{"id":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issue/maha","schemaVersion":2,"name":"MAHA","category":"Food","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issue/maha","json":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issue/maha.json","ask":"","position":"The Make America Healthy Again movement is not a break from environmentalism, it’s an extension of its long tolerance for quackery. While diet-related chronic disease is a genuine crisis in wealthy countries, MAHA’s prescriptions for it are nostalgic nonsense: banning pesticides, treating seed oils as inherently harmful, and replacing industrial agriculture with organic and regenerative farming. These proposed shifts would raise food prices, expand agriculture’s land footprint, and worsen both environmental and human health outcomes. MAHA’s fixation with seed oils and pesticides diverts attention from serious public health concerns and makes healthy food less affordable.","faq":[{"question":"What is MAHA?","answer":"MAHA, or “Make America Healthy Again,” is a political and public-health movement associated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr that grew out of the anti-vaccine movement. It argues that chronic disease is driven partly by diet, environmental exposures, and the food system, and advocates changes to food, agricultural, chemical, and health policy."},{"question":"Are seed oils bad for you?","answer":"No. Evidence does not show that seed oils–which are fats extracted from plant seeds, including canola, soybean, and sunflower–are inherently harmful. Seed oils contain unsaturated fats and when replacing saturated fats, they can support heart health. Like any calorie-dense food, however, excessive consumption can contribute to an unhealthy diet."},{"question":"What is the MAHA diet?","answer":"There is no official “MAHA diet,” but the movement generally promotes whole foods, meat, dairy, fruits, and vegetables while discouraging ultra-processed foods, added sugars, and some food additives. Some MAHA advocates also encourage eating organic and avoiding seed oils, although evidence that seed oils are inherently harmful is weak."},{"question":"Is MAHA just the right-wing version of the progressive food movement?","answer":"Both MAHA and left-leaning food advocates target corporate food systems. Traditional progressive food movements often focus on government regulation, corporate oversight, and structural access, whereas MAHA leans heavily on individual responsibility and lifestyle choices and tends to embrace alternative wellness positions."}],"experts":[{"name":"Emily Bass","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/people/emily-bass"},{"name":"Dan Blaustein-Rejto","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/people/dan-blaustein-rejto"},{"name":"Ted Nordhaus","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/people/ted-nordhaus"}],"startHere":[{"title":"Mythbusting MAHA’s claims about food and farming","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/mythbusting-mahas-claims-about-food-and-farming","date":"2025-04-07"},{"title":"MAHA: Making Agriculture Harder for All","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/maha-making-agriculture-harder-for-all","date":"2025-09-26"}],"latest":[{"title":"Glyphosate’s Environmental Benefits","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/glyphosates-environmental-benefits","date":"2026-03-13","type":"Analysis"},{"title":"The Microplastics Panic","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/the-microplastics-panic","date":"2026-03-05","type":"Analysis"},{"title":"Surgeon General Pick Deepens Rift Between Trump Admin and Farmers","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/surgeon-general-pick-deepens-rift-between-trump-admin-and-farmers","date":"2026-02-23","type":"Analysis"},{"title":"The Clock Is Ticking for Glyphosate","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/the-clock-is-ticking-for-glyphosate","date":"2026-01-16","type":"Analysis"},{"title":"Big Agriculture Dodged a Bullet with the New MAHA Strategy","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/big-agriculture-dodged-a-bullet-with-the-new-maha-strategy","date":"2025-10-06","type":"Analysis"},{"title":"MAHA: Making Agriculture Harder for All","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/maha-making-agriculture-harder-for-all","date":"2025-09-26","type":"Analysis"},{"title":"Mythbusting MAHA: A Reality Check on Glyphosate","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/mythbusting-maha-a-reality-check-on-glyphosate","date":"2025-05-27","type":"Analysis"},{"title":"Mythbusting MAHA’s claims about food and farming","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/mythbusting-mahas-claims-about-food-and-farming","date":"2025-04-07","type":"Analysis"},{"title":"Quackery Is As Quackery Does","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/quacker-is-as-quackery-does","date":"2025-03-05","type":"Analysis"},{"title":"Can RFK Kneecap American Agriculture?","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/can-rfk-kneecap-american-agriculture","date":"2024-12-13","type":"Analysis"}],"policyHub":"https://thebreakthrough.org/policy?topics=pesticides-2","policyAreas":[{"slug":"pesticides-2","name":"Pesticides","records":1,"url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/policy?topics=pesticides-2"}],"policyRecords":[{"id":263491,"title":"The Clock Is Ticking for Glyphosate","url":"https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/the-clock-is-ticking-for-glyphosate","type":"Analysis","date":"2026-01-16","stance":"none","subject":"","subjectUrl":"","summary":"","authors":"Emily Bass"}],"dateModified":"2026-11-12T08:26:15-08:00"}