RELEASE: Breakthrough Institute Announces Opposition to RFK JR. Nomination Citing Consequences for American Agriculture

Washington, DC, January 14, 2025 — Today, the Breakthrough Institute, sent a letter to Senate leadership urging Congress to oppose the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The Breakthrough Institute is the first environmental group to announce its official opposition to Kennedy’s nomination on the basis of his food and agriculture priorities.

The letter acknowledges that “many of the tenets of Mr. Kennedy’s vision for the future of food in America will fall under the jurisdiction of other agencies,” but details how “with oversight of HHS, and more specifically the Food and Drug Administration, Mr. Kennedy would have the capacity to enforce regulations with profound consequences for U.S. agriculture.”

Breakthrough is an environmental think tank committed to leveraging technological innovation to advance sustainable productivity growth in agriculture. To both meet growing global food demand and reduce the carbon footprint of agriculture, Breakthrough advocates for the use of agricultural inputs, technologies, and practices that enable farmers to produce more on less land with better efficiency.

The letter details the risks of Kennedy's stated priorities to “limit the use of pesticides shown to be safe, curb agricultural biotechnology innovation, and reassess genetically modified crops that farmers have relied on for decades. Such changes risk incentivizing less productive, less profitable, and more environmentally destructive farming practices.”

“By hamstringing technological advances and crucial inputs key to the maintenance of U.S. agricultural abundance and global competitiveness,” the letter explains, Mr. Kennedy “will make life harder for agricultural producers, decrease food production, and increase food prices for American consumers.”

Click here to read the letter.

###

Media Contact:

Emily Bass

Associate Director of Federal Policy, Food and Agriculture

emily@thebreakthrough.org