In a move that contradicts campaign pledges to crack down on toxic pesticides, President Donald Trump has appointed longtime agriculture lobbyist Kyle Kunkler to serve as the nation’s top pesticide regulator at the Environmental Protection Agency or EPA.
Kunkler is a former lobbyist for the American Soybean Association and the Biotech Innovation Organization. He will now lead the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs, despite years of advocating against restrictions on farm chemicals such as glyphosate and atrazine.
These are two pesticides that Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” draft report says are linked to chronic illness in children.
“The appointment of Kyle Kunkler sends a loud, clear message: Industry influence is back in charge at the EPA,” Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, an environmental organization, said in a statement. “It’s a stunning reversal of the campaign promises Trump and RFK, Jr., made to their MAHA followers – that they’d stand up to chemical giants and protect children from dangerous pesticides.
“This is but the latest example of the Trump administration’s sweeping betrayal of environmental protection and public health,” Cook said.
The MAHA Commission, chaired by Kennedy and supported by Trump, warned weeks ago about the risks of chemical industry capture. The commission called for more independent science on pesticide safety.
However, Kunkler, who defended pesticides in response to that report, will now oversee the agency’s decisions about whether those chemicals remain in use.
On Friday, the CEO of CropLife America, the leading trade and lobbying group for the pesticide industry, sent a letter to Kennedy. It urged him and the MAHA Commission to abandon their stance against crop chemicals such as glyphosate and instead champion the use of toxic herbicides and pesticides in conventional agriculture.
The commission is expected to release its final report and policy recommendations on Aug. 12.
