The meetings show the growing influence of MAHA, a network of activists seeking vaccine restrictions and reduced chemical exposure, on the administration of President Donald Trump. The movement has already held sway at the Department of Health and Human Services, where MAHA-aligned Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has implemented MAHA priorities, including curbing childhood vaccines.

The movement has gained influence and access to policymakers because of its Trump administration backers, and represents growing interest by conservatives in some issues once mostly taken up in the U.S. by Democrats, such as restricting pesticides.

Zeldin and top EPA officials met with MAHA members to discuss pesticide and chemical exposure policy, according to the attendees, who described Zeldin and the agency officials as friendly and open to their concerns.

MAHA tried to oust EPA head

The meetings come after MAHA led a petition to oust Zeldin from the agency, citing his approval of new pesticides, the appointment of former chemical industry lobbyists to top posts, and the weakening of some chemical standards. The petition garnered thousands of signatures before the meetings.

“What it seemed to us was that administrator Zeldin wasn’t doing his part,” said Kelly Ryerson, the co-executive director and co-founder of the MAHA-aligned group American Regeneration. “It had only been bad news coming out of the EPA.”

Ryerson said she participated in three meetings with the EPA this month after the petition gained traction.

EPA press secretary Brigit Hirsch confirmed that Zeldin and his political staff have met with MAHA activists.

“The Trump EPA wants to partner with the MAHA community and make sure everyone has a seat at the table,” she said.

While it is common for federal agencies to meet with various lobbying groups, it is unusual for them to publicly endorse such groups.

EPA once dismissive, now friendly

Zeldin and nearly a dozen of his senior staff met with several MAHA activists on December 9, the day after he attended a holiday party hosted by the policy group MAHA Action, according to Reuters interviews with three attendees.

EPA attendees included the agency’s agriculture and water division heads, its general counsel and Zeldin’s deputy chief of staff, said Ryerson and Alexandra Muñoz, a toxicologist and MAHA activist who also attended.

Ryerson, Muñoz and other MAHA activists told Zeldin he should curb pesticide use, including the herbicide glyphosate, marketed by Bayer as Roundup and the subject of thousands of lawsuits alleging it causes cancer. They also expressed concern about some of the agency’s deregulatory actions, such as rolling back rulemaking aimed at protecting people from “forever chemicals” in drinking water.

Ryerson said she had two more meetings with the EPA later that week, one with the agency’s agriculture team and another with Douglas Troutman, the agency’s assistant administrator for its Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, which oversees pesticide regulations.

The officials were friendly and open to their ideas, Muñoz said. That was a change from an October meeting she had had with some of the same officials, when they had seemed dismissive and disinterested, she said.

Courtney Swan, another MAHA activist, said EPA staff she met with during the week of December 15 were receptive and curious about her concerns about chemical uses in the food supply.

“There seemed to be a bit of an olive branch there,” she said.

EPA ‘MAHA agenda” under way

Zeldin said on a December 10 MAHA Action webinar that the EPA is finalizing a “MAHA agenda” for the agency to address issues such as lead pipes, plastics and food waste.

He said the agency sought to incorporate feedback from MAHA and that anyone attending the webinar could reach out to participate in shaping the agenda.

The agency sidestepped an opportunity this year to take a tougher stance on pesticides when a multi-agency MAHA commission, led by Kennedy, in September released its strategy for improving childhood health.

An earlier report from the commission had pointed to pesticides as a potential health risk, which triggered criticism from the farm industry and led the White House to meet with farm and food lobby groups.

The final report was less critical of pesticides and noted that the EPA had confidence in its pesticide review process.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in June that it was developing a potential poultry vaccination plan, but has not released further details.

WHY IT MATTERS: More than 180 million chickens, turkeys and other poultry have been killed in the U.S. due to an outbreak of bird flu that began in 2022. Canadian farmers have also faced devastating culls.

The USDA should take “renewed action” to fight bird flu as infections rise during the winter months, said 23 U.S. senators in a letter sent on Wednesday to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and reported first by Reuters.

