Department of Agriculture Secretary May Be Key To Implementing RFK Jr.’s MAHA Agenda

As President Trump announces his cabinet picks, all eyes are on what role, if any, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will play in the upcoming administration and who Trump will nominate for the agencies that govern food and health policy.Trump promised during the campaign to let Mr. Kennedy “go wild” on health, which is causing an outcry from some medical professionals about his views on vaccines. Then there are Mr. Kennedy’s critiques of the American food system and its impact on obesity and other health issues that have caused American life expectancy to decline in the last decade.One of the cabinet posts critical to implementing the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda will be to the Department of Agriculture, which governs farm policy, food safety, animal welfare, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Mr. Kennedy has promised to “reverse 80 years of farm policy in this country which have directed us toward industrial agriculture, industrial meat production, factory farming, chemical based agriculture, carbon-based fertilizers.”To those critical of the USDA for policies favoring large corporate agriculture over family farms — and factory farming over regenerative agriculture that focuses on sustainability and more humane animal husbandry — Mr. Kennedy’s proposed shakeup is a long time coming. These critics span the political divide.“The USDA is supposed to be helping the American family farmer, and all the USDA has done is put American family farmers out of business for decades,” a conservative lobbyist who works on farming and animal rights issues, Marty Irby, tells the Sun. “I think the Trump administration, RFK Jr., and his leaders should take a wrecking ball to the place.”Speculation reached a fever pitch last week that Trump will appoint Kentucky congressman, Thomas Massie, as Secretary of Agriculture, after a self-described libertarian “lunatic farmer,” Joel Salatin, wrote a blog post saying he was tapped to serve as an advisor to Mr. Massie at the USDA. Mr. Massie quickly walked this back, calling discussion of a role for him “premature.”“President Trump’s resounding victory secured a mandate for big ideas like reversing chronic disease, conserving our land, and empowering American farmers,” Mr. Massie posted to X. “I stand ready and willing to help the President with any part of his bold agenda to focus on the health and well being of Americans, but I have received no commitments or offers from President Trump’s team.”Mr. Irby and an animal welfare activist and chief executive of the Accountability Board, Josh Balk, tell the Sun the frontrunner for the next Secretary of Agriculture is more likely Sid Miller, the Texas Agricultural Commissioner. Mr. Miller is an eighth-generation farmer and rancher who has served as commissioner in Texas for a decade and is close with Trump. He was with Trump at Butler, Pennsylvania, when the former president was shot in the ear by a would-be assassin.“He’s antiestablishment. He’s not afraid to break some kneecaps and twist some arms, figuratively of course,” Mr. Irby says of Mr. Miller. “The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been run by the swampiest of swamp rats for the past four years, and another eight years prior to that, with Tom Vilsack, and we need a major overhaul very quickly.”Another name being floated for the post is a Pennsylvania congressman, Glenn Thompson, Republican leader of the House Agricultural Committee. With such a slim Republican majority in the House, though, Trump may not want to appoint him or Mr. Massie and leave an open seat.Environmental buzz words like “sustainability” are often associated with the left, but farming issues and concerns about how meat is raised — and whether it is pumped with antibiotics — is also an interest of the right. Vivek Ramaswamy posted to X earlier this month, “Animal cruelty will eventually become a genuine concern for conservatives. It’s already happening. Count me in.”Mr. Balk says conservative Congresswomen like Nancy Mace and Anna Paulina Luna have been leaders in opposing the Ending Agriculture Trade Suppression Act, which is known as the EATS Act and would restrict the ability of state and local governments to set standards for agricultural products that are sold across state lines. That bill is sponsored by Republicans, showcasing the unusual fault lines.The EATS Act is largely a response to California’s passage of Proposition 12, which went into effect this year, banning the extreme confinement of farm animals in gestation cages that are often so small the animal cannot turn around. The California law is a blow to factory farms, which can’t sell their meat and poultry products in the state if they don’t comply.The National Pork Producers Council, an industry group, appealed Proposition 12 to the Supreme Court, which upheld the law on a states’ rights basis in an opinion written by Justice Gorsuch. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Congress Proposition 12 will bring “chaos in the marketplace.” Regulations on how animals are housed and raised ultimately lead to higher prices for meat. He has responded to criticism that he is too friendly to Agribusiness by noting the economic impact of such corporations in rural areas.“There are a substantial number of people hired and employed by those businesses here in Iowa,” Mr. Vilsack told the New York Times in 2020. “You’re essentially saying to those folks, ‘You might be out of a job.’ That to me is not a winning message.”Slashing the USDA bureaucracy and reducing corporate capture of the agency are top priorities for Mr. Kennedy. To some Republicans, the corporatization of farming is also seen as a national security risk. The largest pork producer in the United States, Smithfield Foods, is Communist Chinese-owned.To those on the left, the push against factory farming is often tied to animal rights and climate change concerns. A shakeup of the USDA could make for unlikely bedfellows — and the potential for change.“The Trump administration could actually be pretty strong when it comes to responsible farming practices, and there are a lot of conservatives who are very outspoken on these issues,” Mr. Balk says.

Department of Agriculture Secretary May Be Key To Implementing RFK Jr.’s MAHA Agenda

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