diff --git a/misc/launchd/org.nixos.nix-daemon.plist.in b/misc/launchd/org.nixos.nix-daemon.plist.in
index e1470cf99..664608305 100644
--- a/misc/launchd/org.nixos.nix-daemon.plist.in
+++ b/misc/launchd/org.nixos.nix-daemon.plist.in
@@ -2,11 +2,6 @@
 <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
 <plist version="1.0">
   <dict>
-    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
-    <dict>
-      <key>OBJC_DISABLE_INITIALIZE_FORK_SAFETY</key>
-      <string>YES</string>
-    </dict>
     <key>Label</key>
     <string>org.nixos.nix-daemon</string>
     <key>KeepAlive</key>
diff --git a/package.nix b/package.nix
index 5c8d9f9b6..8ab184667 100644
--- a/package.nix
+++ b/package.nix
@@ -325,11 +325,6 @@ in {
   preInstallCheck =
     lib.optionalString (! doBuild) ''
       mkdir -p src/nix-channel
-    ''
-    # See https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/2523
-    # Occurs often in tests since https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/9900
-    + lib.optionalString stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin ''
-      export OBJC_DISABLE_INITIALIZE_FORK_SAFETY=YES
     '';
 
   separateDebugInfo = !stdenv.hostPlatform.isStatic;
diff --git a/src/libstore/globals.cc b/src/libstore/globals.cc
index 8958e6997..b64e73c26 100644
--- a/src/libstore/globals.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/globals.cc
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 #include <mutex>
 #include <thread>
 
+#include <curl/curl.h>
 #include <nlohmann/json.hpp>
 
 #ifndef _WIN32
@@ -363,10 +364,21 @@ void initLibStore(bool loadConfig) {
 
     preloadNSS();
 
+    /* Because of an objc quirk[1], calling curl_global_init for the first time
+       after fork() will always result in a crash.
+       Up until now the solution has been to set OBJC_DISABLE_INITIALIZE_FORK_SAFETY
+       for every nix process to ignore that error.
+       Instead of working around that error we address it at the core -
+       by calling curl_global_init here, which should mean curl will already
+       have been initialized by the time we try to do so in a forked process.
+
+       [1] https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/objc4/blob/01edf1705fbc3ff78a423cd21e03dfc21eb4d780/runtime/objc-initialize.mm#L614-L636
+    */
+    curl_global_init(CURL_GLOBAL_ALL);
+#if __APPLE__
     /* On macOS, don't use the per-session TMPDIR (as set e.g. by
        sshd). This breaks build users because they don't have access
        to the TMPDIR, in particular in ‘nix-store --serve’. */
-#if __APPLE__
     if (hasPrefix(defaultTempDir(), "/var/folders/"))
         unsetenv("TMPDIR");
 #endif
diff --git a/tests/functional/package.nix b/tests/functional/package.nix
index 277711123..675cefa64 100644
--- a/tests/functional/package.nix
+++ b/tests/functional/package.nix
@@ -95,13 +95,6 @@ mkMesonDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     "--print-errorlogs"
   ];
 
-  preCheck =
-    # See https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/2523
-    # Occurs often in tests since https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/9900
-    lib.optionalString stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin ''
-      export OBJC_DISABLE_INITIALIZE_FORK_SAFETY=YES
-    '';
-
   doCheck = true;
 
   installPhase = ''