On 25 February, in her opening remarks at her Senate confirmation hearing, Casey Means, Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, called on the US government to address key drivers of chronic disease, including “ultraprocessed foods, industrial chemical exposure” and other factors. The same month, in a provocative Super Bowl ad for the federal government’s RealFood.gov site, Mike Tyson warned of the dangers of processed food. The recent developments confirm what’s becoming conventional wisdom: the GOP is now the party of healthy food.
It’s not just Robert F Kennedy Jr’s high-profile moves on red food dyes or the USDA food pyramid. Conservative politicians and influencers are now attacking chemical additives, plastics, and ultra-processed ingredients as drivers of chronic disease. Republicans see Maha, the “make America healthy again” movement, as a rare cultural wedge that resonates outside the party’s Maga base. The GOP’s own polling memos show that Kennedy’s movement could be their single most promising midterm strategy.
But behind the headlines, Republicans are trying to have it both ways. They’re seeking to be known as the party of healthy food while continuing to do the bidding of lobbyists from big agribusinesses, ultra-processed foodmakers, and the chemical industry.
On Tuesday, Trump administration lawyers told supreme court justices that they should rule in favor of the chemicalmaker Bayer in a case that could prevent American farmers from suing the pesticide industry over claims that products cause cancer and other illnesses. On 18 February, Trump issued an executive order to boost domestic production of glyphosate, a widely used weedkiller that has been linked to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and scores of other serious health conditions. And, on 6 February, in a Friday evening press release designed to avoid attention, Trump’s EPA reapproved dicamba – one of the most contentious weedkillers in American agriculture. Dicamba is used primarily on genetically engineered soybeans and cotton, and it’s notorious for drifting off target and damaging neighboring crops, gardens, orchards, and wild plants. Courts have twice thrown out dicamba approvals because of these risks.
These aren’t isolated examples. Republicans on the House agriculture committee have chosen to include legal immunity for makers of agrochemicals – among other industry giveaways – in the next farm bill. Every Republican on the House appropriations committee voted to advance a bill that would shield pesticide companies from lawsuits and block EPA from regulating PFAS “forever chemicals” in sewage sludge. Republican-led states are advancing liability shields for toxic agrochemical makers. Trump appointees from big ag and the chemical industry – including Nancy Beck, Lynn Dekleva and Kyle Kunkler – now hold key EPA roles . Meanwhile Doge cuts decimated the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the technical assistance program farmers rely on to transition away from costly chemical inputs.
double quotation markDemocrats have – to date – been hesitant to speak directly to Trump-leaning voters who are focused on health and food issues. That needs to change
Democrats have – to date – been hesitant to speak directly to Trump-leaning voters who are focused on health and food issues. That needs to change. It’s important to set the record straight on the ways the Trump administration is underlining healthy food in America.
It’s also important to recognize a substantial policy opportunity. In polling we recently commissioned with YouGov, 89% of voters – including 87% of Republicans – said they favor banning pesticides already prohibited in Europe when those chemicals present health risks. Perhaps most striking, 57% of Republican respondents told us they would consider supporting a candidate from the other party if that candidate made healthy food and toxic-chemical reduction a top priority.
Leaders of the Maha movement are visibly breaking with the Trump administration – and now planning a major rally in Washington on the date of the supreme court’s Bayer hearing in April to protest pesticide immunity shields, the glyphosate Executive Order, and the Trump EPA’s pro-polluter deregulations. On 3 March, a group of Maha leaders launched a campaign in favor of the War Powers Resolution to ensure Congressional accountability in the Iran conflict, citing Kennedy’s vocal commitment to ending “forever wars” in the 2024 race.
Democrats need to seize the opportunity. The party should champion a coherent, practical agenda that makes healthy food and lower-toxin farming more affordable – by changing what government subsidizes, buys and enforces, not by lecturing families to “shop organic”. Think of the agenda in simple terms: make healthy food affordable.
The first step is accountability. Healthy food will never be affordable if chemical companies profit from risky products while pushing the costs onto farmers, families and the healthcare system. Senator Cory Booker’s legislation, the Pesticide Injury Accountability Act, shows an important way forward, creating a legal right for Americans to sue for harms caused by toxic pesticides. The New Jersey Democrat’s bill has won support from nearly every Maha grassroots group in addition to progressive and environmental experts. This kind of accountability can push industry toward safer products and practices – so healthier options can become the default.
Second, we need to make healthy practices benefit farmers financially. Healthy food gets cheaper when farmers aren’t trapped in rising costs for seeds, chemicals and fertilizer controlled by a handful of suppliers. Chemical dependence is often a financial trap. The most direct way to lower farm costs is to help farmers cut inputs without taking the hit first. That means addressing extreme corporate concentration and rebuilding USDA technical assistance so farmers can adopt proven cost-cutting practices – cover crops, diversified rotations, nutrient management, buffers, and managed grazing where relevant. This is an off-ramp from the chemical treadmill that’s making farmers poorer and the food system more toxic.
Third, we need to use public dollars to make healthier food the default – starting with kids. Telling families to “eat healthy” fails if healthy food is priced out of reach. Policy has to move markets. That means we should align procurement and subsidies with health: strengthen school-meal standards, fund scratch-cooking kitchens in schools, and use purchasing rules to favor minimally processed foods and higher standards – organic and regenerative where feasible, broader regenerative practices where not – so demand and scale drive prices down. We should shift subsidies away from chemical-intensive commodity pipelines that feed ultra-processed food and toward soil-health outcomes and diversified production that lowers input costs. We should also invest in regional processing and local supply chains so farmers keep more of the food dollar and communities get fresher food at lower prices.
The common assumption is that healthy food and affordability are contradictory goals. In a year when both priorities will be top of mind for Americans, Democrats should show that the two can go hand in hand.
