President Trump's Glyphosate EO - A Betrayal of Trust
On February 18, 2026 President trump signed an executive order (EO) invoking the Defense Production Act prioritizing glyphosate based herbicide production. The EO cited glyphosate’s indispensable role in America’s food security. Titled, “Promoting the National Defense by Ensuring an Adequate Supply of Elemental Phosphorus and Glyphosate-Based Herbicides,” glyphosate is now officially classified as critical to U.S. national security.
I wrote previously that I come from a generation that values keeping politics and business completely separate. I believe the best partnerships are built on mutual objectives rather than political alignment or ideology. Unfortunately, President Trump’s EO has not only blurred the line between the two, but dismantled this boundary, combing the two in ways that risk severe consequences.
Glyphosate is widely used on American farms as a systemic, broad spectrum herbicide administered to kill weeks, grass and anything else that competes with crops. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in many herbicides, including Roundup, which is widely available at agricultural supply and hardware stores. Note that I began this paragraph with “American farms” and for good reason: most EU countries heavily restrict its use. Notable examples include France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. A few countries like Vietnam and Argentina have outright bans on its use. Why? Because it’s widely scrutinized as a probable human carcinogen by the World Health Organization. Specifically, it is linked to an increased risk of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Some studies suggest it acts as an endocrine disrupter and possibly interferes with reproductive health. Because of this, the EU has an established Maximum Residual Limit of 50 parts per billion in all foods including honey. Our illustrious EPA and FDA have not established a legal tolerance for glyphosate. Because there is no legal threshold, any amount of detected glyphosate lacks federal allowance and is widely prevalent in the U.S commercial food supply. But what greatly concerns many, including me, is glyphosate’s environmental impact.
Glyphosate is a non-selective herbicide. Its selective use can benefit mankind, but its indiscriminate use on GMO crops and landscape upkeep kills beneficial plants and wildflowers. It harms local pollinators by destroying their habitat and thus, food sources. As an example, widespread use of glyphosate in California’s agricultural Central Valley and along its highways nearly eradicated milkweed, the exclusive food and egg laying source for the Western Monarch butterfly resulting in its near extinction on the Left Coast. It also affects the gut biome and nervous system of many pollinating insects including bees. Pollinators such as bumblebees, butterflies, and moths deprived of their natural gut biome show significantly increased mortality and a higher susceptibility to common pathogens.
How did this become political? President Trump, guided by the EPA, FDA and Mr. MAHA himself, Robert Kennedy Jr, signed an EO declaring glyphosate critical to national security and tasking Bayer, which gave $1,000,000 to Trump’s inauguration, to maintain glyphosate's production. By compelling production under wartime (?) powers, Bayer can now argue federal immunity to the 200,000 plaintiffs, thus protecting itself from massive financial liability.
Beekeepers across North America are facing unprecedented challenges. Colony losses have risen dramatically in the last few years. The staggering 2024 to early 2025 losses of nearly 55.6% is now seconded by this year’s losses approaching 70% in some regions of the country. Although I have many misgivings with how bees are treated by commercial honey bee operators, I fully appreciate their need to pollinate our crops. Trump’s EO will now make it more difficult for all of us to maintain healthy hives.
Rant on
I grew up in an era where Americans were told that government existed to protect its citizens, not shield corporations from accountability. I was taught that federal agencies existed to evaluate risks objectively, guided by science rather than campaign contributions or political alliances. This Executive Order signals something profoundly different: when corporate interests and political power align, public health, environmental stewardship, and agricultural sustainability become secondary considerations.
This is what makes the EO such a betrayal of trust.
Farmers deserve tools that help them feed the nation. Beekeepers deserve an environment where pollinators can survive. Consumers deserve transparency about what enters the food supply and more importantly, what we eat. Americans deserve confidence that “national security” powers will not be weaponized to insulate multinational corporations from liability while dismissing legitimate concerns about long-term human and environmental health.
Instead, we are watching the normalization of a dangerous precedent: declaring controversial agricultural chemicals essential to national defense while simultaneously weakening avenues for accountability. That should concern everyone regardless of political affiliation.
Healthy pollinators are not optional. Roughly one out of every three bites of food we eat depends directly or indirectly on pollination. Honey bees alone contribute billions annually to U.S. agriculture. Yet while beekeepers struggle through catastrophic colony losses, habitat destruction, pesticide exposure, nutritional stress, and emerging pathogens, our federal government has chosen this moment to prioritize expanded glyphosate production under the banner of national defense.
That decision may prove politically expedient. It may prove economically profitable. But history has shown repeatedly that when short-term industrial priorities override environmental caution, the long-term consequences are rarely paid by corporations or politicians. They are paid by independent farmers, families, consumers, and future generations.
As a beekeeper, I cannot ignore what I see happening to the environment and inside the hives themselves. Nor can I remain silent while policies that may further endanger pollinators are presented as patriotic necessities.
Protecting America’s food supply should begin with protecting the ecosystems that make food production possible in the first place.
I'm finished here.
