The 2026 farm bill now working its way through Congress contains a number of provisions at odds with the Make America Healthy Again movement, particularly when it comes to pesticides and factory farming. One less-noticed amendment would allow tobacco farmers to receive more disaster and emergency funds — a move critics say is out of step with public health goals and MAHA’s vow to lower chronic disease rates in the U.S.
The amendment, introduced by Rep. David Rouzer (R-N.C.) earlier this month, would make tobacco farmers eligible for aid from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Credit Corporation. Tobacco farmers have been excluded from receiving those funds since the end of the federal tobacco program, which ran from 1938 to 2004.
Rouzer, whose state is the top producer of tobacco in the U.S., called the amendment a “technical correction” in keeping with the original intent of the 2004 buyout negotiations, which gave tobacco farmers $10 billion spread out over 10 years. Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) opposed the amendment, saying it would “restart the government’s ability to use taxpayer dollars to promote the domestic consumption of tobacco and the marketing of tobacco as well. That seems very inconsistent with the Make America Healthy Again agenda.”
Those objections were overruled.
The overall impact of the amendment would be relatively small, Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy, managing attorney at the nonprofit advocacy group Action on Smoking and Health, said via email. “But it amounts to subsidizing a product that kills half a million Americans every year,” she said.
Tobacco subsidies, she said, “lower the cost of finished tobacco products, increasing the likelihood that kids will get addicted and lowering the incentive for adults to quit.”
Tobacco farmers can benefit from other government subsidies, such as federal crop insurance. They’ve also remained eligible for emergency relief from Congress, as with the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, MAHA activists have been vocal about their concerns over provisions that would protect pesticide manufacturers from health-related lawsuits and limit states’ ability to put health warning labels on pesticides. Some had already expressed a sense of betrayal following President Trump’s executive order aimed at boosting production of glyphosate, the main ingredient in the weed killer Roundup and a frequent target of MAHA criticism because of its potential links to cancer.
Zen Honeycutt, head of the grassroots MAHA organization Moms Across America, said via email that her group wants to see American farmers thrive — “if they are growing crops that do not poison the American people.”
“If they are growing crops that utilize toxic chemicals, no matter what the crops, we urge our elected officials to prioritize supporting these farmers to shift from GMOs and toxic chemicals to regenerative organic farming,” Honeycutt continued. “We ask that American farmers growing crops that use vast amounts of agrochemicals such as soy, corn, sugarbeets, tobacco, and cotton reconsider their farming practices and choose to transition to non toxic practices instead.”
Environmental advocates not affiliated with the MAHA movement sounded similar alarms. “Pesticides have been linked to a host of diseases including birth defects and cancers,” Lauren Borsheim, a food policy analyst at the nonprofit Food & Water Watch, said via email. “Instead of using this opportunity to incentivize low-input agricultural practices, the Farm Bill doubles down on these toxic chemicals.”
So-called low-input agricultural practices, which minimize the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers and are part of what’s known as regenerative farming, have support among both MAHA supporters and people on the left because of potential benefits to both health and the environment.
It was inevitable that tensions would arise between the MAHA movement spearheaded by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the Republicans with whom supporters find themselves aligned, said Jessica Knurick, a dietician and prominent science communicator. “From the beginning, there has been a clear mismatch between the MAHA movement’s rhetoric around environmental toxins and the Trump administration’s long-standing, overt deregulatory agenda,” Knurick wrote in a recent newsletter.
There are elements of the farm bill that MAHA supporters may be able to get behind. One provision designates animal protein as an incentive food under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, meaning that stores could sell meat at a discount to people on food benefits. That’s in keeping with the updated dietary guidelines released in January, which urged Americans to eat more protein from animals and other sources. While many nutrition experts say Americans don’t need more protein, particularly from red and processed meats, MAHA supporters tend to tuck into steaks and beef jerky.
But the farm bill, now with the Senate Agriculture Committee, has highlighted the reality that politicians trying to cater to the powerful agriculture industry risk losing the support of MAHA while running afoul of public health goals. New government data shows that cigarette smoking rates in the U.S. have for the first time dropped below 10% — a major benchmark. But the tobacco amendment, if included in the final bill, would be another win for an industry that’s having a good run under the Trump administration.
“Tobacco is perhaps the only health issue that HHS has ignored under the current administration,” said Action on Smoking and Health’s Romeo-Stuppy. “This is stunning because tobacco use is by far the leading cause of avoidable death in the U.S.”
STAT’s coverage of chronic health issues is supported by a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Our financial supporters are not involved in any decisions about our journalism.