For years, the pesticide manufacturer Bayer has battled thousands of lawsuits claiming that its weed killer Roundup causes cancer in people who use it frequently.
Now, the Republican-controlled Congress could deliver the company a crucial victory. A provision tucked into a government spending bill could shield Bayer and other pesticides makers from billions of dollars in payouts to plaintiffs.
The proposal follows intense lobbying by Bayer and other industry interests over the past year. But it has sparked outrage from a new force in Washington: followers of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
The controversy highlights tensions within President Trump’s political base over the pesticides in the nation’s food supply. Tensions flared this month after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released a report on childhood health that disappointed many MAHA activists who felt it didn’t go far enough to rein in pesticides. The divisions within the president’s base could resurface ahead of the midterm elections next fall.
If Republican lawmakers vote for the spending bill in its current form, “they are going to face the wrath of MAHA in the midterm elections,” said Vani Hari, a MAHA influencer who is known as the Food Babe to her 2.3 million Instagram followers.
Among MAHA influencers, glyphosate, the key ingredient in certain formulations of Roundup, is so singularly spurned that the activist Kelly Ryerson goes by “the Glyphosate Girl” on social media. In recent weeks, Ms. Ryerson has urged her nearly 84,000 Instagram followers to call lawmakers about the proposal.
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The post G.O.P. Plan on Pesticides Faces Revolt From MAHA Moms appeared first on New York Times.
