Rachel Leingang and Riley Messer
Wed, September 30, 2026
'RFK Jr believes chronic illness is primarily caused by processed foods and dyes, exposure to certain chemicals, and poor farming practices.'Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images
Some of the biggest food and agriculture corporations in the US are funding a campaign that pays social media influencers to combat elements of Robert F Kennedy Jr's Make America Healthy Again platform, according to an investigation by the Guardian and Documented, an investigative watchdog and journalism project.
The ascension of RFK Jr to secretary of health and human services has boosted his putative campaign to end chronic illness in the US, which he believes is primarily caused by processed foods and dyes, exposure to certain chemicals, and poor farming practices, along with an overuse of what he falsely claims are dangerous vaccines. The "Maha" movement blends long-running mainstream concerns about food and farm safety with conspiracy theories about everything from medicine to milk. A Maha "summit" in Washington this week will feature JD Vance and several members of Trump's cabinet.
A KFF poll from May 2026 reveals that some Maha themes resonate with a broad segment of US adults. About four in 10 say they support the Maha movement, while a majority of the public say there is not enough regulation of pesticides used in agriculture (64%) or of chemical food additives (75%).
Cross-partisan support in Washington on some of these issues poses a threat to the food industry's bottom line – though the Trump administration has largely stopped short of enacting new regulations.
But several large corporations are fighting back. An effort by the Center for Food Integrity, an industry-funded non-profit, tracks public sentiment around key issues central to Maha and suggests ways that agricultural interests can counter those narratives by appealing to emotion or scientific reasoning.
They call it Gaha: Growing a Healthier America. Documents show the coordinated effort is tracking Maha closely and researching ways to respond to the movement's claims without alienating its supporters. They are focused on several key areas: seed oils, pesticides, high-fructose corn syrup, regenerative agriculture, organic farming, raw milk/dairy and "big ag", internal documents obtained by the Guardian and Documented show.
The campaign involves deploying social media influencers with significant reach online in an effort to rebuild trust in the industries that the Maha movement has made their target. The Gaha influencer campaign officially launched late last year. In February, CFI compiled a report listing dozens of sponsored posts on platforms such as online blogs, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram about key Gaha subjects. So far, at least six influencers have signed on to the Gaha campaign, reaching a total audience of more than 2.6 million viewers.
Influencers who participated in the paid campaign said they saw it as a way to counter misinformation that comes from Maha proponents, many of whom are paid to promote products in the wellness space. Some of the paid posts involved talking to farmers about pesticides or regenerative agriculture, which is the practice of restoring soil health, or explaining what seed oils are to counter claims that they cause a host of health problems.
In one July 2025 training video uncovered by the Guardian and Documented, the center explained the goal was to create an "echo chamber" among the food and agriculture industry groups, aligning them behind "the same ultimate message".
"Without this coordinated response, that misinformation [from Maha] risks undermining consumer trust, fueling new regulations and eroding confidence in agriculture as a whole," said Kelly Leighton, the center's executive director, in the video.
The Center for Food Integrity, formed in 2007, conducts research and public relations campaigns on behalf of the food and agricultural sectors. The board consists of corporate executives from top brands: Bryan Malenius, CFI's board president, also serves as the director of reputation strategy for public affairs at Chick-fil-A, while other members hold senior positions at companies such as Cargill, Dairy Farmers of America and the National Pork Board. Its members, whose dues pay to keep CFI operating, include groups such as the American Farm Bureau Federation and several state farm bureaus, CropLife America and the National Restaurant Association.
CFI created the Gaha campaign in partnership with its member organizations in the farming, agribusiness and food industries, in a bid to re-establish credibility with the public after Maha gained popularity. The American Farm Bureau Federation was also an important driver of the effort: the group's president, Zippy Duvall, took credit for bringing industry groups together to form the Gaha coalition during a speech in January 2026.
Critiques of the food system, from pesticides to processed foods, have long been the purview of Democrats. With Maha, and Trump's embrace of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the views have taken hold with many Republicans as well, presenting a broader threat to the agricultural industry.
"That surely freaks the industry out," said Tom Philpott, senior research associate at the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University. "For the industry, they are very concerned about, for want of a better word, a vibe shift."
The Center for Food Integrity declined an interview request, saying in a statement: "At the Center for Food Integrity we recognize the critical link between diet and health. Growing a Healthier America supports an informed dialogue about how the food system can work together to assure a healthy affordable food supply and strong rural communities."
The farm bureau also declined to comment, saying questions should be referred to CFI as it was their project.
Inside Gaha messaging
In mid-2025, the Gaha campaign began taking shape: CFI released a variety of resources for industry groups to use as a framework for their communications strategies moving forward.
The Guardian and Documented uncovered dozens of pages of internal materials related to this effort, including a "Say This, Not That" guide. It provided highly specific advice about language on key Maha topics, and included an influencer campaign creation guide.
Since last May, CFI has also released regular insight briefs, which identify Maha narratives gaining traction in the news and on social media, allowing industry to understand public sentiment shifts and adjust their messaging accordingly.
