Trump EPA Approves New ‘Forever Chemical’ Pesticides for America’s Food Supply

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has expand approvals for “forever chemical” pesticides on major U.S. food crops.

The Trump EPA approved new uses of “forever chemical” pesticides, including two PFAS compounds never before used in U.S. agriculture. Diflufenican and epyrifenacil were approved for use on corn and soybeans, while epyrifenacil was also cleared for wheat. PFAS pesticide bifenthrin received new approvals on coffee, kiwifruit, peas, kale, and broccoli. The agency also authorized the first food use of the non‑PFAS pesticide chlormequat on wheat, barley and oats, even though it is already found in the bodies of an estimated 90% of Americans and has been linked to reproductive harms.

The pesticide approvals came just days after a Supreme Court decision siding with Bayer and the Trump administration to limit Americans’ ability to sue pesticide companies for harms linked to their products, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

In press materials, EPA has stated that these newly approved fluorinated pesticides are not PFAS. However, the Center for Biological Diversity points out that the compounds meet a broader, scientifically derived PFAS definition developed by dozens of researchers worldwide and endorsed by more than 150 leading PFAS scientists, a standard now used by most U.S. states for regulation.

EPA’s own analysis acknowledges that diflufenican and epyrifenacil can break down into smaller PFAS chemicals, including trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), which research suggests is among the most pervasive PFAS contaminants in global water supplies. TFA has been detected in 78% of tested wells in Germany, and European studies have estimated diflufenican to be a leading contributor to TFA groundwater contamination. The European Chemicals Agency has recommended classifying TFA as toxic to reproduction and as a Persistent, Mobile and Toxic substance, warning that it can cause “very long-lasting and diffuse contamination of water resources.”

Diflufenican can degrade into 2,4‑difluoroaniline malonate, a fluorinated compound structurally similar to aniline, which EPA has classified as a probable human carcinogen. Epyrifenacil has been shown to cause liver tumors in animal research and belongs to a PPO‑inhibitor pesticide class with several members linked to liver tumors. Bifenthrin, already widely used, is among the most frequently detected insecticides in U.S. streams, lakes and rivers and often appears at concentrations that exceed aquatic safety thresholds.

EPA has stated that, under its risk assessments, the newly approved pesticides “do not pose unreasonable risks to human health or the environment” when used according to label directions, and that their PFAS definition excludes single‑fluorinated‑carbon compounds.

The Center for Biological Diversity disagrees.

“Trump’s reckless push to ignore science and embrace these extremely harmful, long-lasting pesticides ensures his legacy won’t be the many monuments he’s built to himself, but the many millions of people his shortsighted polices will sicken and prematurely kill,” said Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity.