Secretary Kennedy Takes Health Tour to North Dakota to Advance Regenerative Agriculture and Tribal and Rural Healthcare
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in Washington on November 13 that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. traveled in North Dakota last week on his Take Back Your Health Tour, joining Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Senators Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven, Governor Kelly Armstrong and Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak to advance President Trump's Make America Healthy Again agenda, with a focus on regenerative agriculture, Tribal health priorities and rural healthcare.
On November 5, Secretary Kennedy joined the group at Black Leg Ranch in McKenzie, North Dakota, for a roundtable with farmers, ranchers and researchers on regenerative agriculture, nutrition and the health of America's food supply. HHS said the discussion covered practical ways to improve soil health, reduce dependence on costly chemical inputs and strengthen farm profitability, and highlighted the ARPA-H STREAM program, which is developing technologies such as robotics, laser-guided weed control, precision cultivation and biological controls to give farmers alternatives to conventional chemicals.
Later that day, Secretary Kennedy connected with Indian Health Service Director Mark Cruz and regional Tribal leaders at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck for a roundtable on improving health and healthcare in Tribal communities. Leaders represented the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, the Spirit Lake Nation, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and the discussion covered behavioral health and addiction treatment, culturally informed care and traditional healing. HHS said it has provided $4.3 million to Tribal nations and organizations in North Dakota for behavioral health in fiscal year 2026.
Later that day, Secretary Kennedy met healthcare leaders in Bismarck for a roundtable on rural healthcare. HHS said North Dakota's first-year award through the Rural Health Transformation Program is $198 million, including investments to stabilize the rural healthcare workforce, expand preventive care and healthy eating, modernize rural ambulances, improve health data and technology, and bring services such as mobile mammography and telehealth closer to patients, and that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also runs a $275 million Nurses for Nursing Homes program.
Secretary Kennedy said America's farmers, ranchers, Tribal leaders and rural healthcare providers know what their communities need, that HHS must listen and act, and that the North Dakota stops focused on supporting the people who grow America's food, strengthening care in Tribal communities and helping rural families get care close to home.
(Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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