“Made in USA” Isn’t the Food Safety Stamp It Used to Be

Buyer Beware: Why “Made in USA” Isn’t Always the Safety Stamp It Used to Be

For decades, “Made in USA” carried the glow of trust. It conjured images of tight regulations, rigorous inspections, and farmers in worn denim testing their soil like it’s a sacred text. But the sheen is slipping — fast.

The Trump administration’s ongoing rollback of environmental and health protections is turning that once-reassuring label into something consumers need to approach with the same caution they’d give a gas-station sushi special.

As the White House aggressively lobbies foreign governments to open their markets to U.S. agricultural exports — sometimes in exchange for tariff reductions — there’s a growing international concern that countries may soon be flooded with cheap, chemically treated products made under a dramatically weakened regulatory regime.

In other words: the U.S. is offering a discount menu, and it comes supersized with health risks.

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Key Takeaways for Readers

• The U.S. is approving or expanding use of chemicals that other developed nations have banned or heavily restricted.
• PFAS “forever chemical” pesticides are moving rapidly through the U.S. approval pipeline but face global pushback.
• U.S. growers using weaker regulations can produce cheaper exports — creating a regulatory loophole that shifts risk onto consumers worldwide.
• International shoppers should treat Made in USA agricultural products with increased caution.

The New American Export: “Forever Chemical” Pesticides

If you need a case study in why foreign consumers should pause before loading up on American oranges, almonds, or tomatoes, look no further than a recent decision by the Trump EPA.

The administration approved isocycloseram, a pesticide belonging to the family of notorious “forever chemicals” known as PFAS — chemicals so persistent they make glitter look biodegradable. This is the second PFAS pesticide approved in just two weeks, with three more already queued for the coming year.

The Environmental Protection Agency, once the agency you looked to for sober second opinions, green-lit this despite data showing:

• It transforms into 40 additional PFAS compounds, some even more persistent.
• It’s associated with reduced testicle size, declining sperm counts, and liver toxicity.
• Children are at heightened risk, especially since the agency chose not to apply a child-safety buffer, which would have revealed unsafe dietary exposure.

Nathan Donley of the Center for Biological Diversity didn’t mince words:
“To approve more PFAS pesticides amid the growing awareness of the serious, long-term dangers from these forever chemicals is absurdly shortsighted… The undeniable reality is that the Trump administration is knowingly putting the nation’s children at greater risk of developing serious reproductive and liver harms for generations to come.”

Short version: while pesticides used in the U.S. may look legal, that no longer means they look safe.

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International Pesticide Restrictions vs U.S. Approvals (2025)

A Direct Threat to Global Food Chains

Isocycloseram also poses extreme risks to bees, the quiet workforce behind global food security. The EPA’s own assessment found that pollinators could be exposed to 1,500 times the lethal dose simply by collecting nectar or pollen near treated crops.

Given that one-third of the world’s food supply depends on pollination, this isn’t just a regulatory hiccup — it’s a long fuse on a global food-security time bomb.

But the administration’s political appointees — including former lobbyists from the American Chemistry Council and the American Soybean Association — are now steering pesticide oversight. It’s regulatory capture dressed up in khakis.

The Trade Game: Cheap U.S. Food for Tax Deals

While these approvals roll out like a conveyor belt, the administration is simultaneously pressuring allies and developing nations to buy more U.S. agricultural goods in exchange for tariff relief.

That sounds innocuous until you realise what’s happening behind the curtain:

• U.S. producers can lower costs because they’re now allowed to use more powerful, more persistent, less regulated chemicals.
• Countries desperate for trade concessions or cheaper imports may agree to deals that flood their markets with products grown under rules far laxer than their own.
• Once these imports undercut local farmers, domestic agricultural sectors may collapse — as seen in past trade deals — making nations dependent on chemically treated American goods.

This isn’t free trade. It’s chemical colonialism.

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A Label No Longer Telling the Whole Story

For years, “Made in USA” implied superior oversight. Now, that oversight is being dismantled piece by piece.

Under Trump, the EPA has:

• Weakened protections for waterways.
• Reduced restrictions on agricultural chemicals.
• Given polluters more influence than scientists in drafting regulations.
• Issued a new public-relations push — the “Make America Healthy Again” strategy — that shifted from acknowledging pesticide harms to insisting that EPA reviews are “robust.”

A bold claim, coming from an agency approving PFAS derivatives as if they’re handing out candy.

What Consumers Should Do

Foreign consumers — Australians, Europeans, Asians, Canadians — who see U.S. foods pop up on supermarket shelves at bargain prices need to be sceptical.

You should ask:

• Is this product grown with pesticides banned in my own country?
  Many PFAS pesticides and related chemicals are restricted or under review globally.
• Is the exporting system weaker than the importing one?
  If the answer is yes, be cautious.
• Is the price too good to be true?
  If so, it likely reflects chemical shortcuts, not efficiency.

Most importantly:

Cheap food is never cheap if it costs your health.

The Global Implication: What’s Imported Today Is Consumed Tomorrow

International consumers can’t assume U.S. regulatory decisions affect only Americans. When the U.S. loosens its agricultural safety standards, those products don’t stay home — they go global.

This is particularly concerning as U.S. companies ramp up production of PFAS-treated crops while the EPA plans to approve three more such pesticides in the coming year.

Forever chemicals do exactly what the name suggests:
they linger — in soil, in water, in the bodies of animals, and in you.

The next time you see “Made in USA” on a packet of almonds, orange juice, or oats, treat it like a polite warning rather than a badge of honour.

Because when regulatory safeguards erode, the burden shifts directly onto consumers to protect themselves.

And when a government is more concerned with appeasing pesticide lobbyists than safeguarding children’s health and environmental integrity, trust becomes one more thing they’ve deregulated.

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