Whopper of the Week: RFK Jr. Waffles on Glyphosates to Cover Policy Weakness

THIS WEEK'S WHOPPER:

RFK JR. WAFFLES ON GLYPHOSATES TO COVER POLICY WEAKNESS

IN SUMMARY

In February, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was on the Joe Rogan Experience to talk about his health policies. Trump had issued an Executive Order, invoking the Defense Production Act and encouraging the domestic production of the controversial weedkiller glyphosate. Kennedy’s MAHA supporters were angry, so he tried to find a balance between defending Trump and assuaging their concerns. Kennedy told Rogan that glyphosate was “unlike other poisons, it doesn’t harm organic tissue, but goes after plants.” It sounded like Kennedy was downplaying the health risks of glyphosates, which is a suspected carcinogen, but he then continued to say “your stomach microbiome is plants and [glyophosate] may contribute to the celiac disease and to all these gluten allergies.” This claim is gibberish.
 

WHY IS THIS A WHOPPER?

The microbiome is the collection of microorganisms (fungi, bacteria and viruses) that live and interact in an environment. The gut microbiome does not include plants, which definitely cannot live in the human stomach. Kennedy also misunderstood the fact that all living things are organic. He was correct that glyphosate is designed to kill plant cells by disrupting their ability to build some amino acids. Kennedy’s garbled messaging about glyphosates in the gut are a stark reminder of his poor understanding of basic concepts in biology. This level of incompetence should be disqualifying for the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Despite Kennedy’s claims, there is no solid scientific evidence that glyphosates increase the risk of celiac disease or gluten allergies. Theories about the digestive impacts of glyphosate became popular in wellness circles after the publication of an article by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer scientist in 2013 which hypothesized, without evidence, that gluten intolerance, celiac disease, kidney disease might be due to glyphosate. A 2020 review of the literature by a biologist and physician found that the evidence linking glyphosate to effects on the gut microbiome was limited and methodologically weak, making it “impossible to draw any definitive conclusions.” There are, however, ongoing scientific debates about whether glyphosates are carcinogenic or play a role in antimicrobial resistance and calls for more regulation. 

In short, Kennedy was recycling a theory popular in wellness circles about glyphosate that has no grounding in the scientific literature in order to signal to his MAHA base that he still speaks their language about the dangers of agricultural chemicals. He tried to convince MAHA that reducing reliance on glyphosates was still a long term project. 


WHY DOES IT MATTER?

In 2018, Kennedy was part of a team of litigators who successfully sued Monsanto for $289 million by arguing the company failed to warn consumers about known cancer risks linked to glyphosate exposure. But as Secretary of Health, Kennedy has walked back his position that glyphosate is an environmental toxin which should be banned. In his Senate confirmation hearing he tried to reassure the agricultural industry that he is “not an enemy of food producers.” The May 2025 MAHA Report, which laid out the administration’s plans to address the “crisis” of chronic disease, glyophosate was mentioned only as a potential health risk, worthy of further study, but did not call for its regulation, and instead encouraged farmers to adopt “precision technology that can help to decrease pesticide volumes.” In testimony to Congress last spring Kennedy pledged “There's a million farmers who rely on glyphosate... We are not going to do anything to jeopardize that business model." It comes as no surprise that the Secretary of Health would defend Trump’s Executive Order to promote the domestic supply of glyphosate and shield manufacturers from liability as necessary to protect national security and the food supply. 

Bayer, which now markets glyphosate as Roundup, is facing tens of thousands of court cases about the purported carcinogenic properties of glyphosate in the United States. In February, Bayer proposed a class settlement of $7.25 million without admitting liability or wrongdoing. In April the Supreme Court will hear a case about the approval of Roundup that could determine whether federal law could “block thousands of state lawsuits alleging it failed to warn people that its popular weedkiller could cause cancer.” The White House Executive Order could shield manufacturers from liability in civil lawsuits. Combined, all these measures could sharply curtail glyphosate litigation in the US.

As HHS Secretary, Kennedy has been compelled to abandon one of his most long held environmental health goals. His attacks on pesticides as the root cause of chronic disease now sound half-hearted. Officially, the interests of farmers have been elevated over those of MAHA supporters. It is a rare, but instructive case, about how Kennedy’s powers can be curtailed by the president, Congress, the courts, and his own weakness.

Contributors to this post are: Benedicte Callan, Ph.D.,  Elizabeth Jacobs, Ph.D., Aurora Horstkamp, M.D.