RELEASE: Breakthrough Institute Announces Opposition to Casey Means Nomination

Washington, DC — October 27, 2025 — The Breakthrough Institute delivered a letter to Congressional leaders urging them to oppose the confirmation of Dr. Casey Means as U.S. Surgeon General. The Breakthrough Institute is the first environmental group to announce its official opposition to Dr. Means’ nomination on the basis of her food and agriculture views. Dr. Means is scheduled to appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee this Thursday.

Dr. Means “espouses views on food and agriculture that diverge sharply from mainstream science and the realities of U.S. agriculture, rendering her unfit to serve as the nation’s leading public health educator.”

To provide affordable, safe, and healthy food, farmers must be able to take advantage of modern agricultural inputs, technologies, and practices. Such innovations also enable the production of more food on less land.

Yet Dr. Means has advocated for wholesale rejection of industrial agriculture, linked conventional farming practices to health risks, and questioned the safety of genetically modified crops. These assertions are not only unsupported by scientific consensus, but they are also dangerous. By encouraging Americans to avoid conventionally grown food, Dr. Means would promote distrust of science-based regulations and spur farmers to adopt less productive farming practices that require more land and resources.

“As Surgeon General, Dr. Means would have a powerful platform to shape public attitudes and policy regarding diet, nutrition, and pesticides,” the letter explains. “It is vital that leadership in this office is guided by robust scientific evidence and a sound understanding of agricultural systems, not by ideology or misinformation. Confirming Dr. Means would give dangerous credence to a set of conspiratorial and unscientific beliefs poised to reduce consumer confidence in, access to, and affordability of healthy food.”

You can read the letter HERE.

###

Media Contact:

Emily Bass

Director of Federal Policy, Food and Agriculture

emily@thebreakthrough.org