Aug 6, 2025

Farm Bureau shares MAHA recommendations

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) has sent a series of recommendations to the Make America Health Again (MAHA) Commission.

The policy advice is designed to benefit health outcomes and ensure farmers can continue growing safe, healthy and affordable food for America’s families, according to a news release.

AFBF’s letter highlights four areas of recommendations to the MAHA Commission, including advancing American innovation and sustainability, smart regulatory reform and program enhancements to support farmers and ranchers, public investment in agricultural research, and pesticide tools.

The recommendations include:

• Promote the adoption of precision application technologies
• Dedicate funding to improve mechanization and automation
• Support plant biostimulants and biologicals as promising tools
• Support a thoughtful and iterative public comment process on shared understandings of regenerative agriculture
• Modernize current agriculture labor workforce programs
• Protect domestic markets from being flooded by foreign foods
• Enable schools/food banks to directly purchase food from farms
• Make it easier for small- and medium-size farms to serve local markets
• Invest in USDA agencies focused on research and innovation
• Invest in projects which would help fruit, vegetable and nut crop growers
• Process improvements in the regulatory system to support the innovation pipeline for new pesticide discoveries
• Increase resources for pesticide regulatory offices and programs

Farm Bureau is a founding member of the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance (FACA), which sent a report to the MAHA Commission. FACA’s recommendations focused on three key pillars to help agricultural producers and forest owners keep soil healthy and air and water clean.

“Farmers and ranchers share the goal of advancing health in America,” Zippy Duvall, Farm Bureau president, said in the release. “Healthy meals start with healthy farms, which is a responsibility farmers take seriously. Investing in research, rewarding innovation and alleviating overregulation helps them reach that goal. We appreciate the opportunity to share these policy recommendations that can directly and positively improve farmers’ ability to meet the needs of a healthy America.”