Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is a main speaker at the EarthX2024 Congress of Conferences occurring this week in Dallas, presents a distinctive campaign platform that focuses on issues commonly overlooked by other candidates.
While his platform While he addresses common topics like abortion and the border crisis, he also leverages his 40 years of experience as an environmental lawyer to suggest solutions to chronic disease, toxic food, water, and farmland, and corporate corruption.
Kennedy has often openly discussed the health impact — on both humans and animals — of the pesticides and herbicides freely used in agriculture and regularly found in the public water supply. The Dallas Express questioned the candidate about what he would do about the harmful chemicals discovered in Texas water, such as glyphosate, if elected president.
“The [National Institute of Health], since it is controlled by the chemical industry, does not conduct the type of studies [and] does not mandate the type of studies necessary to establish the safety of these products –– and because of that, the producers continue to poison people and animals, etc., without any repercussions,” he said.
“I am going to shift NIH’s priorities to conduct those studies,” he added. “I cannot promise that we will ban every harmful chemical, but I can provide enough scientific evidence for lawyers to litigate against the chemical company and allow the market to swiftly phase out that chemical.”
This last point about the free market was reiterated in many of Kennedy’s responses and during his speech at the EarthX conference later that evening on April 24.
Kennedy was fervent in his endorsement of free markets. He consistently criticized government mechanisms that he perceived as complicit in enabling polluters — often large corporations — to harm the health of American citizens. He believes the “discipline of the free market” should be employed to compel these corporations to bear the costs of their wrongdoing.
Kennedy provided various examples, such as companies obtaining permits to deposit pollutants in drinking water in New York and regulations that shield companies from lawsuits for producing toxic goods. He also mentioned policies that have resulted in cherished landscapes like America’s “purple mountain majesties” being destroyed by explosives to extract coal, and government agencies refusing to publish studies “inconvenient” for polluting industries.
In line with Kennedy's point, federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency maintain the safety of glyphosate.
“[There] are no risks of concern to human health from current uses of glyphosate,” the EPA website states.
The National Institutes of Health has studies in its digital library that state that “glyphosate is less toxic to farmers’ health than other pesticides.”
WebMD refers respond to the EPA with a similar statement on its website, and the CDC says that “glyphosate is ‘not likely’ to be carcinogenic (causing cancer) to humans” in its ToxFAQ. These are the first several results returned after searching Google for 'is glyphosate safe.'
However, glyphosate was recently mentioned as the cancer-causing substance in a federal lawsuit against RoundUp. A timeline of lawsuits provided by DrugWatch reveals that RoundUp’s manufacturer, Monsanto, and others have been paying out billions of dollars in settlements for almost 300,000 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma allegedly caused across the United States. Currently, thousands more cases are pending.
Non-governmental sources provide completely different answers about the safety of glyphosate compared to governmental health agencies.
Scientists at the University of Washington published an analysis that found, “Exposure to glyphosate, the world’s most widely used herbicide, increases the risk of a cancer called non-Hodgkin lymphoma by 41 percent.” The International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, has identified glyphosate as a carcinogen for nearly a decade.
Outside the United States, some European authorities have banned the herbicide. Some boroughs of London have forbidden the use of glyphosate, while others have switched to alternatives, the Guardian reported.
Texas has long had a problem with toxic pesticides turning up in drinking water. Almost 500 water utilities across Texas tested positive for atrazine — another common weed killer — which studies have shown can cause deformities in male genitalia, the Texas Tribune reported in 2019.
An analysis by NBC revealed that Texas has some of the heaviest glyphosate usage in the country.
“Nueces County, Texas, had the single highest glyphosate usage rate of U.S. counties, with more than 1,100 pounds sprayed per square mile,” the analysis revealed.
A report from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, warned that even living near a place where glyphosate is used or manufactured can put one at risk for exposure to the chemical.
Kennedy faces President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in the November general election. He said during the press gaggle at the Earth X conference that he has more than the requisite petition signatures to appear on Texas’ general election and ballot.
Gallup Polls have shown Kennedy has the highest favorability rating (52%) of any candidate in the race, and he is the only candidate with a majority positive favorability rating.
