As the White House works to manage a growing rift with the Make America Healthy Again movement, MAHA moms are raising their voices louder than ever over pesticide concerns.
MAHA supporters and activists gathered outside the Supreme Court on Monday to protest the Trump administration’s approach to glyphosate, the herbicide commonly known as Roundup. The event, dubbed the People vs. Poison, coincided with the Supreme Court hearing arguments in a major product liability case involving Bayer and tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging its top-selling weedkiller is linked to cancer.
Roundup is the most widely used weedkiller globally, routinely applied to crops such as oats and corn. Traces of glyphosate have been detected in a number of everyday pantry items, including cereals and snacks frequently consumed by children. Bayer, the parent company of Roundup manufacturer Monsanto, has consistently denied any cancer link and maintains the product is safe, pointing to multiple regulatory reviews as evidence.
“No health regulator anywhere in the world has ever concluded that glyphosate poses a risk to human health,” the company said in a statement, adding that both the Environmental Protection Agency and the European Union have repeatedly affirmed that glyphosate products can be used safely when following label directions.
“Its presence in our everyday lives is just staggering,” said Hilda Labrada Gore, a 64-year-old mother of four from Washington, D.C., who planned to attend and speak at the rally. Labrada Gore, a content creator known online as Holistic Hilda who focuses on ancestral health, said she first learned about glyphosate nearly a decade ago and completely changed how she shops. She now buys exclusively organic food, citing restrictions on glyphosate use in organic farming, and steers clear of foods she believes carry higher residues, such as chickpeas and wheat-based products.
“You would never catch me eating a bagel or a croissant,” she said.
A registered Republican, Labrada Gore expressed frustration over President Trump’s February executive order aimed at boosting domestic glyphosate production. She hopes the rally’s turnout serves as a warning to the Republican Party about possible midterm consequences if the GOP fails to reverse its position on issues like glyphosate.
“I think Trump underestimated the loyalty of the MAHA people, because our loyalty is to our children, not to a party,” she said. “The loyalty is really to the people’s health.”
Around 200 protesters joined MAHA influencers in front of the Supreme Court for the rally, which was organized by Vani Hari, widely known as the Food Babe. Demonstrators chanted “the people versus poison” and listened to a series of speakers, including Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, speak about the dangers of glyphosate.
“It’s infuriating,” said J’aime Hill, a Michigan-based wellness and gardening educator who attended the rally while pregnant with her first child, referring to the Trump administration’s support for Bayer. “There’s no reason why any corporation should have more power than the people.”
White House officials have characterized Trump’s action promoting domestic glyphosate production as a strategic move to cut dependence on foreign supply, rather than an endorsement of the product itself. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also publicly defended the decision, even while continuing to describe pesticides and herbicides as “toxic by design.”
Pressure around the issue has been building for months. When a review paper concluding glyphosate posed no human health risk was retracted last year by its publishing journal over concerns about Monsanto’s role in its creation, it set off significant backlash among those worried about the chemical’s safety. The EPA has since clarified that its evaluation of glyphosate was not based solely on that paper.
“Monsanto’s involvement with the Williams et al paper did not rise to the level of authorship and was appropriately disclosed in the acknowledgments,” Bayer said in a statement.
Katie Bevington, a 30-year-old mother of two, said she has followed the glyphosate debate closely for years. She and her husband recently purchased a farm in South Carolina, where they intend to raise their own meat and grow their own produce. She said her shift toward a more natural lifestyle began at age 19, and that she had long aligned with Kennedy’s stances on vaccines and nutrition.
“I think he’s had a good start in a few ways,” she said, “but then recently we’ve taken 20 steps backwards.”
Despite White House efforts to hold the MAHA coalition together, including a meeting earlier this month with three prominent influencers who had publicly criticized its pesticide stance, those efforts have done little to ease frustration among MAHA moms who want harmful chemicals removed from the food supply.
“If the goal is to make America healthy again, then why isn’t that reflected in how our food is actually being produced?” said Jess Brownsberger, a 30-year-old MAHA supporter and mother of three living in Nashville.
Amanda Rocchio, a 35-year-old mother of two from St. Louis, also spoke at the rally. Her Instagram page @meowmeix, where she shares nutrition advice, recipes, and recommendations for cleaner product alternatives, has amassed 1.6 million followers. “Moms in America shouldn’t have to pay extra just to avoid having this poison sprayed on their food,” Rocchio said.
