GEORGIA (WALB) - President Donald Trump has signed an executive order declaring elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides critical to U.S. national security. The order links these inputs to both military readiness and food-supply stability and uses the Defense Production Act to prioritize their continued production.

What the Order Does

The order makes three core claims:

• Elemental phosphorus is essential for defense as a component in munitions, semiconductors and batteries used in military technologies.
• Glyphosate-based herbicides are framed as vital to food security, described as a “cornerstone” of U.S. agricultural productivity with no direct chemical substitute.
• Disruption in supply is presented as a national security risk, threatening crop yields, farm profitability and stability of the food system.

Because the U.S. has only one domestic producer of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides and imports millions of kilograms of elemental phosphorus annually, the order argues that any loss of domestic production would “gravely threaten American national security.”

Under the order, the Secretary of Agriculture can:

• Prioritize and allocate materials, services and facilities to ensure an “adequate supply”
• Issue rules and regulations to implement these priorities

The Secretary is also instructed not to take any action that would endanger the corporate viability of domestic producers.

White Oak Pastures: “We oppose this order”

Regenerative farmer Will Harris of White Oak Pastures strongly opposes the move. In a statement responding to the order, Harris writes:

“Several of you have asked for our thoughts on the recent executive order declaring the use of glyphosate a national security issue. We are opposed to this executive order. While we understand that sudden loss of availability of this product would be disruptive to the industrial crop producers… We OPPOSE this order.”

Harris acknowledges that industrial agriculture’s dependence on chemicals developed over decades, but argues that a broad transition away from these inputs is both necessary and overdue:

“We firmly believe in moving away in mass from these inputs is not optional—it’s necessary, and it’s beyond time.”

He points to the long-term damage he has seen from chemical drift and contamination of land and waterways and argues that national security should be defined differently:

“We believe a more appropriate executive order would have declared the PROTECTION of our soils, water, and rural communities to be national security issues.”

Harris emphasizes that White Oak Pastures will “always be farmers and not politicians” and rejects the idea of sacrificing environmental health for export-oriented production:

“We do not believe in trading our natural resources, such as environmental health, for the production of products destined for the export market.”

Two Competing Security Visions

The clash reveals two competing ideas of security in U.S. agriculture:

• The executive order prioritizes uninterrupted access to glyphosate and elemental phosphorus as strategic assets.
• Regenerative advocates like Harris argue that true security lies in healthy soil, clean water and resilient rural communities, not in preserving chemical dependence.

As this debate unfolds, the central question is whether America’s long-term safety is better protected by guaranteeing the supply of chemical inputs—or by rebuilding the ecological foundations of its food system.

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