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Mar. 27, 2025 by Tyne Morgan, AgWeb.com It was one of the most contentious confirmation hearings in President Donald Trump's cabinet. Robert F. Kennedy Jr's quest to become Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary included a confirmation hearing during which Kennedy said he wants to help farmers transition to no-till and away from heavy chemical usage. Five farmers had the chance to combat those claims at the White House last week, all in an effort to save glyphosate, a 50-year-old chemistry that farmers have relied on for decades as a tool for weed control. Northeast Iowa farmer Ben Reinsche isn't afraid to speak his mind on ag issues, and that's exactly what he did last week, as he traveled to Washington with CropLife America, as they made their way to the White House. The most enlightening conversation, according to Reinsche, was with Secretary Kennedy's team in the West Wing of the White House. "Our opening discussion was indeed about glyphosate, and it was refreshing," said Reinsche, owner and manager of Blue Diamond Farming Company in Jesup, Iowa. He spoke with Farm Journal in an exclusive interview on his farm this week. "They wanted to know why glyphosate is important to farmers. It felt like they'd mostly heard the late-night infomercial, carcinogen lawsuit story. We explained that glyphosate is a very low-cost product for us now that has conserved tons and tons of fragile topsoil in the United States, that we use it for burndowns before reduced tillage plantings, and that it substantially reduces our carbon footprint because instead of running a plow, you're running a sprayer and putting it on. Reinsche says he was one of five farmers who were invited to the White House last week, a group that also represented California, the Pacific Northwest and the eastern Corn Belt. One of those individuals was Kip Tom, an Indiana farmer who served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture. "First of all, we talked about safety. We talked about productivity gains, but we also talked about food prices," Tom told AgriTalk's Chip Flory on Wednesday. "If you take this tool away from us, you're going to have the opposite impact of what President Trump wanted us to do, which is lower food prices. And so not only are we using a safe product to produce food, but we can also lower the price of the production of food by having access to tools such as Roundup or glyphosate." Reinsche says the conversation surrounding pesticides and glyphosate -- and explaining how farmers rely on those inputs as a tool to grow the food Americans rely on -- made an impact and seemed to resonate with Kennedy's team. To read the entire report click here. Tweet |
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