RFK Jr is losing his base

On June 30, the EPA finalized registrations for two novel fluorinated herbicides, diflufenican and epyrifenacil, clearing them for use on corn and soybeans—the two most widely planted crops in the United States. Epyrifenacil also approved on wheat and canola. Neither chemical has ever been sprayed on US soil before which, along with other reasons, has gotten environmental activists and MAHA fans up in arms.

Unsurprisingly, the EPA did not issue a press release. The Center for Biological Diversity flagged newly posted approval documents, which I’m sure the administration broadly (and Kennedy specifically) would have liked to have kept quiet, especially since the EPA also expanded uses of an older fluorinated insecticide, bifenthrin, and approved the first U.S. food use of a separate compound, chlormequat. A third fluorinated herbicide, trifludimoxazin, was approved a day later.

Both of the herbicides above are fluorinated, meaning they contain carbon-fluorine bonds, the same type of bond that defines the broader PFAS family sometimes which most people know as “forever chemicals” because these bonds resist environmental breakdown.

The exact opposite of what Kennedy ran on. Many love Kennedy’s history as an “environmental champion,” though how much he led the charge and how much of an opportunist he was is debated. Regardless, he spent decades as one of pesticides’ loudest critics. He’s frequently called glyphosate and related chemicals “poison.”

We can’t overlook the fact that the SCOTUS recently decided that a federal law known as the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act expressly preempts state-law “failure-to-warn” claims when the EPA has not mandated a cancer warning on the product’s label. Because the EPA consistently reviewed glyphosate and determined it was not likely to cause cancer, the Court majority ruled 7-2 that state-level lawsuits cannot penalize the company for failing to add cancer warnings to their products, which has infuriated many in MAHA’s coalition.

This follows the MAHA Commission’s strategy report, which lacked any recommendations to regulate pesticides. The group initially included suggestions until industry groups like CropLife America, Walmart, and Coca-Cola pushed back. In response, (former?) Kennedy ally Zen Honeycutt posted:

It’s been a year. Not a single thing has been done by the EPA to reduce our children’s and families exposure to pesticides. In fact regulations have only gotten worse, loosened and more harmful pesticides have been approved. There is no excuse for this. We love you Bobby but this administration needs to keep their word. We were promised specifically clean air, clean water, and addressing of the pesticides [in] our foods. Whether glyphosate comes from China or the USA it’s still sterilizing and killing us and our soil.

These repeated industry-friendly decisions, whether via Kennedy or the Trump administration, has greatly weakened MAHA’s coalition. Kennedy has thus far remained silent on the recent EPA decision, though apparently there was some serious in-fighting in the White House. Trump reportedly signed an executive order to review “pre-harvest desiccation,” the strategic application of pesticides or herbicides to kill foliage and force crops to dry down uniformly, to try to placate the MAHA base. Yet there’s no indication of when or how, and no federal funds have been offered for it, so it’s likely exactly what it seems like: a hurried, thoughtless order that Kennedy, his senior advisor, Calley Means, and his friends over at MAHA Action are holding up as some sort of “win.”

As I’ve covered before on Conspirituality, I’m not on board with the glyphosate-is-poison-to-everyone train. But the SCOTUS case involved a farmer who had applied it for 20 years. When you work with it regularly, indications that glyphosate causes cancer are much more grounded. Much different than trace residues on food. And I don’t like the government stepping in to say that any corporation can’t be sued.

It’s not like there hasn’t been any research on the two new herbicides. The EPA rates epyrifenacil as “not likely to be carcinogenic” at low doses, yet the pesticide causes liver tumors in animal studies, which environmental groups say relied heavily on the manufacturer’s own interpretation of its data. Diflufenican breaks down into a chemical with a similar structure and toxicity profile to aniline, a component of tobacco smoke that the EPA classifies as a probable human carcinogen. The agency didn’t require studies assessing that breakdown product’s real-world cancer risk. Whether these herbicides count as PFAS is itself contested, with a similar environmental group versus industry breakdown.

At the moment, there is no published clinical, human trial evidence on either chemical. Safety data comes from EPA-reviewed animal toxicology studies, environmental fate modeling, and epidemiological inference from structurally related chemicals, which is standard for a new pesticide registration.

As is often the case, I’m hovering in the middle on this one. Chemistry is complex and activists often weaponize the public’s gaps in knowledge, treating all reviews of chemicals as evidence of nefarious corporate actors. I’m not down with the “never use pesticides” jargon. While one farmer tried to sue Monsanto, many others rely on them to produce the food we need. Kennedy and crew have been going hard on the “regenerative agriculture is the way forward” messaging, which is great for local farms and their communities, yet there’s no indication that such practices can work at scale.

That said, I don’t love chemicals without any human trial evidence being allowed into circulation. Letting corporations police their products instead of independent agencies is ludicrous. We need government laser-focused on studying and assessing chemicals with the help of non-partisan, non-corporate scientific experts.

Last week, I received an email from MAHA Action railing against the SCOTUS decision on Monsanto. It assumes the usual “can’t trust those in power” language, which honestly is exhausting from this crew. They’re the dog who caught the car and keep pretending they didn’t.

While I know the SCOTUS is not HHS, Kennedy was installed to fulfill the Heritage Foundation’s business-friendly, deregulatory mission. His senior advisor, Calley Means, started his career as a Heritage intern. Their stated mission of making Americans healthy is as disingenuous as Trump’s slogan.

Their real mission is appeasing corporations and loosening laws that stop businesses from doing whatever the fuck they want for profit. And that one they’re actually fulfilling.

The problem, for Kennedy, is that he doesn’t have the parasocial stranglehold over his base that Trump does. And so MAHA stans have quickly, and rightfully, grown tired of his deflections. While his fundraising arm is pitching MAHA’s base as necessary for the midterms, it’s obvious that Kennedy has become a liability.