“Any finalized vaccine strategy must take into account feedback from animal health stakeholders, industry experts, and be grounded in sound science,” said the letter, led by Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, and Republican U.S. Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota.

Other signatories to the letter include Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota and several Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Funds pledged for vaccine, therapeutics research

In March, the USDA pledged $100 million to research vaccines and therapeutics for egg-laying chickens as part of a broader strategy to fight bird flu, which had driven egg prices to record highs.

The agency said in June it had received 417 proposals for the funds, but has not announced further details.

The Trump administration in May canceled a $700 million contract with Moderna to develop a human bird flu vaccine. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, has cut other funding for vaccine research and scrapped long-held federal vaccine guidance.

The poultry industry is divided on vaccination because of the potential to hurt exports. The senators urged Rollins in their letter to “work closely with trading partners and impacted producers to fully assess and manage any potential trade implications” of a vaccine plan.

The USDA told Reuters in late November that the agency had not shared a plan for poultry vaccination with trading partners.

— Additional reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago

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The plan, however, could be difficult to roll out as an ongoing government shutdown prevents the kind of Congressional action needed to approve such a large payout, and existing government reserves fall short, the sources said.

Farmers generally support President Donald Trump but have pressed his administration for trade deals as China continues to spurn U.S. soybean purchases amid tit-for-tat tariffs, and a record corn harvest threatens to sink farmer profits.

Farmers facing ‘financial calamity’

Republican lawmakers have warned farmers face “financial calamity” if they do not receive aid by the end of the year. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that the White House would announce aid for farmers on Tuesday.

Three sources told Reuters they expected the administration to announce the package this week.

One of those sources said the bailout would total somewhere between $10 billion and $15 billion, and would be a necessary bridge to get farmers through the harvest months and could be followed by additional aid.

The funds would go to soybean farmers affected by the China trade spat, as well as other types of commodity farmers, though the exact details were not yet determined, that source said.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesperson said farmers are benefiting from lower taxes, trade deals and updates to farm programs included in Trump’s July tax-cut and spending bill.

“President Trump has made it clear he will not leave farmers behind, so USDA will continue to assess the farm economy and explore the need for further assistance, however, there is nothing new to share at this time,” the spokesperson said.

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on Monday said the White House had held several meetings on farmer aid in the past two weeks.

“We’re taking big measures and those big measures are going to be public really, really soon,” he said on CNBC.

Shutdown complicates relief plans

Trump has said repeatedly that the administration will use tariff income to pay for farmer aid. But such direct payments to farmers are statutorily capped at $350 million, a fraction of the sum being discussed, and can only be adjusted by Congress.

That adjustment is difficult to achieve while the federal government is shut down, two of the sources said.

Another option is to draw down funds from the Commodity Credit Corporation, a financing mechanism at the USDA that is typically refilled each year in autumn, but has not been refilled because of the shutdown, said Jonathan Coppess, associate professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

During Trump’s first term, he used the CCC to pay farmers more than $23 billion in trade aid, about a $3 billion overpayment, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The remaining funds currently in the CCC are likely insufficient to pay for the package being discussed, Coppess said.

Farmers are already set to receive near-record government payments of more than $40 billion this year, fueled by disaster and economic aid passed by Congress last year.

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The U.S. cattle inventory is the lowest since 1951, according to government data, shrunk by years-long drought that dried up pasture land. Ranchers have slowly begun to rebuild the herd, but beef prices are at record highs.

The USDA is working on short- and long-term solutions to the problem and will provide more details in mid-October, Rollins said at the Ag Outlook Forum in Kansas City, Missouri.

“We have no current plans to offer any payment to beef producers. We see how the government getting involved can completely distort the markets. And so currently there will be no plan, no plan is even under consideration, to insert ourselves through payments into the beef cattle industry.”

Instead, the plans will focus on opening up more working lands and expanding risk-mitigation tools, Rollins said.

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U.S. farmers have missed out on billions in soybean sales to China as stalled trade talks halt exports, and the USDA’s recent forecast of a record corn crop this fall will likely weigh on a farm economy already saddled with low prices and rising fertilizer and seed costs.

