Why farmers need to be aware of Make America Healthy Again priorities - Agweek

JAMESTOWN, N.D. — The Make America Healthy Again Movement is more than just a fad — and that means farmers and ranchers need to take notice, a consultant on food and agriculture policy says.

Greg Jaffe of Jaffe Policy Consulting spoke at North Dakota Farmers Union's Evolution Ag Summit in Jamestown on Feb. 17, 2026, about MAHA's impact from the farm level to what goes on grocery store shelves.

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Jaffe explained that the MAHA movement is truly bipartisan. Even though it has gained favor in the Trump administration through Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., many of the ideas mirror those presented during the Obama administration by former First Lady Michelle Obama, which were criticized and held up by Republicans.

“That’s how the political environment in this country has changed,” he said.

But the agreement from people on both sides of the political aisle that things need to change in the country's food system means farmers need to be aware of what the movement is saying and how that influences policy and demand, Jaffe said.

"Some of their policies directly impact farmers, whether it's about pesticides, whether it's about seed oils, whether it's about ultra-processed foods. Depending on how people change their diets based on the MAHA movement will go back into the supply chain, going back all the way to the farmers in terms of the ingredients that they need to be supplying to produce those foods," he said.

The government has come out with a MAHA report, which Jaffe labeled "sort of schizophrenic" and a strategy focused on ending childhood disease that was more honed in on ways to put the MAHA movement's priorities into action.

While the MAHA report cast a shadow on pesticide use, Jaffe said agriculture did a good job of communicating why pesticides are important, and "the tone had clearly changed" by the time the strategy document came out. For the moment, he thinks farmers can feel comfortable that pesticide use will not be disrupted.

"I think the MAHA feels very strongly about reducing or eliminating pesticides," Jaffe said. "I don't think they necessarily understand why farmers use pesticides and the need for pesticides."

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Similarly, though the MAHA report cast a shadow over the use of seed oils — like canola oil, corn oil or soybean oil — that doesn't seem to be gaining traction in policy.

"For now, at least, it's more of a advertising campaign," he said. "There's not sort of regulatory action that's being done. So, I think on that side, those are positive."

But Jaffe thinks there will be attempts to change the way food safety regulations are handled for food ingredients, including things like high fructose corn syrup and other ingredients made out of commodity crops like corn and soybeans.

"That hasn't happened yet, but I think that's something that farmers need to be worried about," he said.

The movement to ban or at least label so-called "ultra-processed food," for which there is no agreed-upon definition, also will be something to watch. Some definitions presented have encapsulated many foods generally agreed upon to be healthy, Jaffe said, including all yogurts. So far, 18 states have proposed limits on what the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program can be used to purchase, but some of those have been inconsistent, with some states allowing purchase of a Twix bar, for example, because it contains flour, but not allowing purchase of a granola bar, Jaffe said.

"I think we all can agree there are certain foods that we probably shouldn't all be eating or shouldn't be eating a lot of — you know, sugar sweetened beverages like sodas and candy bars and and lots of salty snacks," he said. "But depending on how consumers and the movement moves for those areas, there could be reductions in the marketing of those, which might then again work its way back up the supply chain to farmers."