Sunflower State News

U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), chairman of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Caucus, recently discussed his legislative efforts aimed at improving Americans' health with Fox News Digital. The nearly 30 bipartisan bills he has proposed are part of the MAHA legislative package.

Senator Marshall described four main pillars for MAHA: increasing efficiency in agriculture, producing healthier and more nutrient-rich food, making primary healthcare more affordable and accessible, and addressing mental health challenges among young people. Central to these goals is a focus on soil health.

“Soil is a dirty topic, you know, pun intended,” Marshall told Fox News Digital in an interview.

Marshall noted that there can be tension between advocates for organic food production and farmers concerned about costs and farmland strain. He emphasized the importance of finding common ground focused on soil health rather than imposing mandates on farmers.

“So healthy soil meets healthy food meets healthy people. Rather than MAHA telling these farmers what you can and can’t do, we wanted to say, ‘What’s our goal here?’ If we have the same goals, then we’re going to figure this out. Well, the goal is healthy soil.”

Earlier in the week, Marshall hosted a roundtable discussion with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., bringing together experts on regenerative agriculture—a method that prioritizes restoring ecosystems through improved soil management.

He plans to introduce legislation aligned with his four pillars: healthcare access, mental health support, nutrition improvements, and agricultural advancements. One key proposal is the Plant Biostimulant Act. This bill encourages use of organisms in soil that attach to plant roots to help absorb nitrates and water more efficiently.

“It’s growing more with less,” he said.

Other proposed measures include funding for mobile cancer screenings through grants, mental health warnings for children using social media platforms, increased transparency about food ingredients, expanded employer healthcare coverage for chronic diseases, and making advanced soil health technologies eligible for Farm Bill conservation funding.

Marshall explained that most Senate bills require 60 votes to pass; therefore bipartisan cooperation was essential in crafting the package. Despite ongoing political polarization in Washington D.C., he sees these issues as ones that can bring lawmakers together.

“It’s also a topic that, in spite of the political polarization in Washington, ‘unites us, rather than divides us.’”

With President Donald Trump currently in office, Marshall sees an opportunity to advance these measures now rather than later.

“We’re seeing a time in our lives where the incidence of cancer, the age of cancer, is growing younger and younger, the age of Alzheimer’s onset is growing younger and younger, and we believe it’s an inflammatory reaction to the food that we’re eating that leads to all that,” he said.

“We think heart disease, hypertension, is really an inflammatory reaction… to the food we’re eating and the constantly high sugar levels in our blood system,” he continued. “So absolutely I think seize the moment. This is it.”