A world without seed oils and pesticides? The food industry braces for RFK Jr. era
Kennedy has promised to take aim at the food and pharmaceutical industries in a Trump administration. Interest groups are already pushing back.
As one food industry lobbyist put it, Kennedy has “taken on a whole life of his own in the last few weeks.”
Over the weekend, Trump told podcaster Joe Rogan he was 100 percent committed to including Kennedy in his administration, with a focus on health. On Monday, Kennedy claimed at a virtual event that Trump promised him “control of the public health agencies,” which he said included the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health. “And then also the USDA,” Kennedy continued, “which, you know, is key to making America healthy because we’ve got to get off of seed oils and we’ve got to get off of pesticide-intensive agriculture.”
Banning pesticides — not to mention food additives, seed oils or ultra-processed foods, as Kennedy has also advocated — would completely upend the existing U.S. food system. And if Trump truly lets Kennedy “go wild” on food and health, as he promised in remarks at a recent campaign rally, it would represent a 180 degree reversal from the agriculture agenda during his first term, which included rolling back pesticide restrictions and other food-related regulations.
Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick said on CNN Wednesday night that Kennedy “is not going to be in charge of HHS,” though he suggested the noted anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist could get a role examining health and vaccine data. People familiar with the transition conversations say Trump would be more likely to name Kennedy to some sort of food and health “czar” role that does not require Senate confirmation.
Kennedy declined to answer questions for this report, but said in a statement that he’s grateful to the former president for his commitment to end chronic disease.