Glyphosate on the Joe Rogan Experience
12 fact-checked claims across 2 episodes · Jun 2023 to Jan 2026 · updated Jul 29, 2026
Glyphosate has been Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s most consistent subject on the Joe Rogan Experience. He argued the case as a plaintiffs' attorney and presidential candidate on #1999 in June 2023, and returned to it on #2461 in January 2026 as Secretary of Health and Human Services, this time with federal policy behind him. Joe Rogan has pushed the same thread from the host chair, citing biomonitoring studies, and Casey Means brought a parallel argument about atrazine on #2210.
Two things get conflated in these conversations. The litigation record is documented: Bayer paid roughly $10 billion to settle Roundup claims in 2020, about 65,000 cases remain pending, and a further $7.25 billion settlement awaited court approval as of mid 2026. Cancer causation is not settled. IARC classified glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans in 2015 on limited human evidence, while the EPA holds that it is not likely to be carcinogenic, a position shared by regulators in the EU, Canada, Australia, Japan and New Zealand.
Most claims
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (11)
- Joe Rogan (1)
Related topics
Does glyphosate cause cancer?
On #1999 Kennedy said the litigation had established that non-Hodgkin lymphoma is being caused by glyphosate. That overstates a split record. IARC's 2015 Group 2A finding rested on limited human evidence, mainly elevated lymphoma rates among farmers and applicators, while the largest prospective US cohort, the Agricultural Health Study of 54,251 pesticide applicators, found no association with non-Hodgkin lymphoma or its subtypes. Juries have gone the other way regardless, which is why the figures Kennedy gave on #2461 matter: he put the totals at $11 billion paid and 65,000 cases pending. Reuters reporting puts the earlier payout at about $10 billion and the proposed new settlement at $7.25 billion, with the case count right. He was also careful on #2461 to note that the fatty liver association is not strong enough to litigate, which matches the evidence: a 2020 study of 97 biopsy-confirmed patients found higher glyphosate excretion in steatohepatitis, with no control group and no causal finding. More numbers claim by claim sit in our ledger of contested statistics.
Is glyphosate in our food and in our bodies?
Rogan raised this on #1999, recalling a study showing 90 percent of Americans had glyphosate in their blood. The nationally representative figure comes from CDC NHANES 2013-2014, where glyphosate was detectable in the urine of about 81 percent of Americans aged 6 and older. Urine, not blood: glyphosate clears in hours to days, which is why biomonitoring measures it there, and detection at trace levels shows exposure rather than harm. Kennedy's causal step is the contested part. He tied the pre-harvest wheat desiccant to disease on both appearances, saying spraying that began in 2006 produced an explosion of celiac disease and gluten allergies, and returning on #2461 to the idea that glyphosate residues disrupt the gut microbiome. US celiac prevalence rose across roughly 50 years, from about 0.03 percent in the 1970s to between 0.5 and 1.26 percent by the early 2010s, not in a single-year jump, and a 2020 Frontiers in Microbiology review found the glyphosate and dysbiosis literature too methodologically weak to support conclusions. Celiac disease itself is a genetic autoimmune condition tied to the HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQ8 variants. Related material is collected under health claims we have checked.
Did atrazine really turn male frogs into females?
In the laboratory, yes. On #1999 Kennedy described the experiment in detail, saying four male frogs became fertile females after three years of atrazine exposure below the level EPA accepts in human drinking water. Tyrone Hayes and colleagues published exactly that in PNAS in 2010: 40 genetically male Xenopus laevis at 2.5 parts per billion, against a 3 ppb drinking-water standard, with 4 of the 40 fully sex-reversed. Kennedy undercounted the rest, since the paper reports 36 of 40 demasculinized rather than 30, and his description of a 30-frog subset garbles what was an all-male study population. The leap from tank to human is where it breaks: a benchmark for chronic human ingestion is not an amphibian no-effect threshold, and EPA convened Scientific Advisory Panels in 2003 and 2007 on precisely this contested question. Casey Means made a narrower atrazine argument on #2210, that 70 million pounds a year are sprayed in the US while the chemical is banned in Europe. The volume (EPA estimates about 76.5 million pounds), the 2004 EU ban and the aromatase mechanism all hold up. Her claim that the US buys it from China and Germany does not, since federal data show atrazine is manufactured at 24 domestic facilities. The pesticides hub tracks the rest of these.
Is America dependent on Chinese glyphosate?
On #2461 Kennedy said 99 percent of US glyphosate comes from China, framed as a Pentagon-identified security vulnerability. The dependency is real, the number is not. Bayer, the only domestic manufacturer, supplies roughly 60 percent of the glyphosate sold in the United States, so imports from all countries combined are a minority of supply. Trump's February 2026 executive order did invoke the Defense Production Act over glyphosate and elemental phosphorus, citing the risk of a single domestic producer, but its text names no country, no percentage and no Pentagon statement. The dependency argument runs through the crops too: Kennedy said 97 percent of US corn cannot be grown without glyphosate, where USDA and peer-reviewed figures more commonly land in the 85 to 92 percent range and where organic and conventional corn are both grown commercially without it. On alternatives, he cited a South Texas onion grower whose weeding costs fell from $1,500 to $300 an acre after switching to a laser weeder. That specific farm cannot be verified, though a 2025 Cornell and Rutgers trial in Pest Management Science found laser weeding cut weed biomass by 97 percent or more and matched conventional herbicides with far less crop damage, and an industry case study reports per-acre costs falling from about $900 to $269.
