MAHA, Green Groups Resist Pesticides at Supreme Court, Congress

An unlikely assembly of social media activists and vaccine skeptics are joining forces with lawmakers and environmental advocacy groups in Washington to oppose the Trump administration’s recent actions on pesticides.

The coalition on April 27 will display their burgeoning bond at a rally dubbed “The People vs. Poison,” aiming to highlight a battle over how much legal liability pesticide manufacturers should face.

The protest coincides with oral arguments before the US Supreme Court in a case that could influence whether Bayer AG is liable for thousands of lawsuits alleging its popular weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. House lawmakers next week are also expected to vote on a farm bill that would preempt state pesticide regulations driving many of the claims against Roundup.

Members of the Make America Healthy Again movement, concerned pesticides have increased chronic disease rates in the US, worry that Bayer—the sole domestic manufacturer of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup—won’t be held accountable. And environmental groups have long criticized the Environmental Protection Agency as failing to protect human health and ecosystems from pesticide exposure.

“The goal is to alert everyone in the government that has decision-making power on pesticides that MAHA and extended advocacy groups aren’t going to stand for the continued poisoning of Americans, and especially not going to be OK with a pesticide liability shield,” said Kelly Ryerson, a MAHA-aligned activist who goes by Glyphosate Girl on social media.

Organizations backing the event include Center for Biological Diversity, which recently sued the EPA for approving previously banned pesticides, and Children’s Health Defense, a prominent anti-vaccine group aligned with US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Republican and Democratic lawmakers are also scheduled to make an appearance.

“There are many people that are concerned about the Supreme Court case and many organizations from all realms of the political spectrum,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We are there because we want to help tell the story of just how profound the EPA’s failures here have been.”

Kennedy spent much of his career as an environmental attorney litigating the health impacts of long-term exposure to glyphosate, and the Make America Healthy Again Commission he chairs raised health concerns about the chemical in a May 2025 report. The EPA, which is reviewing glyphosate’s safety, has repeatedly determined it’s unlikely to be carcinogenic to humans.

Despite Kennedy’s influence, pesticides have become a thorny issue for the Trump administration. President Donald Trump incensed the MAHA faction with a February executive order boosting domestic production of glyphosate and a March brief filed to the Supreme Court in support of Bayer’s appeal.

White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in an emailed statement the executive order was “not an endorsement of any product or practice” and the administration remains aligned with the MAHA agenda.

Bayer is asking the high court justices to find that federal EPA regulations governing warning labels on pesticide products preempt state labeling requirements. A Supreme Court ruling in the company’s favor could undercut claims behind a $7.2 billion preliminary settlement and thousands of unsettled lawsuits alleging Bayer failed to include additional state warnings.

“Bayer stands behind the safety of its glyphosate-based products which have been tested extensively, approved by regulators and used around the globe for more than 50 years,” Bayer spokesperson Brian Leake said in an emailed statement.

‘David and Goliath’

Bayer isn’t waiting to see where its Supreme Court appeal lands—it’s also been pushing Congress to block state and local efforts to regulate pesticides beyond EPA requirements.

That effort has become one of the most contentious policy fights between influence groups and lawmakers in the House tasked with passing before Sept. 30 a farm bill package containing the pesticide preemption policy.

Bayer spent more than $11 million on lobbying since the first quarter of 2025 after seeking Supreme Court relief in April of the same year, according to a Bloomberg Law analysis of disclosure filings. The company disclosed more than $2 million for lobbying in the first quarter of 2026, but those figures don’t account for lobbying supporting pesticides by trade groups representing Bayer and agriculture organizations.

By comparison, just three of the groups organizing the rally filed lobbying disclosures during the same period, accounting for roughly $200,000 in combined lobbying on issues including opposing the farm bill language. The Center for Biological Diversity led with more than $110,000 spent over 2025 to influence legislation including language providing “pesticide immunity,” according to filings.

“We are so poorly funded in comparison to what we’re up against,” Ryerson said, adding: “That really is a big, big push for the reasoning behind the rally, because you won’t be able to miss it.”

Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), who introduced an amendment to delete the farm bill pesticides language alongside Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), said in an interview dozens of Bayer lobbyists have flooded congressional offices, making it difficult to convince Republicans in particular to join her opposition.

“It really is just a full court press going on, and feels a lot like a David and Goliath kind of battle,” Pingree said. Pingree and Massie are scheduled to speak at the rally ahead of a April 27 meeting by the powerful House Rules Committee to decide whether to include their amendment.

‘Reverse the Damage’

The Trump administration appears to have taken note of the coalition’s growing discontent.

Vocal MAHA activists including Ryerson aired their grievances about issues including pesticides during an April 10 White House meeting with officials including Trump and Kennedy.

Ryerson called the meeting an “excellent listening session” and said the April 27 rally is intended to reinforce the pesticides message.

“This is a primary concern of MAHA,” Ryerson said. “If you want to have the MAHA voter support in November, something dramatic needs to happen to reverse the damage that was done from the executive order and the support of the White House for Bayer at the Supreme Court.”