Michelle Miller stands in a field of corn, stalks stretching above her perfectly styled hair, holding a tiny microphone and addressing an audience online.
She was farming genetically modified corn in Iowa in 2017, she said, when a tornado hit. Today a social media influencer who goes by the name "tHE Farm Babe," Miller said the wind knocked her corn flat on the ground. However, in a feat of botanical fortitude, the plants bounced back.
"When you ask farmers: why are they growing the GMO seeds?" she said in the video, "it's because the genetics hold up."
Miller has starred in hundreds of videos, often set in fields and on farms, since she began her influencing career.
She aims to debunk what she sees as misperceptions around farming perpetuated by another universe of influencers, many of whom are closely aligned with US health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and his Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, campaign.
However, unlike Miller's GMO corn, arguments in favour of the status quo in US food and agriculture are increasingly falling flat, especially on social media.
Among the most prominent of MAHA influencers is Vani Hari, who blogs as "The Food Babe". Miller said her own name is a self-conscious spin-off. Hari has gained millions of followers by railing against processed food, GMOs, pesticides and other mainstays of the US food system.
Though Miller partners with powerful interests in the food and agriculture industry with huge marketing budgets, her message is not gaining as much traction as Hari's. Her Instagram account, for example, had just over 43,000 followers in early August compared to Hari's 2.3-million. The bloggers' uneven rivalry speaks to the ascendance of a movement that has put conventional food and farming in its crosshairs, and Big Agriculture's struggle to respond.
Hari and Miller, in their 40s, emerged as food commentators in the 2010s amid a boom in social media influencing, when a single post going viral could help rocket its author to fame and fortune.
Their rise also coincided with growing national attention on the relationship between food, obesity and chronic illness, with then-first lady Michelle Obama spearheading new regulations on school nutrition and promoting vegetable gardening and exercise through her "Let's Move!" campaign.
Hari grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she said she was largely raised on ultra-processed foods, to which she attributes later chronic health conditions from eczema to endometriosis.
In almost any study we've conducted, people are more likely to trust someone who looks like them, thinks like them and who they believe is like them
— Lauri Baker, University of Florida professor of agricultural communication
An appendectomy in 2002 launched her on a quest to understand the source of her health issues. She pored over books on nutrition at the library, from which she concluded her diet was at the root of her diseases, and those of many other Americans.
"I wanted to investigate: what was it about the foods that made me feel so bad?" Hari said.
Hari began writing a blog in 2011 as "The Food Babe", a name suggested by her husband, with the aim of educating her friends and family. The blog reached well beyond her immediate circle and led to book deals and the creation of Truvani, a line of supplements sold at Target and Walmart.
More recently, she has become a sort of mascot of the MAHA movement, though she is a registered Democrat, according to public voter registration records. At a press conference in April, at which Kennedy announced the administration's intention to phase out synthetic food dyes, Hari was an opening act, appearing in a bejeweled white suit before a room of press and MAHA supporters. When Kennedy took the stage, he called her an "extraordinary leader". She said she does not have a formal role in the administration.
Miller wanted her own pulpit after she began noticing Hari's content in 2014. A commercial farmer of soybeans, corn and livestock in Iowa at the time, Miller said she posted a comment on Hari's Facebook page taking issue with her claims about the toxicity of GMO crops. After that, Miller said, she was blocked.
So she launched a rival blog.
"I took it upon myself to be a myth buster for the industry," she said.
Hari did not respond to questions about blocking Miller or others who make critical comments.
Hari has published books blasting corruption in the food industry and her own cookbooks, and sells subscriptions to her blog. The supplements, however, are her main business, Hari said. She declined to disclose the company's value.
Miller, who said she is not registered with either US political party, travels about 300 days a year, doing paid speaking engagements, farm visits and branded partnerships with companies such as Tyson Foods, Domino's Pizza and the California Beef Council. She also writes a column for an agriculture industry trade publication.
She declined to say exactly how much she earns, but her published fee for speeches ranges from $2,500 (R44,315) to $15,000 (R265,890).
Mariah Wellman, a professor of advertising and public relations at Michigan State University who focuses on social media and wellness, said the two women likely earn in the high six figures for their work. But they speak to different audiences. The constraints of traditional public relations may hinder pro-agriculture messaging, while the MAHA crowd's comfort with social media helps propel its narrative.
"When you think about large brands and large agricultural companies, they are headed by a demographic that's not super comfortable with influencer culture," said Wellman.
She said such companies often find it hard to keep up with fast-moving social media trends as they like to carefully vet their partnerships.
Miller, is sometimes frustrated by the challenges of working with an industry that is less nimble on social media, noting it skews older and male, and saying it is often "preaching to the choir".
She sees it as part of her mission to help agriculture better communicate about itself. Hari has gained traction as public skepticism of US public health institutions grew during the Covid-19 crisis. Her profile exploded when Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic and environmental lawyer who was involved in suing companies such as Bayer Monsanto over its pesticides, joined President Donald Trump's administration.
Kennedy's MAHA zeal has inspired corporate action and state legislation on food.
In June Kraft Heinz and General Mills announced they would phase out synthetic food dyes, which MAHA adherents believe cause problems ranging from hyperactivity in children to cancer, by 2027. Scientists said there is not yet a large enough body of evidence to show whether synthetic food dyes cause the problems.
West Virginia in March banned some synthetic food dyes from being sold in the state, and Arizona and Utah have recently banned a list of synthetic food dyes in school meals. Communications firm Edelman found in a large, global public opinion survey taken in 2024 that people, especially those aged 18 to 34, are increasingly disregarding the advice of credentialed medical providers in favour of recommendations from friends, family and social media.
Lauri Baker, a professor of agricultural communication at the University of Florida, said: "In almost any study we've conducted, people are more likely to trust someone who looks like them, thinks like them and who they believe is like them."
Reuters
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