Does Monsanto's history with DDT tell us anything about glyphosate?
The historical framing is where #1999 was weakest. Kennedy said Monsanto had to stop producing DDT in 1973 because Congress passed laws, and that DDT had been the company's flagship product. The US ban took effect in June 1972 through an administrative cancellation order from EPA Administrator William Ruckelshaus, not through 1973 legislation, and EPA's own economic review of that decision identifies Montrose Chemical, not Monsanto, as the last remaining US manufacturer of basic DDT, never listing Monsanto in its production history at all. Monsanto's defining chemical legacy of that era was PCBs, which it alone produced in the US from the 1930s until 1977. The agronomic case is separate and also mixed. His argument on #2461 that glyphosate destroys the soil microbiome and blocks water infiltration runs against a 768-sample field study in Maryland and Mississippi that found no detectable change in microbial community composition, no pathogen enrichment and no yield loss, and against USDA data tying glyphosate-tolerant soybeans to conservation tillage, 86 percent of that acreage by 2006 versus 36 percent of conventional acreage. What is documented is the policy shift he described, a billion-dollar federal commitment to regenerative farming, corroborated by a joint HHS, USDA and EPA investment of over $1 billion and a June 2026 executive order directing agencies to reduce reliance on conventional chemical crop protection.
Logged claims
“So all the wheat in our country started being sprayed that year in 2006 with glyphosate. And that's the year you saw this explosion of celiac diseases and, you…”
Kennedy claims that when US wheat farmers began using glyphosate as a pre-harvest desiccant around 2006, that same year saw an 'explosion' of celiac disease and gluten allergies, implying causation.
“we got enough science on this now to show that non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is being caused by glyphosate”
Kennedy claims that in the Monsanto litigation he brought, the scientific evidence was sufficient to establish that glyphosate causes non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
“And in 1973, Monsanto had to stop producing DDT because we passed the laws at that time. And that was its flagship product.”
Kennedy claims Monsanto was forced to stop producing DDT in 1973 due to new laws, and that DDT had been Monsanto's flagship product before it pivoted to glyphosate.
“one of the things I noticed when there was a test that came out or a study that came out recently that showed that an enormous percentage of Americans, it was …”
Rogan claims a recent study found roughly 90 percent of Americans tested had detectable glyphosate in their blood.
“the President has made a billion-dollar commitment, not only the regenerate farming, but also to developing new ways of of dramatically reducing the amount of …”
Kennedy claims President Trump made a billion-dollar commitment to regenerative farming and to developing new technologies that dramatically reduce agricultural chemical use.
“It's associated with non-alcoholic Like fatty liver disease. There's a scientific association, but it's not strong enough for people to litigate on these. The …”
Kennedy claims glyphosate exposure has a scientific association with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and that the Roundup litigation was based specifically and solely on non-Hodgkin lymphoma evidence.
“She was paying $1,500 per acre for pesticides, for mainly glyphosate and for a manual labor. And now with this machine, it's $300. She's saving over $1,000 an …”
Kennedy claims a specific South Texas onion farmer's per-acre weed-control costs dropped from $1,500 to $300 by switching from glyphosate/manual labor to a laser-weeding machine.
“It destroys the microbiome and the soil. And because of that, the soil can't... You don't get water infiltration in the soil.”
Kennedy claims glyphosate use destroys soil microbiome and water infiltration, causing runoff that is destroying farms, calling the practice unsustainable.
“Right now, according to the industry reports, 99% of our glyphosate comes from China. The Pentagon and others said this is an extreme national security vulnera…”
Kennedy claims 99% of the glyphosate used in the US comes from China, framed by the Pentagon as an extreme national security vulnerability.
“the company that's making this has paid $11 billion in my lawsuit. They're just about to sign another $7. 6 billion settlement. There's 65,000 cases out there,…”
Kennedy claims Bayer/Monsanto has paid $11 billion, is about to sign an additional $7.6 billion Roundup settlement, faces 65,000 pending cases, and has said it will exit the glyphosate business without legal relief.
“But your stomach microbiome is plants. It may contribute to the celiac disease and to all these gluten allergies.”
Kennedy suggests glyphosate use as a wheat desiccant (starting around 2003) is a major factor causing celiac disease and gluten allergies in humans.
“So 97% of corn in this country is produced with glyphosate and can't be produced without it.”
Kennedy claims 97% of US corn is produced with glyphosate and cannot be produced without it.