Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he wants to work closely with Agriculture Secretary-nominee Brooke Rollins to help farmers transition to regenerative agricultural techniques, including the use of less chemical-intensive practices that he said are destroying the soil and making people sick.
The nominee to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services said at his first confirmation hearing Wednesday that even though he would not have authority over agricultural issues, President Donald Trump has told him to work with Rollins “to make sure that we serve American farmers, that all of our policies support them.”
“American farms are the bedrock of our culture, of our politics, of our national security,” Kennedy said. “I want to work with our farmers and food producers to remove burdensome regulations and unleash American ingenuity. I simply cannot succeed without a partnership, a full partnership of American farmers.”
Agriculture was one of many topics on which Kennedy, at a sometimes volatile hearing in the Senate Finance Committee, tried to take a more measured approach than he has in the past.
But he also said unequivocally, “We need to fix our food supply, and that's the number one [issue],” and linked chemical-intensive agriculture to certain health problems.
Farmers, he said, “are using seeds and chemicals that over the long term are costing them and us.”
“Some of the chemicals that farmers use destroy the microbiome, and that causes the erosion of the soil,” Kennedy said. He added, “Senator [Josh] Hawley told me the other day that his brother-in-laws are all farmers, and he said four out of five of his brother-in-laws has Parkinson's disease, and that kind of cluster we're seeing across farm country of cancers, autoimmune diseases, obesity, etc.”
Despite being well known for questioning the efficacy of a wide variety of vaccines, including the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and the COVID vaccine, and criticism of production agriculture, Kennedy pronounced himself a vaccine supporter and that he is not an “enemy of food producers.” He said he would never tell Americans they cannot eat what they want, but they should be warned about the dangers of processed foods.
Farm and food groups have expressed concern since Kennedy’s nomination given his past comments on pesticide use, processed foods, agricultural production and seed oils. However, at the hearing, Kennedy said he was a “4-H kid” and worked on ranches during summer breaks when he was young.
Despite his talk of collaborating with Rollins, Kennedy agreed with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who said, “I expect you to leave agricultural practice regulations to the proper agencies, and for the most part, that's USDA and EPA.”
Grassley, who had been critical of Kennedy’s comments on agriculture, said the two discussed several issues in his office, including responses to congressional oversight and drug prices, particularly in rural areas.
Grassley also said he expects Kennedy to provide Congress with financial disclosure reports on Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee members before finalizing the guidelines later this year.
To kick off the hearing, Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, asked Kennedy about national nutrition and how he would handle diet-related diseases at the helm of HHS.
“It’s a spiritual issue and it is a moral issue,” Kennedy said about the increase in chronic diseases among children.
Kennedy reiterated concerns with federal spending on ultraprocessed foods and sugary beverages in nutrition programs like SNAP and school meals. Both programs are under USDA’s jurisdiction.
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Still, Kennedy could have some influence. As he has in the past, he said Americans should be able to eat what they want, but that they should be educated about the health impacts.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he agreed with Kennedy’s stances on SNAP and school meals.
“I think that we should be very, very strict about that and it’s going to make some people uncomfortable in the food manufacturing segment," Tillis said.
He added that the federal government also needs to address school health programs.
Some Democrats pushed Kennedy on how he would handle personnel issues. Kennedy had previously said he would fire all federal nutrition scientists on “Day One,” because “all of them are corrupt and all of them are complicit in the poisoning of our children.”
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., asked Kennedy for clarity on what offices will be cut in HHS and to commit to not firing officials in food safety programs.
Kennedy did not make the pledge but committed to not firing anyone “who is doing their job” – a condition he did not specifically define.
The nominee appears before the Senate HELP Committee Thursday.
After the Finance Committee hearing, Make America Healthy Again advocate and Kennedy ally Calley Means said he thought Kennedy had "really cleared up that [he] and President Trump want to be a friend to farmers. Farmers are suffering right now, Bobby acknowledges that, and there's nothing Bobby or President Trump want to do to make life harder for farmers."
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said he expects Rollins to be a strong voice for American agriculture, and she will work “with Bobby, as opposed to against him.”
“The real challenge here is the big food companies making the ultraprocessed food," Marshall said. "I think that Bobby understands that American farmers and ranchers respond to the market. We don't make the market. So I think there'll be significant collaboration.”
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