“We are working with our colleagues in Congress and closely monitoring markets daily to evaluate the amount of additional assistance that might be needed this fall,” Rollins said at a conference of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture in Rogers, Arkansas.

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U.S. cattle futures tumbled on concerns the pest will also strike livestock as ranchers criticized a lack of transparency about the case, following exclusive reporting by Reuters.

Screwworms are parasitic flies whose females lay eggs in wounds on any warm-blooded animal. An outbreak could cost the economy in Texas, the biggest U.S. cattle-producing state, about $1.8 billion (C$2.49 billion), according to U.S. estimates.

Three-week delay of disclosure erodes trust: cattle group

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the human case as screwworm on August 4 in a person who returned from travel to El Salvador, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The agency announced the case on Sunday after Reuters reported earlier in the day on emails from beef industry officials on a CDC-confirmed case in a person in Maryland who had traveled to the United States from Guatemala.

The nearly three-week delay between the confirmation of the case on August 4 and the U.S. government’s disclosure erodes trust that public agencies need to identify and fight potential screwworm outbreaks, said Neal Wilkins, CEO of conservation and cattle group East Foundation.

“It will cause many producers and land owners, wildlife managers, to simply begin to believe that they’re not being fed the whole story,” he said. “It’s irresponsible and tone deaf for them to have done this.”

Maryland’s health department said the patient was a resident of the state but did not respond to questions about the country to which the person traveled or the timing of the case. An HHS spokesperson did not address the discrepancy on the source of the human case on Sunday.

Feeder cattle futures FCU25 fell at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange after cattle and beef prices set records this year because the nation’s herd shrank to its smallest size in 70 years.

Screwworm has spread north in Mexico from Central America, prompting the U.S. Department of Agriculture to halt imports of Mexican cattle in July.

Producer group calls for transparency

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins did not mention the human case when she traveled to Texas on August 15 to announce that the agency would spend up to $750 million to build a Texas facility to produce sterile flies to combat screwworm. The agency has not confirmed cases in animals this year. The USDA has not responded to questions about the human case and what communications the agency had with the CDC.

Last week, an executive of industry group Beef Alliance sent emails to about two dozen people, informing them the CDC had confirmed a case in Maryland in a person who had traveled to the U.S. from Guatemala, according to a source. Beef Alliance has not responded to requests for comment.

U.S. cattle producers’ association R-CALF USA said on Monday there should be an investigation if government officials shared information about the case with select industry members.

“Without transparency and symmetrical information dissemination to all industry participants there can be no trust between industry participants and the government,” the association’s CEO, Bill Bullard, said.

— Additional reporting by Heather Schlitz in Chicago and Cassandra Garrison in Buenos Aires.

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The case, investigated by the Maryland Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was confirmed by the CDC as New World screwworm on August 4, and involved a patient who returned from travel to El Salvador, HHS spokesman Andrew G. Nixon said in an email to Reuters.

Earlier, Reuters reported that beef industry sources said last week that the CDC had confirmed a case of New World screwworm in a person in Maryland who had traveled to the United States from Guatemala.

Nixon did not address the discrepancy on the source of the human case.

“The risk to public health in the United States from this introduction is very low,” he said.

The U.S. government has not confirmed any cases in animals this year.

Threat to beef industry

The differing accounts from the U.S. government and industry sources on the human case are likely to further rattle an industry of cattle ranchers, beef producers and livestock traders already on high alert for potential U.S. infestations as screwworm has moved northward from Central America and southern Mexico.

The government’s confirmation of a screwworm case comes just over a week after U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins traveled to Texas to announce plans to build a sterile fly facility there as part of efforts to combat the pest.

The USDA has estimated a screwworm outbreak could cost the economy in Texas, the biggest U.S. cattle-producing state, about $1.8 billion in livestock deaths, labor costs and medication expenses.

An executive of the industry group Beef Alliance sent emails last week to about two dozen people in the livestock and beef sectors, informing them that the CDC had confirmed a human case of screwworm in Maryland in a person who had traveled to the U.S. from Guatemala, according to a source, who asked not to be identified, and who shared the contents of the emails with Reuters.

