The International Fresh Produce Association today sent Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a letter urging the Make America Healthy Again Commission to support “crop protection” tools in the report the commission is expected to release next month.
An IFPA spokesperson said IFPA was updating an earlier letter to the commission that emphasized the fruit and vegetable group’s views on the importance of nutrition programs.
The agriculture and food industries have become alarmed at statements that Kennedy, who chairs the MAHA Commission, has made regarding herbicides and pesticides and other products the industries use to protect their crops from disease, pests and pathogens.
“Without the necessary tools to protect our specialty crops, losses would soar to 78% for fruits and 54% for vegetables,” IFPA CEO Cathy Burns wrote to Kennedy and Matthew Whaley, the White House executive director of the commission. “Crop protection is achieved through multiple approaches, including plant breeding, modern biological technologies, biological and chemical pesticides and cultural practices, which rely on trusted and high-functioning regulatory systems to bring these products to market. It is imperative to recognize that technological tools are rapidly evolving, and that the regulatory review and approval must continue to focus on the properties of the product itself. Domestic producers must have access to safe, modern, and the most innovative plant breeding and crop protection tools possible.”
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