Farm organizations from across the country are telling the Trump administration that farmers and the food industry should be consulted by the Make America Healthy Again Commission as it continues work on recommendations for food and agriculture policy.
“The process by which the commission’s most recent report was created lacked transparency and any opportunity for public engagement. As a result, the report contained numerous errors and distortions that have created unfounded fears about the safety of our food supply,” the organizations say in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.
“While we appreciate recent outreach to some stakeholders in the food and agriculture sector, to genuinely provide the transparency and gold-standard science pledged in the report, we urge the administration to formally include farmers, ranchers, and food producers in a collaborative stakeholder process throughout all future work of the commission.”
The letter, dated June 13, was publicly released Tuesday.
The commission is expected to form a federal strategy over the next 100 days that is likely to include more definitive policy recommendations.
The commission’s initial report, which came under fire for numerous erroneous citations, reiterated many of the MAHA movement’s criticisms about the role ultraprocessed foods, added sugars, food dyes and additives play in American’s diets. Overall, the report suggests a shift toward a whole-food diet and touts the nutritional benefits of foods like whole milk, dairy, beef, leafy greens, legumes and more.
The report also cited studies linking exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, with adverse health outcomes.
The farm groups expressed concern that the report will raise unfounded fears about the safety of the U.S. food supply and set back progress enabled by technological advances.
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The “report paints a very different, inaccurate story about American agriculture and our food system," the groups say in the letter. "The stakes are high going forward. The unintended consequences of making uninformed decisions for U.S. food production based on misinformation or unproven theories would be sweeping for our nation’s farmers.
“It would lead to U.S. producers increasingly falling behind our global competitors, making our country more reliant on foreign imports for our food supply. Further, America’s families would see food prices rise amid promises of a return to affordability.”
The letter goes on to say that the commission “would benefit from inviting public comment and formally including representatives from food and agriculture in any future reports. Greater transparency would prevent future misrepresentations based on poor or nonexistent sources. Grower and food production experts who work daily in food and agriculture would be a resource to corroborate claims or ideas.”
The national organizations that signed the letter include the American Farm Bureau Federation, American Soybean Association, Agricultural Retailers Association, Farm Credit Council, National Association of Wheat Growers, National Corn Growers Association, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, National Farmers Union, and the National Grain and Feed Association.
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