Beth Thompson, South Dakota’s state veterinarian, told Reuters on Sunday that she was notified of a human case in Maryland within the last week by a person with direct knowledge of it. CDC deferred questions to Maryland on a call with state animal health officials, Thompson said. “We found out via other routes and then had to go to CDC to tell us what was going on,” she said. “They weren’t forthcoming at all. They turned it back over to the state to confirm anything that had happened or what had been found in this traveler.”

Another source said that state veterinarians had learned about a human case in Maryland during a call last week with the CDC. A Maryland state government official also confirmed a case.

A spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Health did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

What are screwworms?

Screwworms are parasitic flies whose females lay eggs in wounds on any warm-blooded animal. Once the eggs hatch, hundreds of screwworm larvae use their sharp mouths to burrow through living flesh, eventually killing their host if left untreated.

The maggots’ feeding is similar to a screw being driven into wood, giving the pests their name.

Screwworms can be devastating in cattle and wildlife, and rarely infest humans, though an infestation in either an animal or a person can be fatal.

Treatment is onerous, and involves removing hundreds of larvae and thoroughly disinfecting wounds. But infestations are typically survivable if treated early enough.

The emails from the Beef Alliance executive said that due to patient privacy laws, there were no other details available about the positive human case of screwworm. The person was treated and prevention measures were implemented in the state, the email said.

A livestock economist at Texas A&M University was asked to prepare a report for Rollins on the impacts to industry of the border closure to Mexican cattle, according to the emails, a measure that has largely been in effect since November to prevent the arrival of screwworm to the United States.

The CDC was required to report the positive New World screwworm case to both Maryland health officials and the Maryland state veterinarian, one of the emails said, adding that the CDC also notified other agriculture stakeholders.

“We remain hopeful that, since awareness is currently limited to industry representatives and state veterinarians, the likelihood of a positive case being leaked is low, minimizing market impact,” the beef industry executive wrote.

A representative for the Beef Alliance did not respond to requests for comment.

Impact on beef and cattle futures

Chicage Mercantile Exchange feeder cattle futures fell sharply on Monday after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the human screwworm case.

CME September feeder cattle contracts were down 2.75 cents at 359.925 cents per pound by 8:40 a.m. CDT after earlier falling as low as 354.525 cents per pound.

Livestock traders and beef producers have been on edge about the potential for cases in cattle as prices have already hit record highs because the U.S. cattle herd is at its smallest size in seven decades.

A human case and the lack of transparency around it could present a political challenge for Rollins. The USDA has set traps and sent mounted officers along the border, but it has faced criticism from some cattle producers and market analysts for not acting faster to pursue increased fly production.

Rollins first announced plans for a sterile fly facility at Moore Air Force Base in Edinburg, Texas – near where a production facility to combat screwworm operated during the last major outbreak 50 years ago – in June, saying that the facility would take two to three years to come online.A spokesperson for the USDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Mexico has also taken efforts to limit the spread of the pest, which can kill livestock within weeks if not treated. The Mexican government said in July that it started to build a $51 million sterile fly production facility in the country’s south.

The sole operating plant is in Panama City and can produce a maximum of 100 million sterile screwworm flies each week. The USDA has estimated that 500 million flies would need to be released weekly to push the fly back to the Darien Gap, the stretch of rainforest between Panama and Colombia.

Screwworms traveling north

Screwworms have been traveling north through Mexico from Central America since 2023. They are endemic in Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and countries in South America, according to the USDA.

Mexico reported a new case about 370 miles (595 km) south of the U.S. border in Ixhuatlan de Madero, Veracruz, in July. The USDA immediately ordered the closure of livestock trade through southern ports of entry, after previously halting imports in November and May.

The U.S. typically imports over a million cattle from Mexico a year to fatten in feedlots and process into beef.

Screwworms were eradicated from the United States in the 1960s when researchers began releasing massive numbers of sterilized male screwworm flies that mate with wild female screwworms to produce infertile eggs.

— Additional reporting by Heather Schlitz in Chicago and Jarrett Renshaw in Washington.

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Why it matters: China’s turn to Brazil soybeans could cost U.S. farmers billions.

China, the world’s largest soybean buyer, is turning to Brazilian cargoes amid trade tensions with the U.S. and ongoing negotiations. The country has not pre-purchased soybeans from the upcoming U.S. harvest, an unusual delay that has worried traders and farmers.

“Soybean farmers are under extreme financial stress. Prices continue to drop and at the same time our farmers are paying significantly more for inputs and equipment. U.S. soybean farmers cannot survive a prolonged trade dispute with our largest customer,” said the letter sent from the American Soybean Association to Trump on Tuesday.

China’s turn to Brazilian soybeans could cost U.S. farmers billions. China bought 54 per cent of U.S. soybean exports in the 2023-2024 marketing year, worth $13.2 billion (C$18.3 billion), according to the ASA. The country’s soybean imports hit a record July high this year.

Soybean prices jumped after an August 11 post from Trump on Truth Social urging China to quadruple its soybean purchases. However, farmers said they doubted such a large increase was possible.

“The further into the autumn we get without reaching an agreement with China on soybeans, the worse the impacts will be on U.S. soybean farmers,” said the letter.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Why it matters: Screwworm has contributed to record high cattle prices.

The plan signals increasing worries about the risk of screwworm, a parasitic fly that eats livestock and wildlife alive, to infest U.S. cattle after the pest has moved north in Mexico toward the U.S. border.

An outbreak could further elevate record-high U.S. beef prices by keeping more animals out of the U.S. cattle supply.

In Texas, the largest U.S. cattle-producing state, ranchers are anticipating the return of screwworms for the first time in decades. The United States eliminated screwworms in the 20th century by flying planes over hotspots to drop boxes packed with sterile flies.

The new production plant in Edinburg, Texas, would be located with a previously announced sterile fly dispersal facility at Moore Air Base and will have the capacity to produce 300 million sterile screwworm flies per week, Rollins said. Sterile flies reduce the mating population of the wild flies.

“It’s a tactical move that ensures we are prepared and not just reactive,” Rollins said at a press conference with Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

Rollins did not say when the plant would open and the USDA did not immediately respond to questions about the timeline for the project. Rollins previously said such a facility would take two to three years to build.

The USDA will spend an additional $100 million on technologies to combat screwworm while the facility is being constructed, Rollins said.

Washington halted cattle imports from Mexico in July to keep out the pest. It also invested millions in setting up a new sterile fly production plant in Metapa, Mexico, but it will take roughly a year to come online.

In Panama, a facility breeds up to 100 million sterile screwworm flies per week. The USDA estimated 500 million flies need to be released weekly to push the fly back south in Latin America.

“All Americans should be concerned, but it’s certainly Texas and our border and livestock-producing states that are on the frontlines of this every day,” Rollins said.

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Proposition 12, often called ‘prop 12,’ which also sets housing standards for veal and eggs sold in the state, was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2023 after a legal challenge by the pork industry.

Why it matters: Canadian pork producers are concerned Proposition 12 will reduce their ability to sell weanlings, hogs and pork into the U.S., a vital market, due to differences in animal care regulations.

President Donald Trump’s administration sued California on July 9 over the law’s provisions for chicken housing, arguing it has contributed to higher egg prices.

Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson has sought to limit the law’s scope to California farmers, excluding farmers from other states who sell pork into California, in the next farm bill. The bill is an omnibus funding package passed every five years, and which is two years overdue.

“The cost of compliance for small producers could actually push them out of the market altogether, leading to further consolidation in the industry,” Thompson said in Wednesday’s hearing.

The issue has divided the pork industry. Some hog farmers and pork companies oppose overturning the law, as they have already made investments to comply.

“There are thousands of farmers across the country who support and depend on commonsense bans against the cruel confinement of farm animals,” said Matt Bershadker, CEO of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in a statement.

The average cost of retrofitting or rebuilding barns to meet Prop 12’s standards is about $3,500 to $4,500 per sow, according to a letter sent from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to Thompson on July 21 and released by the agriculture committee.

The average retail prices of pork cuts such as bacon and ham have risen about one per cent since January 2024, when Prop 12 went into full effect, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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