Draft of White House Report Suggests Kennedy Won’t Push Strict Pesticide Regulations

 

The report is not final, but indicates good news for the food and agriculture industries.

 

Aug. 14, 2025

 

"A highly anticipated White House report on the health of American children would stop short of proposing direct restrictions on ultraprocessed foods and pesticides, which the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has called major threats, according to a draft of the document that was reviewed by The New York Times.

 

The report, if adopted, would be good news for the food and agriculture industries, which feared far more restrictive proposals than the ones outlined in the draft. Through his “Make America Healthy Again” movement, Mr. Kennedy has sought to overhaul the nation’s diet by pushing those industries to make major changes.

...

Questions about a possible push for new pesticide regulations were raised in May when the White House released an initial report, from a presidential commission chaired by Mr. Kennedy, that raised strong concerns about possible links between pesticides and childhood diseases. It also linked the dominance of ultraprocessed foods in children’s diets to a range of chronic diseases.

 

Those findings touched off tensions between Mr. Kennedy’s movement and Republican lawmakers who have traditionally drawn support from powerful agriculture, food and drug lobbyists."

 

(more)

 

New York Times

https://archive.ph/6nOAT

 

But don't worry... According to the NYT report, Kennedy's still going to be pursuing a variety of misguided / debunked policies, like:

--reducing / limiting childhood vaccines

--investigating the health impacts of wifi

--trying to eliminate flouridation from water supplies

 

Meanwhile, according to the NYT report, the administration also is headed toward not doing much to restrict or curtail the use of ultraprocessed foods that many public health groups and researchers have blamed for obesity and triggering diseases.

 

"Some researchers have cautioned that such steps [as shown in the draft report] may not do much to improve the overall healthfulness of the American food supply.

 

Ultraprocessed foods, which make up about 62 percent of the calories consumed by U.S. children, are explicitly mentioned in the draft of the second report only once, in a line about the administration’s effort to define them. The near-omission of ultraprocessed foods from the draft report raises questions about the administration’s appetite for regulation, which the food industry is likely to vehemently oppose.

...

There are signs that the report, as drafted, could land with a thud among Mr. Kennedy’s followers. In July, 500 people, including leaders of advocacy groups aligned with Mr. Kennedy’s movement, sent a letter to Mr. Kennedy and other members of the White House commission urging them to ban pesticides like glyphosate."

 

https://archive.ph/6nOAT

 

Food and Agro lobbyists have filled Republican coffers for years so I would think it is hardly a surprise that the right caved.  They are good at calling out corruption until it lands at their feet - aka hypocrites.