In a brief covering February and March, for example, the summary of online activity about processed foods noted that childhood obesity had reached a new high, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and cited a Canadian study linking ultra-processed foods in early childhood to "adverse behavioral and emotional changes" in children. On the following page, CFI pointed members to new resources to "support" their communications work specifically on the issue of processed foods.
CFI's consumer research also directly informs who gets hired to deliver their messaging. An influencer campaign guide outlined preferred messengers for each consumer segment: for audiences who value authenticity, local farmers and wellness enthusiasts were best; for rationalists, scientists and dietitians; and for comfort seekers, CFI suggested lifestyle creators or faith-based voices.
Industry donors were invited to contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Gaha campaign. An internal flyer revealed the perks for those who opt to contribute: supporters who pledge up to $50,000 receive regular updates, donors of up to $100,000 participate in quarterly meetings and provide strategic input, and contributors of more than $100,000 earn a seat on the leadership council, with the opportunity to review and approve strategy as well as help secure funding from others.
Why influencers got involved
According to a 12 August brief by the center, the campaign has had impact: Gaha has generated 13.2m impressions online, with more than 1.1m engagements and an 8.74% engagement rate.
Influencers who participated in the campaign posted about key topic areas the center wanted to target: raw milk, seed oils, agriculture. Some featured farmers talking about their work and how they balance using pesticides.
Slade Wentworth, who has more than 1 million followers on thedadbriefs, his Instagram account, said he participated in the campaign as part of a series he does that helps families "think critically through political and cultural noise".
"In my opinion, many of the loudest voices in the Maha movement and in the food/wellness spaces in general tend to push anti- and pseudo-scientific claims," Wentworth said via email. "To me, engaging with CFI was an opportunity to present a balanced discussion on topics that overlap with what I'd typically cover" in the series.
One of the topics he covered, on the raw milk movement, resonated well with his audience, he said. The comments he received on the work he did for the campaign were "varied and substantive", a sign that the content "struck a good balance, enabling folks to lean into their perspectives thoughtfully".
The anonymous creator of hydroxide.foodscience, which has more than 300,000 followers on Instagram, made posts about regenerative agriculture, ultra-processed foods and seed oils as part of the paid program. They decided to participate because it was a "uniquely positive spin on food and agriculture".
"It can be difficult for people to sort through the weeds of food and food science and agriculture to really get the facts, so I think that was like a big reason why this campaign resonated with me," they said. They do not disclose their name on their accounts.
Jessica Steier, the CEO of Unbiased Science, interviewed a farmer as part of the campaign to show what modern farming looks like. Unbiased Science received "a modest fee" for the campaign, but kept full editorial and scientific control, Steier said in an emailed statement. The center didn't script the post or tell them what to say, which would have been a dealbreaker for Unbiased Science, she said. The work was not about defending industry, but about giving people information to make their own decisions, she said.
Much of the information amplified by Maha, Steier noted, falls under a "wave of chemophobia", where people are told they're being harmed without much evidence. Unbiased Science wanted to counter the fear by showing why farmers use pesticides, that the goal is to use the minimum amounts necessary and what regulations are in place, she said. Hearing it directly from a farmer "does something a fact sheet can't", she said.
"If anything, the financial incentives are far stronger on the other side of this," Steier said. "The wellness economy that profits from fear about food and 'toxins' is enormously lucrative. Explaining why a preservative is safe is not where the money is. The people being richly rewarded for shaping what Americans believe about their food are not the ones defending the evidence."
Other influencers the center included in its campaign were Happy Strong Healthy, Dietitian Hannah and Veggies and Chocolate. These accounts did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
Maha as 'existential threat'
Jerold Mande, a nutritionist who served as deputy undersecretary for food safety at the US Department of Agriculture under Barack Obama, said the campaign sounds like "crisis management". He has worked for decades to make food policy a priority, but thinks Maha, with its cross-partisan appeal, represents the biggest threat to the food industry that he's seen. Using influencers to counter Maha, which is in essence a loose grouping of influencers itself, makes sense.
"They realize now that they're facing an existential threat, and their whole business model over the last decades has evolved around, you know, how do we make money?" Mande said.
Still, he said, as Maha has charted some wins and made food policy a political priority, it has failed to install regulations that would create meaningful changes.
"You're not going to make progress if you don't use government's two powerful levers: funding and rules," Mande said.
Marion Nestle, a molecular biologist and nutritionist who has studied and written about food politics, said food and agriculture groups are always working to protect their industries, so a campaign like this is "nothing new", especially when Republicans are now talking about agrochemicals. "Of course, they're going to lobby, and they're going to do it in absolutely every way they can," Nestle said.
Using an outright attack on Maha influencers, many of whom are moms whom Nestle believes "really care about their kids", would not be a good idea, she said, leading to softer and more behind-the-scenes methods to sway opinion.
Maha isn't "getting anywhere" with major changes to the food system, given the refusal to regulate coming from Kennedy and the Trump administration, she said.
"Food companies have license to do all the lobbying they want, and they can say whatever they want," she said. "They don't have to do anything. Nobody's making them do anything. Nobody's holding them accountable for anything."
