MAHA sells out to please polluters fouling our water

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a noted brain worm survivor, has released more than 120 recommendations from his Make America Healthy Again commission. That’s MAHA, for short.

When I heard the much-anticipated news was breaking this week, I got chills. I got goose bumps. I’ve got to stop consuming so many food dyes.

The purpose of this “strategy” it to Make Our Children Healthy Again. Who could be against that?

You say this plan is as vague as a fog bank? Why do you hate children?

Although the human body is 60% water, the word “water” appears just five times in the wordy 20-page document.

It’s all under a section called “Water Quality.”

“The EPA and USDA, along with other relevant Federal partners and in collaboration with NIH, will assess ongoing evaluations of water contaminants and update guidance and prioritizations of certain contaminants appropriately,” the recommendation says.

For example, the EPA will review new information on the health risks of fluoride added to drinking water. It’s always the fluoride.

“Additionally, USDA, through its Research, Education, and Economics mission area, in consultation with the Farm Production and Conservation mission area, will continue research on ways to improve water quality and adoption of applicable conservation practices, the recommendation says.

So, mission accomplished?

There is also a recommendation on “Precision Agricultural Technology.”

“USDA and EPA will prioritize research and programs to help growers adopt precision agricultural techniques, including remote sensing and precision application technologies that will further optimize crop applications,” the recommendation says.

Precision ag is a get-out-of pollution-regulations free card. It’s been played many times in Iowa by folks who claim it’s a pollution panacea.

What about chemical pollution?

“The current regulatory framework should be continually evaluated to ensure that chemicals and other exposures do not interact together to pose a threat to the health of our children,” the recommendations say.

MAHA recommends working “to reform the approval process for the full range of chemical and biologic products to protect against weeds, pests, and disease to increase the timely availability of more innovative growing solutions for farmers.”

The document also calls for ensuring there’s flexibility for farmers who want to “manage manure … without triggering industrial-grade permitting requirements.”

“ (The EPA) partnering with food and agricultural stakeholders, will work to ensure that the public has awareness and confidence in EPA’s pesticide robust review procedures and how that relates to the limiting of risk for users and the general public and informs continual improvement.”

So, thank goodness. The Trump Environmental Protection Agency is on its way to protect our health. Trump ‘s U.S. Department of Agriculture is following close behind.

I feel healthier already.

Actually, these recommendations are a scam. Lots of vague, fancy government-speak is papering over the fact that when it comes to farming, pesticides, manure management and the dangers of chemical exposure we’re sticking with the status quo.

Promoting environmental protection was Kennedy’s one saving grace. Now, poof.

How do we know for sure? Just look at who is praising the recommendations.

The stakeholders!

“We appreciate the commission’s willingness to meet with farmers across the country, hear our concerns and develop smart solutions. Those of us involved in the food system look forward to being fully engaged with the commission,” said American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall.

“The policy recommendations related to crop production … appear to be a reasonable and science-based approach for achieving its objectives. We are encouraged that when the commission engaged with agricultural stakeholders and followed the science, it reaffirmed what we already know: EPA is the appropriate agency for regulating crop inputs,” said National Corn Growers’ President Kenneth Hartman Jr.

“America’s pork producers need the administration’s continued partnership and receptiveness to agriculture and food industry education,” said National Pork Producers Council President Duane Stateler in a statement.

Clearly MAHA has sold out to the same Big Ag interests that control water quality regulation in Iowa. The report doesn’t mention the words “nitrate” or” fertilizer.” Zippy is delighted.

"It looks like pesticide industry lobbyists steamrolled the MAHA Commission's agenda," Environmental Working Group President Ken Cook told NPR.

This big sack of nothing will be the perfect compliment to the EPA’s drive to trash a long list of important regulations. It was in all the papers, including the New York Times.

In March, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that his agency will no longer protect wetlands and won’t care how much soot comes from your smokestack. The agency will stop enforcement efforts that protect the poor and minority communities from pollution.

Environmental policies will no longer account for wildfires and other disasters intensified through pollution. You’re pumping mercury into the atmosphere and contaminating water? No worries. And the EPA will stop trying to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.

“Today is the day Trump’s Big Oil megadonors paid for,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, according to the Times.

A former EPA administrator called it “the most dangerous day in EPA history.”

Can you reform regulations that do not exist? The Environmental Protection Agency will no longer protect the environment. Better change the name. Department of War on the Environment, perhaps.

This past week, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported EPA has abandoned a 2024 rule that would have required meat packers to reduce dirty discharges.

You think the growing evidence that long-term exposure to nitrate farm runoff in drinking water raises the risk of cancer? So what? We’re Making America Healthy Again, not Making Agriculture Responsible for Pollution, MARP. Not as catchy, I admit.

So those of us who care about water are alone again, naturally. The EPA, the courts and our state’s leaders are not coming to pull us out of dirty water. From the tippy top of Terrace Hill to the president’s White House bunker, our environment is being sold down the river to the highest bidders. As is our health.

That makes it more important for us to demand that Iowa candidates in both parties take this seriously enough to have a real plan. We’ve got to Make Action Matter Again, MAMA. Hats are available in the lobby.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com