Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. testifies before the Senate Finance Committee at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on September 04, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Andrew Harnik, Getty Images)

RFK Jr. Tells Senators He’s Keeping Farm Interests in MAHA Agenda

The Health secretary faced tough questions from the Senate Finance Committee on some of his agency’s latest health policy actions.

By Rebekah Alvey

September 4, 2025

Sept. 4, 2025 – In Congressional questioning on Thursday, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his team has met with over 140 farm “interests” over the last three months to ensure his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda fits with the agriculture community.

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Senators on the Finance Committee largely grilled Kennedy over his firing of Susan Monarez as Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director, at a hearing that was slated to discuss the Trump administration’s health care policy. But Kennedy also faced questions from one senator about his role in agricultural policy.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he has continued to hear concerns from Iowa farmers about some of Kennedy’s comments. While Grassley did not expand on this in the hearing, he told Brownfield Ag News in August agriculture groups and farmers are concerned about what may be included in the upcoming second report from the MAHA Commission, which Kennedy leads.

During his confirmation hearing earlier this year, Kennedy said he was committed to leaving farm policy up to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Today, Grassley asked Kennedy if his actions since then reflect that commitment.

In response, Kennedy said his team has worked closely with USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins and has engaged with all stakeholders in the farming community to ensure agriculture interests are incorporated into the MAHA agenda. He said that includes ensuring soil health is protected and “all kinds of farmers” are supported, including those that want to transition to regenerative agriculture.

“We’re consulting every stakeholder in the farming community in everything that we do,” Kennedy said.

Since Trump took office, there has been ongoing friction between his administration’s desire to cater to powerful agricultural groups that rely on pesticides and the MAHA movement’s concerns over chemical exposure.

Kennedy had espoused MAHA views for more pesticide regulation even before joining the Trump administration. While some of this rhetoric has persisted, the administration’s actions have not necessarily reflected this, and other leaders, including Rollins, have defended the use of pesticides as an important tool for crop protection.

Following Kennedy’s confirmation hearing, the MAHA Commission released an initial report that included some critiques of pesticide use in American agriculture.

Farm groups immediately rallied against these minimal pesticide mentions and lobbied to exclude these from a second report. In the months between the first and second MAHA reports, the White House held advisory meetings and even previewed the report to some agricultural groups.

Leaked drafts of the second MAHA report show a significantly scaled-back approach to pesticides. The report was submitted to the White House by the August 12 deadline, but has yet to be publicly released. (Link to this post.)

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Rebekah Alvey is a staff reporter for Civil Eats. Read more >

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RFK Jr. Tells Senators He’s Keeping Farm Interests in MAHA Agenda