Have you heard of Lysenkoism or its prophet, Trofim Lysenko? If you haven’t, just think of this 1930s Joseph Stalin favourite as the equivalent to Donald Trump’s pet health theorist today, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Lysenko and the Art of Pseudoscience
Trofim Lysenko was born in Ukraine and studied agronomy in Kyiv. In the early 1920s, he proposed a theory based on the work of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who in the 18th century theorized that a parent could pass along characteristics to offspring through changes in behaviour. The example Lamarck used was the giraffe. How did it get such a long neck? Lamarck stated that in trying to eat leaves higher up in a tree, over time, giraffe offspring would grow longer necks.
In adopting Lamarck’s explanation for inherited traits, Lysenko ignored the theory of evolution as espoused by Charles Darwin. Instead, Lysenko believed that crops could be educated by exposing them to new environmental conditions, such as cold. In this way, the plants would acquire new traits and pass them along to subsequent generations. Lysenko also believed plants selected their mates and sacrificed themselves so that others could live.
Darwin’s explanation of how inheritance worked employed natural selection, that is, favourable traits ensured survival of a species, allowing it to breed and pass along what made it successful to subsequent generations. Lysenko ignored Mendelian genetics and Darwin in proposing his pseudoscientific theory.
While working in Azerbaijan in the 1920s, he met Joseph Stalin, who soon would become the leader of the Soviet Union. Lysenko convinced Stalin of Lysenkoism, and when Stalin assumed national leadership, he made it national policy and named Lysenko his Minister of Agriculture.
More than 3,000 Russian scientists who disagreed with Lysenko’s theory were purged, with many sent to gulags. Meanwhile, Lysenko applied his theory to agricultural practices on collective farms, producing crop failures and famine. The pseudoscience transcended agriculture, affecting other fields of biological and scientific research. It persisted long after Stalin died in 1953 and wasn’t sanctioned in the Soviet Union until 1965. The damage to Russia was followed by Lysenkoism’s adoption in the People’s Republic of China. During the Great Leap Forward spanning 1958 to 1962, Lysenkoism contributed to crop failures and the Great Chinese Famine that killed tens of millions.
RFK Jrs Pseudoscientific Terrain Theory
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his views on science bear a strong resemblance to Lysenko’s brand of pseudoscience. RFK denies germ theory. Instead, he promotes miasma theory, which dates back to 400 BCE. Hippocrates attributed epidemics in Greece to μίασμα (miasma), defined as atmospheric corruptions linked to decay and foul smells.
Until the work of Louis Pasteur and the development of germ theory, miasma theory remained the predominant belief of physicians and scientists when explaining how people got sick and how disease spread.
RFK’s spin on miasma involves renaming it. He calls it terrain theory, with the body being the aforementioned “terrain.” Our terrain, according to RFK, is influenced negatively by poor nutrition, exposure to pesticides and environmental pollutants, toxins and vaccines. RFK acknowledges viruses and bacteria exist, but sees them as minor irritants. Instead, he sees miasmata as the primary source of weakened immunity. The list of miasmata includes:
- chemicals like fluoride in drinking water,
- electromagnetic radiation from cellphones, microwaves, and power lines,
- chemtrails like contrails from jet aircraft.
RFK believes Alzheimer’s, autism and many respiratory conditions are caused by environmental exposure to aluminum nanoparticles.
Asthma, ADHD and immune disorders are linked to exposure to barium salts.
Chronic fatigue, dementia and cancer are caused by exposure to strontium and other heavy metals.
RFK wants Americans to strengthen their terrain. To a degree, there is validity in eating healthy, exercising regularly, and practicing good hygiene. The terrain theory, however, ignores viruses and bacteria and rejects medical advances like vaccines that target these microbes. That’s because RFK doesn’t believe germs are the primary agents of disease, just a sideshow.
His pseudoscience is impacting health policy in the United States, and his anti-vaccine pronouncements are causing the return of childhood diseases that had practically gone extinct. His pronouncements on diet have no scientific basis.
In 2026, RFK is as dangerous as Lysenko was in the Soviet Union and China from the 1920s to the mid-1960s.
