Thanks to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his Make America Healthy Again tribe, seed oils have received a lot of unwanted attention. MAHA types despise them.
Contempt is not too strong a word. Cate Shanahan, a central figure of MAHA known as “the mother of the seed oil movement,” he calls them the eight oils of the haters. This wording expresses MAHA’s sentiments by avoiding the sticky fact that two of the eight—corn and rice bran—are not actually seed oils, since they are not extracted from the seeds. Others are canola, cottonseed, grapeseed, safflower, soybean and sunflower.
Whatever they are called, the MAHA campaign against them is influencing consumer behavior. In An International Food Information Council survey28% of Americans said they avoid seed oils.
If you grow one or more of these eight crops, should you be concerned?
MAHA types believe that refining these eight oils leaves those who consume them with dangerous inflammatory toxins in their systems. MAHA has problems with some refining practices – high heat, bleaching and the use of chemical solvents such as hexane.
By rejecting seed oils, the MAHA crowd embraces something the medical establishment considers dangerous: saturated fat. In releasing the government’s latest dietary guidelines, which promote cooking with butter and beef, the Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated he was “ending the war on saturated fat.”
Medical establishment organizations such as the American Heart Association say that seed oils are safe and beneficial. The inflammation argument is flawed, the AHA says, adding that these oils are far better for heart health than butter and beef. Title in a AHA 2024 Press Release read, “There is no reason to avoid seed oils and many reasons to eat them.”
In this age of widespread public distrust of the “establishment”, the MAHA view is gaining the upper hand.
Farm groups are concerned. In Senate testimony in February, former American Soybean Association President Josh Gackle criticized “false claims” about soybean and other seed oils and threats to ban them. “The consumption of soybean oil for food uses is a stable market that has provided continued security for our farmers,” he said, “and eliminating this market would cause an immediate and significant drop in soybean oil prices.”
MAHA enthusiasts, including RFK Jr., would probably ban seed oils if they could. So far, at least, they lack political power. The Dietary Guidelines almost certainly would have attacked seed oils if Kennedy had his way. Instead, the instructions don’t even mention seed oils.
A seed oil of 2025 study funded by the United Soybean Board concluded that a ban on seed oil would increase food prices and reduce farm incomes.
The big winner of a ban, the study said, would be imported palm oil.
If a ban would reduce farm incomes, what effect has the 28% of the public avoiding seed oils had? Apparently it had some impact; if 100% of the public used seed oils, demand would be higher, a plus for crop prices.
However, there is reason to think that for some crops, at least, the impact of avoiding edible seed oil has been relatively small. Only a small percentage of the corn grown in the US goes into edible oil. For soybeans, much of the oil produced is diverted for use as biofuel. Restaurants continue to use seed oils because they are economical.
Furthermore, we have no context for the 28% figure. What was the percentage five years ago? Ten? Was there ever a time when the number was zero? Avoidance can be built into crop price levels. If it is not growing rapidly, it may not lower prices much.
Mainstream science and MAHA agree on one thing: olive oil is good. It is made by simply pressing olives rather than using heat and chemicals, which cleans it with MAHA. Both new government guidelines influenced by MAHA and founding organizations like the American Heart Association recommend it.
But extra virgin olive oil isn’t likely to be the only cooking oil on your pantry shelves. Its taste does not work with some foods. It has a low smoke point, so some cooks prefer seed oils for cooking at very high temperatures. And it’s more expensive.
However, seed oils are fighting an uphill battle in the public opinion court. The product description on the LesserEvil popcorn package boasts that it does not use “dirty vegetable oils.” LesserEvil uses coconut oil, which is particularly high in saturated fat. The LesserEvil brand is increasingly appearing on store shelves.
Growers must ask themselves: can 28% today be 50% tomorrow?
Former Wall Street Journal Asia correspondent and editor Urban Lehner is editor emeritus of DTN/The Progressive Farmer. This article, originally published in July 10 from the latter news organization and now reprinted by Asia Times with permission, is © Copyright 2026 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved. Follow Urban Lehner at X @urbanize.
