WASHINGTON — President Donald J. Trump on Thursday signed a major executive order designed to overhaul federal agricultural policy, partnering with American farmers to promote regenerative farming practices aimed at modernizing the nation’s food supply and tackling chronic health issues.
The directive, titled Advancing Regenerative Agriculture and Strengthening American Farm Resilience, represents a key legislative pillar of the administration’s broader “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
President Trump signed the order in the Oval Office alongside Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins, and four prominent regenerative farmers. The group met to discuss how changing agricultural methods could improve soil health, elevate farm profitability, boost rural economies, and ultimately improve the baseline health of American citizens.
“Making America Healthy Again begins with understanding that health starts long before someone enters a doctor’s office,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said following the signing. “It starts with the food we eat and the way it is produced.”
Kennedy emphasized that the federal government plans to work hand-in-hand with the agricultural community to deepen scientific understanding of how farming practices, environmental exposures, and nutrition directly intersect with human health, adding, “America cannot Make America Healthy Again without America’s farmers.”
Inter-Agency Research and Cutting Chemical Reliance
The executive order officially mandates a coordinated effort between HHS, the USDA, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to bolster public-private partnerships, innovation, and field research supporting regenerative methods.
Key provisions of the executive order include:
- Chemical Exposure Tracking: The three agencies are directed to build a standardized research and evaluation framework to better assess the cumulative impact of chemical exposures within the U.S. food supply using modern scientific modeling.
- NIH Grand Prize Challenge: HHS will launch a high-stakes National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grand Prize Challenge. The competition is designed to accelerate the development of innovative tools to evaluate, diagnose, and mitigate cumulative chemical exposures.
- ARPA-H Prioritization: The order directs the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to prioritize federal research into new technologies that reduce a farm’s reliance on chemical crop protection tools while simultaneously protecting human health.
The directive builds upon a joint announcement made by the USDA, HHS, and EPA in February, which pledged more than $1 billion in federal investments to modernize domestic agriculture and secure long-term food supply chains.
New Federal Brief Links Soil and Population Health
To coincide with the Oval Office signing, HHS released a comprehensive issue brief via the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) entitled Regenerative Agriculture and Population Health: Examining How Regenerative Agriculture Can Support Healthier Food Systems and Better Health Outcomes.
The report synthesizes emerging scientific data regarding the direct connections between soil health, food nutrient density, environmental runoff, and human wellness. The brief concludes that regenerative agriculture holds significant promise for ongoing scientific evaluation and could serve as an effective tool in broader federal strategies to combat chronic disease prevention from the ground up.
