Trump Issues Order Declaring National Defense Priority for Glyphosate
President Donald Trump issued an executive order this week that prioritizes glyphosate production in the US, saying the herbicide is vital to national security.
Trump’s order, issued late Wednesday, February 18, provides limited protection to domestic companies that make glyphosate and phosphorus, saying that both are important to the military and farmers. Using the Defense Production Act of 1950, Trump said elemental phosphorus is essential to military technology such as radar, solar cells and sensors, and to agriculture as a “precursor” to the production of glyphosate-based pesticides.
The president also used the Defense Production Act in his first term, ordering US meatpacking plants to remain open during the global crisis as thousands of workers fell ill from COVID-19 and nearly 300 died.
According to Trump’s order, glyphosate allows “America’s farmers to produce food and livestock feed more efficiently and cost-effectively.” The order goes on to say that the US “has only one domestic producer of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides, and this producer does not meet our annual requirements for those inputs,” which require about 6 million pounds of elemental phosphorus to be imported annually.
Trump ordered US Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins, in consultation with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, to ensure that no orders, laws or regulations put “the corporate operations of any domestic producer of basic phosphorus or glyphosate-based pesticides at risk.”
The move comes as several states debate whether manufacturers of widely used chemicals, such as Bayer’s Monsanto, which markets its glyphosate-based herbicide as Roundup, should be protected from legal action over claims linking it to cancer. Dani Replogle, senior attorney for Food & Water Watch, said Thursday, Feb. 19, the executive order will do little to help farmers or consumers.
“This is the clearest indication yet that the Trump administration is in a critical position for the pesticide industry — Bayer in particular,” Replogle said.
He said the Defense Production Act is usually reserved for “national emergencies such as war or during the COVID-19 crisis,” when it is tapped to increase production of items such as personal protective equipment and ventilators.
The order comes after Monsanto reached a settlement in the Roundup lawsuits
US farmers have widely adopted glyphosate combined with herbicide-resistant seeds that allow them to spray weeds among corn, soybeans and other genetically modified crops without harming beneficial crops.
Despite Roundup’s popularity among farmers, Bayer AG, Monsanto’s parent company, has worked for years to fend off disputed product liability claims, brought mostly by private garden users who link their cancer diagnoses. Bayer said on Tuesday, February 17, they had reached an agreement to pay up to $7.25 billion to settle tens of thousands of lawsuits.
At the same time, the German-based company has convinced the US Supreme Court to hear an appeal that could significantly reduce its case in the lawsuits.
The high court’s decision to rule on the matter came after the Trump administration backed Bayer’s view that federal glyphosate law, which heavily favors Bayer, should take precedence over state laws used by the plaintiffs.
Bayer warned last year that it could be forced to halt US production of the herbicide unless legal changes are made to avoid litigation.
The independent attorney general supports Trump’s order
Trump’s order comes at a time of growing concern over rising food prices, with farmers complaining that the cost of fertilizer, seed and other production costs are outpacing the price of their crops. US farmers are facing a fourth year of possible losses, a permanent decline that has increased the president’s prices against China, Canada, Mexico and other countries.
Jennifer Zwagerman, director of the Agricultural Law Center at Drake University in Iowa, said the order could help improve domestic availability of glyphosate herbicides. But it did nothing to address the concerns many farmers have about the consolidation of the fertilizer, chemical and seed industries.
Production costs have remained stubbornly high, although prices for corn, soybeans and other crops have fallen sharply in recent years.
“For any real change to happen, we need to figure out how to make markets more competitive at home,” Zwagerman said Thursday, Feb. 19.
The order provokes anger from MAHA
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. he had previously pledged to address concerns about dangerous agricultural pesticides. Last May, a commission led by the secretary of health issued a report stating that processed foods, chemicals, stress and the over-prescription of drugs and vaccines may be contributing factors to chronic illness in US children.
The report named two herbicides, glyphosate and atrazine, and said these chemicals should be further researched, but did not recommend specific regulatory changes or restrictions on pesticides used in agriculture. Another report in September from the Make America Healthy Again commission targeted food and drug sales but did not address pesticide regulations.
In a statement sent by the New York Times on Wednesday, February 18, a spokesperson for the secretary of health said that Kennedy supports the president.
“Donald Trump’s Executive Order puts America first where it matters most – our defense readiness and our food security,” it said. “We must protect America’s national security first, because all our priorities depend on it.”
However, Trump’s order backfired on those affiliated with the administration’s MAHA organization, which has widely scrutinized pesticide use.
“As the main base of MAHA begins to consider what to do in the interim, the President issues an EO to increase the domestic production of glyphosate. It is a carcinogenic pesticide that MAHA is very concerned about,” said Kelly Ryerson, a MAHA activist who goes by “The Glyphosate Girl” on the Internet, said in a post on X.
Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization that opposes the use of chemicals in food, water and household products, said he “couldn’t imagine a middle finger to the whole MAHA mother than this.”
“By giving protection to the makers of the country’s most widely used pesticide, President Trump has just given Bayer a license to poison people. Full stop,” Cook said in a statement. “It is shockingly dishonest to protect all of us but especially the people who live near the fields where glyphosate is used.”
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., once one of Trump’s closest supporters, has repeatedly criticized the administration’s actions, including its handling of foreign policies, health care costs and the Epstein files. In the post at X on Thursday, Feb. 19, said Trump “signed an EO protecting cancer-causing Glyphosate from our food.”
Contributor: Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY; Reuters
This article first appeared in the Des Moines Register: Trump issues order declaring glyphosate a national defense priority
Reporting by Donnelle Eller and Stephen Gruber-Miller, USA TODAY NETWORK / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
