HYDE-SMITH STATEMENT ON MAHA COMMISSION REPORT
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today asserted she and farmers across the country had every right to be concerned about the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission report issued on Thursday by Health and Humans Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
At a hearing this week, Hyde-Smith confronted Kennedy about concerns the MAHA initial report would mischaracterize important crop protection tools that have repeatedly been deemed safe by regulatory bodies, time and time again over the decades.
Hyde-Smith issued the following statement in response to the release of the MAHA report:
“I expressed concerns to the Secretary that this initial MAHA report would ignore sound science and unfairly target American agriculture, modern farming practices, and crop protection tools that two percent of the population relies on to help feed the remaining 98 percent. He said the information I had about the report was just simply wrong. He said, ‘The drafts that I’ve seen, there’s not a single word in them that should worry the American farmer.’
“Based on my initial thoughts from what I’ve read and public responses from major farm, commodity, and agricultural organizations, that does not seem to be the case. There is enough in the report to cause plenty of worry about how key crop protection tools will be regulated in the future.
“I remain concerned abut this report may be used to set the stage for a new regimen of standards based on fringe theories that could upend the sound farming practices that have made American farmers the most productive in history.”
Kennedy and the MAHA Commission will use the initial report as the basis for developing a “Make Our Children Healthy Again” strategy to tackle childhood chronic diseases, which is expected to be delivered to President Trump in August.
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