The Trump administration has tapped a longtime pesticide lobbyist for a top EPA role regulating pesticides, allegedly a key focus of its “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. Kyle Kunkler, who served as director of government affairs at the American Soybean Association (ASA) from 2020 to June 2025, is now serving as the EPA’s top pesticide regulator in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. The appointment, announced June 30, puts an industry insider in charge of pesticide policy at the same time the administration is publicly touting its mission to curb health threats from environmental toxins, including pesticides.
Kunkler has spent much of his career advocating for the use of industrial chemicals and biotechnologies in agriculture. Before joining ASA, he worked on food and agriculture policy at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), where he advocated for policies promoting genetically engineered crops and the chemical fertilizers and pesticides associated with them. BIO’s members include Roundup maker Bayer, along with other pesticide companies like Corteva, and BASF, along with pharmaceutical giants like Novo Nordisk. At ASA, Kunkler was the group’s top lobbyist and a central figure shaping federal lobbying strategy on regulations affecting crop protection practices. His work focused on ensuring that farmers could continue to have cheap access to chemical products such as glyphosate, glufosinate, dicamba and 2,4-D that ASA argues are essential for high yields, despite public health concerns. In 2020, his first year with ASA, Kunkler was given the “Rising Star Award” by CropLife America, a major trade association for pesticide manufacturers.
