly in rural economies where farmers live, purchase inputs, utilize farm and personal services, and purchase household goods."
Experts say the next indication of how food and agriculture policy will play out over the next four years will come when Trump announces his pick to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The online publication Farm Journal reported that many of the names being considered by Trump's team to head the Agriculture Department have deep ties to industrial farming.
Source : usf.edu