Kennedy’s Detractors Pounce on Leaked MAHA Commission Report

A leaked draft of the MAHA Commission’s second report has fueled recriminations and speculations that reveal the daunting task of simultaneously improving the quality of food in America while appeasing industrial interests dependent on the teat of government subsidies for pesticides.

The first MAHA Commission Report, made public in May, faced a similar fate. Even before its official release, it was denigrated by the corn lobby as an attack on pesticide manufacturers, yet it promised better science and evaluation without calling to ban Roundup and other modern farming tools.

Legacy media wants Americans to believe that better science is not coming under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In fact, they want you to believe the opposite is true.

For his part, Kennedy is quietly racking up what this publication has been calling ‘wins’ – significant victories for MAHA supporters and all Americans – even as the mainstream media once again desperately tries to turn Kenendy into a divisive figure. The latest (erroneous) narrative twists? Some in the media are now claiming Kennedy is alienating his own MAHA supporters while others are fabricating a rift between the secretary and President Trump.

Both narratives, of course, are false – nor has HHS completed its latest report, which is expected to be released in a few weeks.

But the forthcoming second MAHA report, Americans are being told, is either not enough, or too much. Kennedy’s supporters are allegedly disappointed because the report doesn’t call for a complete and immediate prohibition on all chemical additives in the food supply, while the secretary’s detractors claim any attack on pesticides is a declaration of war on struggling farmers.

I have farmed for 25 years and I have learned that there is likely no more powerful political and economic force in America than the Big Farm lobby – now aligned with Big Pharma, which is apoplectic over Kennedy’s (perceived) insults to its dubious mRNA vaccine racket.

For its part, the left seeks to splinter the historic MAGA/MAHA alliance and alienate voters from President Trump. The New Republic proclaimed in a headline, “RFK Jr. Is Breaking His Two Big Promises to MAHA Diehards.”

No, he isn’t – he is paddling furiously in the brutal political currents between the Scylla of Big Ag and the Charybdis of food rights purists. He cannot please either side completely without capsizing the MAHA vessel.

President Trump appointed Kennedy to lead the MAHA Commission, but it’s important to recall that the secretary does not direct the actions of the USDA, which cut local food programs, nor does he regulate pesticides and glyphosate, the domain of the EPA. Even if he could wave a magic wand, reversing decades of soil-killing applications of ecotoxins overnight is not a realistic expectation.

In a telltale opinion piece in The New York Times titled, “Farmers are Turning on MAHA,” Eloin Higgins alternately complains that the MAHA Commission is not doing enough to protect consumers with healthier food. It then pivots to criticizing Kennedy for threatening to ban the all-important chemicals that toxify that food.

In his attack piece, Higgins finds a useful industry rube in a self-proclaimed “Farm Babe,” who ought to use the name “Ms. Glyphosate” (Her real name is Michelle Miller). Higgins writes that Miller told him Kennedy and his allies “are showing real hostility to farmers who use pesticides and herbicides.”

Really? What spin.

MAHA Action’s president, Tony Lyons, called out Higgins’ opinion piece for what it is: “The Times supports the use of cancer-causing pesticides, pesticides that juries all around the country have determined can cause severe illness or even death. This captured newspaper is choosing Big Pharma, Big Food and Big Ag over the health of American children. Shame on them.”

This is what Kennedy’s supporters and detractors alike should examine closely: Kennedy is critiqued by his MAHA followers for not doing enough, and by the Farm Babe et al. for (apparently) dissing their dear pesticides.

Kennedy is literally in the middle of a battle for healthier food, and is proceeding wisely, as Kelly Ryerson, of American Regeneration, told me:

“To those disheartened by the noise, remember that real food system change demands patience. Kennedy is taking concrete steps to put science and health before profit. Resources will be provided to study and confirm the cause of the fertility crisis, which is directly caused by endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Study of the microbiome will help connect toxic exposures to the explosion in autoimmunity and other chronic diseases. The report further highlights that soil health is vital to the very foundation of nutrition. I have hope that this report marks the beginning of a safer food supply for all Americans.”

Both MAHA commission reports call for improved scientific study of glyphosate and pesticides. I believe Kennedy must garner that evidentiary foundation before he dares poke the mighty Bayer-Monsanto behemoth and its chemically-enthralled Big Corn lobby.

Both reports also call for further study of soil science, which will lay the foundation to establish that the soil microbiome and that of the human gut are dependent not on synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and ubiquitous glyphosate, but rather on the vital microbial denizens that are killed by such unnatural adjutants. Only then will the stalwart Kennedy be properly equipped to take on the mega-industrial Cyclops.

Within these roiling currents lies another visible friction. Many on the political left will scuttle MAHA for partisan victory even if it means feeding their own children glyphosate-tainted oats. Meanwhile, many Republicans seek the political power of the populist MAHA movement, in name only, while they pander to Big Ag donors and soy-cropping constituents. Both sides want to have their cake and eat it too.

Fortunately, there is still a sensible path forward. Farm Action issued a press release bluntly titled, “Leaked MAHA Strategy Falls Short, Earns D+ from Farm Action,” but they have not thrown out Bobby with the bath water. Farm Action’s Angela Huffman tells our publication, The MAHA Report:

“While the leaked MAHA draft strategy leaves us wanting more, Farm Action continues to stand with Secretary Kennedy. He’s shown real leadership on nutrition, from pushing for stronger dietary guidelines to removing harmful additives from our food supply. Those are initiatives fully under his control, and they reflect the bold vision that inspired us to endorse him for HHS Secretary. We remain confident he will keep fighting for farmers and families.”

Nobody ever said navigating through an ugly labyrinth of detractors and corporate enemies would be easy. But this isn’t Bobby’s first rodeo.

Takeaways:

• MSM and the usual Kennedy detractors have launched a hyperbolic attack on a leaked draft of the second MAHA Commission report in an effort to discredit Robert F Kennedy Jr. before the report is even released.
• The HHS Secretary confronts a daunting task of improving food safety without agitating powerful chemical and agricultural lobbies which perceive cleaner food supplies as a threat to their profits. Nonetheless, Kennedy continues to persevere with his mission to make America healthy again while using rigorous scientific inquiry to build consensus.