President Donald Trump issued an executive order this week prioritizing U.S. production of glyphosate, saying the herbicide is critical to the nation’s security.
Trump’s executive order, issued late Wednesday, Feb. 18, provides limited immunity to domestic companies that make glyphosate and phosphorus, declaring both essential to the nation’s military and farmers. Using the 1950 Defense Production Act, Trump said elemental phosphorus is critical to military technologies such as radar, solar cells and sensors, and to agriculture as a “precursor element” in producing glyphosate-based herbicides.
The president also used the Defense Production Act during his first term, ordering U.S. meatpacking plants to remain open during the global pandemic as thousands of workers became ill from COVID-19 and nearly 300 died.
According to Trump’s order, glyphosate allows U.S. “farmers to efficiently and cost-effectively produce food and livestock feed.” The order further states that the U.S. has “only a single domestic producer of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides, and this producer does not meet our annual needs for those inputs,” requiring roughly 6 million kilograms of elemental phosphorus to be imported annually.
Trump ordered U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins, in consultation with the U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, to ensure no orders, rules or regulations place “the corporate viability of any domestic producer of elemental phosphorus or glyphosate-based herbicides at risk.”
The move comes as several states debate whether manufacturers of the widely used chemical, like 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, a Food & Water Watch senior attorney, 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 at the beck and call of the pesticide industry — Bayer specifically,” Replogle said.
She said the Defense Production Act is typically reserved for “national emergencies like war or during the COVID pandemic,” when it was tapped to step up production of items such as personal protective equipment and ventilators.
Order comes after Monsanto reaches settlement in Roundup cases
U.S. farmers have widely adopted glyphosate in combination with herbicide-tolerant seed that allows them to spray for weeds among corn, soybean and other genetically modified crops without damaging the beneficial plants.
Despite Roundup’s popularity among farmers, Bayer AG, Monsanto’s parent company, has worked for years to fend off contested product-liability claims, brought mainly by private gardening users who linked it to their cancer diagnoses. Bayer said Tuesday, Feb. 17, it had reached an agreement to pay as much as $7.25 billion to resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits.
At the same time, the German-based company has convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal that would sharply limit its liability in the lawsuits.
The top court’s decision to rule on the matter came after the Trump administration supported Bayer’s view that federal glyphosate regulation, which is mainly in Bayer’s favor, should take precedence over state laws invoked by the plaintiffs.
Bayer warned last year it could be forced to stop U.S. production of the weedkiller unless regulatory changes are made to stave off the litigation.
Private attorney supports Trump order
Trump’s order comes as he has battled concerns about rising food costs, and farmers have complained about rising fertilizer, seed and other production expenses outstripping the prices they receive for their crops. U.S. farmers face a fourth year of possible losses, a lingering downturn that the president’s tariffs against China, Canada, Mexico and other countries have exacerbated.
Jennifer Zwagerman, director of Drake University’s Agricultural Law Center in Iowa, said the order could help improve domestic supplies of glyphosate herbicides. But it does little to address concerns that many farmers have about consolidation within the fertilizer, chemical and seed industries.
Production costs have remained stubbornly high, even though prices for corn, soybeans and other crops have fallen dramatically in recent years.
“For any real change to happen, we need to figure out how to make markets more competitive domestically,” Zwagerman said Thursday, Feb. 19.
Order sparks outrage from MAHA
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had previously pledged to address concerns over harmful agricultural pesticides. Last May, a commission led by the health secretary issued a report that said processed food, chemicals, stress and overprescription of medications and vaccines may be factors behind chronic illness in U.S. children.
The report called out two herbicides, glyphosate and atrazine, and said the chemicals should be further researched, but it did not recommend specific regulatory changes or restrictions on pesticides used in farming. Another report in September from the Make America Healthy Again commission targeted food and drug marketing but did not address pesticide regulations.
In a statement to The New York Times on Wednesday, Feb. 18, a spokesperson for the health secretary said Kennedy supported the president.
“Donald Trump’s Executive Order puts America first where it matters most — our defense readiness and our food supply,” it said. “We must safeguard America’s national security first, because all of our priorities depend on it.”
However, Trump’s order drew backlash from those aligned with the administration’s MAHA movement, which has widely scrutinized the use of pesticides.
“Just as the large MAHA base begins to consider what to do at midterms, the President issues an EO to expand domestic glyphosate production. The very same carcinogenic pesticide that MAHA cares about most,” Kelly Ryerson, a MAHA activist who goes by “The Glyphosate Girl” online, said in a post on X.
Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization that has argued against the use of chemicals in food, water and household products, said he “can’t envision a bigger middle finger to every MAHA mom than this.”
“By granting immunity to the makers of the nation’s most widely used pesticide, President Trump just gave Bayer a license to poison people. Full stop,” Cook said in a statement. “It’s a shocking betrayal to protect all of us but especially the people who live and work near farm fields where glyphosate is used.”
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who was once one of Trump’s closest allies, has repeatedly criticized the administration’s actions, including its handling of foreign policies, healthcare costs and the Epstein files. In a post on X on Thursday, Feb. 19, she said Trump “signed an EO protecting cancer-causing Glyphosate in our foods.”
Contributing: Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY; Reuters
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Trump issues order declaring glyphosate national defense priority
Reporting by Donnelle Eller and Stephen Gruber-Miller, USA TODAY NETWORK / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect