The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda, coupled with the America First agriculture agenda, goes hand in hand with President Donald Trump’s vision to usher in a “new age of prosperity,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said during a policy event with Breitbart News on Tuesday.
Rollins told the crowd that she had never met Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now Health and Human Services Secretary, until six to eight months ago and found him to be “extremely curious” and someone who “wants to understand.”
“He’s been meeting with farmers and producers to really get his arms around, you know, exactly what it is that we do in the ag[ricultural] community, and why it is that things such as fertilizer and pesticides are necessary to feed America and the world,” she said, explaining that it does not mean that they “don’t have hard questions” to answer. However, she said her relationship with Kennedy is “built on trust.”
“And frankly, friendship also built on the idea that we’re probably not going to agree on everything,” she said. “I think we’re going to agree on most things and on the things we don’t agree on, we work it out as friends and perhaps bring the president in if we need to work across the federal government.”
Rollins said they are currently working through the MAHA commission report, and she noted that the commission is slated to meet in the coming weeks.
“We’re all hard at work on that, and what I know is this: That any effective Cabinet is going to be filled with smart, passionate, relentless people that will do everything they can to achieve their objectives for the American people, but I also know that we all work for President Trump, and at the end of the day that he will be ultimately leading us into this new age of prosperity, which includes making agriculture great again, but also includes making America healthy again,” she said, explaining that these two things go hand in hand with ushering in the new age of prosperity.
“So finding that partnership and working together continues to be a driver for us — a driving narrative for us — but also the relationships that we’re building are very important too,” she continued before discussing specific steps they are already taking to make America healthy again, celebrating the dairy industry taking artificial colors our of dairy products they use for the school lunch program, for instance.
“It’s really encouraging to me. I’ve met with almost everyone, it seems like, representing different industries. And all of them have said, we are your partner in this. We want to partner. And whether it’s the, you know, the fast food restaurants and making some changes there, voluntarily, the dairy industry making some big changes there, a lot of the other industries are doing the same thing,” Rollins said, noting that no one would argue that America is facing what she described as a “health epidemic,” pointing out that the U.S. is the “least healthy developed country in the world.”
“Whether it’s the ultra processed foods, whether it’s over medication, whatever it is,” she said, noting that she is well aware of this in her personal life as well, as she is raising four teenagers.
“I get it, and I’m right there with all the moms, especially that are so concerned, and the dads, but that we have to balance that with not an immediate, well, you know, we’ve got to basically shut all this down, because it’s not possible. We will, we will starve. We can’t produce the food we need to and feed the people we need to with a … 180 degree turn,” she said.
Rollins said the key is a long term vision, and she believes partnership is the way to get there and solve this.
“And I do believe we will solve it, and maybe sooner rather than later,” she added.
WATCH the full discussion below:
