Two chemical agriculture industry lobbyists who President Trump chose to serve in his administration are reportedly working behind the scenes to block Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy from placing new restrictions on dangerous pesticides.
According to The New York Times, Nancy Beck and Kailee Tkacz Buller are working to prevent pesticides, including the widely used atrazine linked to endocrine disruption and reproductive harm, from being targeted in a forthcoming Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) commission report, mandated to assess the threat of chemicals and other factors impacting public health.
Their opposition should come as no surprise, given their deep industry ties. Beck, a former director at the American Chemistry Council, is now a senior adviser at the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety. During Trump’s first term, she played a key role in weakening pesticide regulations, including efforts to downplay the ecological and human health risks of atrazine, a chemical manufactured by Syngenta and banned by the European Union and over 60 countries. Directly prior to joining the second Trump administration, Beck was director of regulatory affairs for the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth, which counted Syngenta as a client during her tenure.
Buller, currently chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was until recently the president and CEO of two top seed oil industry lobbying groups: the National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA) and the Edible Oil Producers Association (EOPA). Their member companies, including Cargill and Perdue AgriBusiness, rely on crops like soybeans, canola, and sunflower seed, which are commonly grown using atrazine and other pesticides. Buller was previously a registered lobbyist for junk food trade groups including the Corn Refiners Association and SNAC International, promoting ultra-processed food ingredients tied to corn and soy grown with heavy pesticide use.
