The Commercialization of Chaos: The Silent War on What Americans Eat

USA Today: Wendy Pramik, Photo of Ohio, Cincinnati's landmark Findlay Market

In February 2026, the United States invoked a wartime emergency statute, which has historically been used to mobilize ventilators and weapons manufacturing, to protect a weedkiller. President Trump's executive order, signed February 18, cited the Defense Production Act to declare domestic production of glyphosate-based herbicides a matter of "national security", effectively protecting the chemical’s sole American manufacturer from the myriad lawsuits that it has faced for years. The move revealed a truth that the American food system has long hidden: when corporate success and human security conflict, the state will most likely always choose to protect the corporation.

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup and was classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans” by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2015. Research has linked it to hormone disruption, gut microbiome damage, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. More than 65,000 active U.S. lawsuits claim the chemical caused cancer in people who used it. Bayer, the sole domestic producer after its 2018 acquisition of Monsanto, recently proposed a $7.25 billion class settlement to contain the litigation. The executive order arrived the very day after that settlement was announced, raising questions about whose interests the timing served.

The weight of corporate influence is clear. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who spent years leading the legal fight against Monsanto and helped win a landmark $289 million verdict against the company, now serves as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the administration that granted Bayer its immunity. The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Movement, which supported this administration based on its promises of cleaning up the food supply, reacted with immediate outrage. “This executive order reads like it was drafted in a chemical company boardroom,” said food activist Vani Hari. The bipartisan No Immunity for Glyphosate Act was subsequently introduced by Representatives Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Chellie Pingree (D-ME) to undo the order, though its chances of passing are uncertain.

Yet, the glyphosate crisis is only one current in a larger food system that is now under a compounding threat. While news headlines have focused on gas prices since the start of the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in late February 2026, a quieter catastrophe is reshaping the entire global food supply. Roughly one-third of globally traded fertilizers, including the urea, ammonia, and phosphates that make modern agriculture possible, normally pass through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Since February 28, that corridor has collapsed, and there has been a 68% surge in fertilizer prices, per Food Ingredients First. Research professor Raj Patel positioned this issue effectively: “A farmer in Thailand who is 90 percent import-dependent, buying urea that's made from gas, shipped through Hormuz, and priced in dollars that are strengthening because of geopolitical risk, faces a cost shock on every dimension simultaneously.” This demonstrates that American consumers are somewhat protected by domestic natural gas and production, but only partially, and only for now.

The solution is not simply awareness, though awareness is a start. In a moment when the temptation to reach for the cheaper, lower-quality option at the grocery store seems natural, because incomes are being squeezed and grocery bills are already climbing, the act of choosing differently feels near impossible. However, at the individual level, choosing a different, healthier option is possible if a legitimate effort is made. Participating in porch bakeries, community co-ops, and local farmers’ markets represents a concrete act of opting out of a system that has revealed it cannot be trusted to prioritize the human beings it has a responsibility to feed. Being informed about what goes into your body, reading the label, asking the farmer, choosing the local, is, at this time, an act of self-defense.