President Donald Trump declared a high-profile, cancer-linked weedkiller as critical to the nation’s defense and military readiness, another major blow to “Make America Healthy Again” advocates.
The executive order Trump signed Wednesday evening extends national security protections, including immunity, to producers of glyphosate-based herbicides and phosphorus, the mineral used to make glyphosate.
“Ensuring an adequate supply of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides is thus crucial to the national security and defense, including food-supply security, which is essential to protecting the health and safety of Americans,” Trump wrote in the order.
The order directs the Agriculture and Defense secretaries “to determine the proper nationwide priorities” under the Defense Production Act “necessary to ensure a continued and adequate supply of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides.”
