The Power of Farmer Voices: New MAHA Commission Report is Much Improved for Agriculture

By Lesly McNitt

One of the many lessons I have learned during my two-plus decades in Washington is that shaping policy recommendations takes hard work and persistence because most policy change is incremental. So, when you see a window of opportunity to make an impact you take it and give it everything you’ve got.

You may recall that in June I provided an update on NCGA’s concerns that some of the work being conducted by the Make America Healthy Again Commission would compromise farmer access to key crop production tools. This month, the commission released its long-awaited final recommendations reflecting a major shift in tone and substance related to pesticide use and crop production.

The commission had released its first report in May, looking at a host of causal factors related to childhood health, including vaccines and food consumption. Corn grower leaders and other farmers were concerned that they were left out of the process for developing the report, and with the substance of the report itself. The report cast doubt on the safe use of two key pesticides, glyphosate and atrazine, which have decades of regulatory reviews and research establishing their safety. Why is this a concern to you? Because if farmers were to lose access to these pesticides, it could lead to a 70% reduction in corn yield.

The National Corn Board directed our staff to hit this issue head on, and we went to work.

The National Corn Growers Association and other ag groups pushed back on the draft recommendations. We sounded the alarm through the news media, and working with a coalition of farm and commodity groups, we sent open letters to members of Congress conveying our concerns. Corn farmers across the country engaged in a call to action and shared their personal stories on NCGA’s Pesticide Perspectives platform. We met with members of Congress to explain the importance of pesticides, the great lengths farmers must go to apply them safely and with precision, and we shared the science-based information that supports their safety for intended use.

NCGA’s leadership and policy staff shared these facts publicly and called on the White House to intervene. As a result of these efforts, we began hearing more from administration officials, including those working closely with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. With our encouragement, these officials visited farms, reviewed research and considered the impact the recommendations could have on farmers and rural communities. We developed common ground with these officials around soil health and precision farming. We soon started seeing a change in the posture among MAHA and administration officials who began more regular one-on-one meetings with us to hear our perspective.

When the commission released its policy recommendations on September 9, we were delighted that the final recommendations reflected our feedback, including reaffirming that the Environmental Protection Agency is the appropriate agency for regulating crop inputs. And much of the negative language about these pesticides from the original report was omitted in favor of a more science-based approach. The report also added soil health and precision agriculture as new priorities, which we look forward to engaging on further.

The news media labeled the development a big win for farmers. But I like to look at it as an important step toward ensuring science-based policies and regulations around pesticide use.

We are proud of NCGA’s ability to impact policy outcomes that affect corn farmers, but we’re also clear-eyed that our work on this issue is far from finished. There was language in the draft report on cumulative exposure, which captured our attention and is something we will monitor as we move forward. We know that the devil is in the details and our continued engagement in the regulatory process will be critical. We also know that efforts are underway in the states to pass legislation on pesticide use. So, ag advocates will need to regroup and focus on those efforts.

One of the reasons our campaign on the MAHA report was successful is because it fully integrated NCGA’s direct advocacy, communications and grassroots strength for maximum impact. We will draw on that playbook to inform our strategy for other pressing policy priorities, like helping to increase new export opportunities and passing legislation that will allow for year-round, nationwide consumer access to 15% ethanol fuel blends at the pump.

But for now, let’s take a moment to celebrate that we came together to overcome a significant obstacle. It’s a powerful reminder of what this organization can achieve when we all work together, and corn farmers make their voices heard.

McNitt is vice president public policy at the National Corn Growers Association.