X post promising a U.S. ban on GMOs was from a now-suspended RFK Jr. parody account

Ever since President-elect Donald Trump announced he would tap vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department and let him “go wild,” spectators have wondered what policy changes Kennedy’s leadership might bring.

A Dec. 24 Instagram post claimed to have at least one answer:

“BREAKING: Effective January 20th, all Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) will be BANNED in the United States,” read what looked like a screenshot of a post from Kennedy’s X account.

Screenshot from Instagram

The Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

A genetically modified organism is one that has had its genetic material technologically changed. It is also called genetic engineering.

But Kennedy’s official account didn’t post this; a parody account with the handle @RFKJrHealthSec did. X suspended that account, which had labeled itself as parody.

Before the account was suspended, PolitiFact debunked another post from the account shared as if it was from Kennedy saying he would ban Diet Coke on Jan. 20.

There is no post on Kennedy’s official X account, @RobertKennedyJr, saying the U.S. will ban GMOs. Kennedy has weighed in on GMOs, however. He said on his podcast in 2023 that GMOs are unhealthy and dangerous and in a September X post he wrote that the U.S. shouldn’t increase GMO foods.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the American Medical Association rate GMOs as safe as do numerous studies.

We rate the claim that Kennedy promised in an X post to ban all GMOs from the U.S. starting Jan. 20 False.