‘We’ve Addicted Our Farmers’ to Glyphosate, RFK Jr. Tells Joe Rogan

March 2, 2026

Originally posted by: Children's Health Defense

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called glyphosate a “poison” embedded in America’s food supply, even as he backed President Donald Trump’s executive order expanding its domestic production.

Speaking Feb. 27 on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Kennedy emphasized his decades-long fight against pesticides. “Pesticides are poison. They’re designed to kill all life. It’s not a good thing to have in your food,” he said.

Yet he defended the president’s executive order as a national security measure.

Trump signed the order in February to boost U.S. production of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller. Bayer acquired Monsanto in 2018 and now faces tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging Roundup exposure caused cancer.

Hours after the order, Kennedy told The New York Times, “Donald Trump’s executive order puts America first where it matters most — our defense readiness and our food supply.” Days later, Kennedy posted on X, explaining his position.

On Rogan’s show, Kennedy said industry reports show that 99% of U.S. glyphosate supplies come from China. U.S. Department of Defense officials warned that dependence poses “an extreme national security vulnerability,” he said. A supply disruption “could literally cut off our food supply overnight and cripple the country.”

“The president was dealing with national security,” Kennedy said.

The executive order also grants legal immunity to domestic manufacturers compelled under the Defense Production Act of 1950 to produce glyphosate-related products. The law allows the federal government to require companies to produce materials deemed necessary for national security.

Bayer is the only company manufacturing glyphosate in the U.S.

Kennedy criticized the liability protections. “It’s not something that I was particularly happy with. Let me put it that way mildly,” he said.

He warned that immunity “takes away all incentive for them to make the product safer.”

‘We’ve addicted our farmers’ to glyphosate

Beyond geopolitics, Kennedy argued that past federal policy has created deep agricultural dependence on the chemical.

“Through federal policies and subsidies … we’ve addicted our farmers to these pesticides and particularly glyphosate,” he said. “Glyphosate is the foundational pesticide of our food production system.”

He explained how genetically engineered crops fueled widespread use. “Roundup Ready corn … means that you can spray the field and everything green dies except for the corn, which is immune to glyphosate,” he said. The same holds for soy.

Kennedy said 97% of U.S. corn and 98% of U.S. soy rely on glyphosate. “If you banned glyphosate overnight … it would destroy the American food system,” he said.

That dependence leaves farmers trapped in a costly and increasingly dangerous model, Kennedy said.

Farmers started spraying glyphosate ‘right on food,’ and allergies surged

Kennedy questioned the health risks of any amount of exposure to the chemical. “I don’t know that there is any safe level,” he said.

Most litigation has focused on non-Hodgkin lymphoma “because that’s the one thing that they had a critical mass of scientific studies supporting,” he noted.

Although there is no Roundup Ready wheat, Kennedy said farmers began using glyphosate around 2003 to dry wheat before harvest. “For the first time, they were spraying it right on food,” he said.

“Around 2003 is when you started seeing these explosions in celiac disease and gluten allergies,” he said. Kennedy acknowledged “there’s no clear scientific evidence that it’s related.” However, he cited health “signals” now under review by federal health agencies.

Glyphosate “definitely disrupts … your gut biome,” Kennedy said. “The advantage of glyphosate is — unlike the other poisons — it doesn’t harm organic tissue, but it goes after plants, not animal tissue. But your stomach microbiome is plants.”

Farmers know glyphosate is ‘destroying their soil’

Kennedy also warned that glyphosate harms soil health.

Farmers “know it’s destroying their soil,” he said. Glyphosate harms soil microbiology, reduces water infiltration and contributes to runoff. “It’s not sustainable. Everybody knows that,” he said.

He said farmers resent glyphosate’s high cost, the spread of chemical-resistant weeds and European export restrictions that limit glyphosate-treated crops.

“Farmers are the most hardworking people that I’ve ever met,” Kennedy said. “They want to produce the healthiest foods and … the inputs are killing them.”

He added:

“Seven out of 10 years farmers lose money and … there’s no young people moving to the farm country anymore. So, you know, we really need to do what we can to make sure we don’t lose any more farms in this country. And that’s what the president’s worried about. That has to be his priority.”

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‘We all know we’ve got to transition off of glyphosate’

Despite defending Trump’s order, Kennedy insisted the long-term goal remains clear. “We all know we’ve got to transition off of glyphosate,” he said.

He said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is investing heavily in research and regenerative agriculture, while the president has committed $1 billion toward regenerative farming and reducing chemical use.

Kennedy pointed to laser systems that target weeds and insects without chemicals. Though the machines cost about $1 million, he said the system “pays itself back,” citing trials that show increased productivity and shortened growing seasons.

“There’s all these kinds of new exciting technologies that give us a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “And it could be very, very fast.”

Row crops pose a greater challenge than specialty organic farms, he acknowledged, but he urged investment to wean the U.S. off chemical dependence.

“How do we help them do that?” he asked. “How do we bring Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and billionaires in to start investing really heavily in these kinds of technologies? And let’s get off of this stuff.”

Kennedy framed his mission as urgent. “I’m going to act as if I got three years to do everything,” he said, referring to the remaining length of Trump’s current term in office.

He predicted that technology will eliminate many pesticides and herbicides, though fertilizer reform “is going to be much slower.”

Even so, he voiced confidence in a pesticide-free future. “I think that’s going to happen,” he said. “Technology is going to allow that to happen.”

Watch Kennedy on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ here: