National Potato Council CEO Kam Quarles welcomes likely regulatory rollbacks under President Donald Trump’s new administration but remains concerned about the Make America Healthy Again movement.

MAHA priorities include removing toxins from food, water and air; prioritizing regenerative agriculture; and preserving natural habitats, according to the Make America Healthy Again political action committee. The movement recently has been linked to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the president’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary.

Parts of MAHA are “quite troublesome,” although “it’s a little early,” Quarles said.

For example, the movement has potential to change how pesticide risk is viewed and managed, ultimately impacting domestic commodity production and exports, he said.

The European Union uses a hazard-based approach focused on maximum potential harm whereas the U.S. uses a risk-based approach that takes into account how, where and under what conditions a pesticide is used, Quarles said.

“A great white shark is a hazard all by itself,” he said. “If we are on a beach in California discussing a shark in Australia, the risk is relatively minimal.”

As for regulation in general in the Trump administration, “the big thing right out of the gate is regulation reform, an absolute reduction of regulatory burden and other supply constraints,” Quarles said.

Some agricultural labor regulations in recent years “went well beyond worker protection and more into the union organizing space,” such as those that enabled certain nuisance claims, he said. “I think those types of regulations are going to be pulled back.”

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March adopted rules to enhance and standardize publicly traded companies’ climate-related disclosures. Lawsuits followed. Food companies were among those expressing major concern.

The commission in early April voluntarily stayed implementation of the rules, which Quarles expects will be pulled back or scrapped.

USDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services every five years update dietary guidelines, which impact government nutrition programs.

A committee compiling recommendations for the 2025 update considered reclassifying potatoes from vegetable to grain, which Quarles strongly opposed. The committee ultimately did not reclassify potatoes.

However, the committee in its report recommended people reduce their intake of starchy vegetables.

“For a country that doesn’t eat enough vegetables now, that on its face makes no sense,” Quarles said.

He expects the Trump administration to pause the dietary guidelines process.

The National Potato Council will monitor how the administration moves forward with tariffs, and with border security and deportation — including if and how the agricultural workforce is impacted, Quarles said.

In Congress, a twice-extended 2018 Farm Bill must be replaced, he said.

“We are very concerned about continued delays in rewriting the Farm Bill,” Quarles said. “There is significant need for new resources … There are numerous programs incredibly important for potatoes as well as all of the U.S. fruit and vegetable industry.”

Lack of an updated Farm Bill “is putting American agriculture behind our foreign competitors, so we need to get a bill done this year,” he said.