In May 2025, the Trump administration eliminated a $15 million research program that was supporting 10 studies focused on understanding how per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contaminate U.S. farmland. Funding was later restored for two of the ten canceled studies, with no explanation given for why those studies were restored while the others were not.
The research program, launched in 2024 under the Biden administration in response to public pressure to address PFAS contamination, funds 10 studies at U.S. universities that are exploring how PFAS contaminate soil and accumulate in crops, livestock, and water sources. Researchers have recently started to understand how pesticides and sewage sludge, used to fertilize crops, can lead to widespread food contamination.
PFAS are a group of about 15,000 “forever chemicals” that do not break down naturally, causing them to build up in the environment and in the human body and leading to serious health problems like cancer and birth defects.
According to Kyla Bennett, a former EPA attorney and the current science director at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), the decision to end the research is “not just stupid, it’s evil… Cutting funding into research on how these toxic chemicals get into our food will doom us to decades or even hundreds of years more of exposure.”