Happy Friday, and welcome to Food Fix. It was another busy week here in Washington — and the mosquitoes are officially out.
Don’t miss out: The best way to make sure you don’t miss a beat in food policy is to upgrade to a paid subscription and get Food Fix in your inbox twice per week. Almost everyone who upgrades finds it valuable.
New Forked: We’ve got a new episode of Forked out this week. Theodore Ross and I talked to Michael Pollan about what’s changed in the 20 years since “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” was first published — and why he thinks the food movement has been mostly a failure.
As always, I welcome your feedback. Send me your thoughts by replying to this email, or drop me a line: helena@foodfix.co.
Alright, let’s get to it –
Helena
***
Big Food gets Big Tobacco treatment as Trump admin at crossroads
Leading researchers gathered this week in Washington to deliver a message to the powers that be: It’s time to take action against ultra-processed foods (UPFs).
“We are at Big Food’s tobacco moment,” said Nick Chartres, an associate professor at the University of Sydney, at the National Press Club on Wednesday. Chartres and a who’s who of top experts unveiled a new edition of the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) focused on ultra-processed foods.
Journal heat: The journal package included research linking ultra-processed food consumption to chronic disease, cognitive impairment, and addiction and showed how major tobacco companies played a pivotal role in creating and marketing many of the UPFs on the market. The journal also published new polling showing remarkably broad, bipartisan support for regulatory action against UPFs.
The tranche of research follows a similar package from The Lancet last fall — and it only adds to the growing mountain of evidence (and headlines) that have flagged concerns about UPFs.
Zooming out: The scientific community has increasingly found consensus around the idea that UPFs are harming Americans’ health, even if they do not fully understand how. Whether this AJPH rollout in Washington really ends up being Big Food’s “tobacco moment” remains to be seen, but it was certainly notable. (It also sparked a bunch of press coverage, from CNN to the Financial Times.)
The AJPH rollout event this week featured a heavy-hitting group of researchers, including Lindsey Smith Taillie, Tera Fazzino, Kelly Brownell, Ashley Gearhardt, Cindy Leung, Laura Schmidt and Phillip Baker.
Researchers also met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill as well as senior Trump administration officials. I caught up with Marion Nestle, who also contributed to the package and presented at the rollout Wednesday, about it after the fact.
“It felt like this is a moment,” Nestle told me. “It’s really exciting — we don’t get those that often. Everybody left feeling hopeful. We will see.”
New campaign: To coincide with the journal release, a coalition of non-profits this week launched an anti-UPF campaign called Fed UP! I was curious about who is funding this — I was told by organizers it’s “multiple nonconflicted, nonpartisan organizations, and also includes resource partners who are compiling and sharing educational tools for consumers, like Healthy Food America, EatReal, Food Fight USA, and more.”
Industry reax: I asked the Consumer Brands Association (CBA), which represents many of the biggest food companies here in DC, if the group had a response to the journal package.
“America has one of the safest and most highly regulated food systems in the world,” said a spokesperson for CBA. “We welcome fact-based conversations about nutrition, but safety is not up for debate. As consumers continue to seek a diverse selection of foods and beverages, the makers of America’s trusted household brands provide a wide variety of affordable products to choose from, along with access to the information consumers need to make informed choices. Companies adhere to the rigorous evidence-based safety standards and nutrition policy established by the FDA to deliver safe, affordable and convenient products that consumers depend on every day.”
The trade group has also recently launched two websites aimed at answering consumer questions: Food Processing Facts and Truth About Ingredients.
Political lens: The journal rollout, anti-UPF campaign and coinciding press certainly gives MAHA advocates within the federal government some additional political cover to move on some stalled agenda items, but we’ll see whether any of that actually happens.
There’s already a handful of big policy issues that we’re waiting on: Where is the Trump administration’s proposal to close the so-called GRAS loophole? That was originally one of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s very top priorities. It’s now been under review at the White House for six months as industry groups make their case against it. We’re also waiting on the federal government’s definition of ultra-processed foods (I’m told this is actually close — could be out in the coming weeks).
Also on the list: an update to school nutrition standards out of USDA. And whatever happened to Kennedy’s pledge — on “60 Minutes” of all places — to “act” on a groundbreaking petition from former FDA Commissioner David Kessler that takes aim at most ultra-processed foods on the market? There has been no action.
While we’re here, the Wall Street Journal has a good story this morning from Jesse Newman and Liz Essley Whyte about how White House concerns about food affordability (and a general desire to avoid new regulations) are slowing progress on the MAHA food agenda. Still, senior administration officials indicated that the GRAS rule and the government’s UPF definition are “close to being completed and would be released soon.”
MAHA’s outside game: While MAHA is hitting roadblocks within the Trump administration, advocates are racking up wins outside of Washington. Businessman Zach Lahn‘s win in Iowa’s Republican gubernatorial primary over Rep. Randy Feenstra, who President Donald Trump had endorsed, delivered perhaps the biggest MAHA win yet in the simmering marital spat between MAHA and MAGA.
Lahn narrowly bested Feenstra, but it showed that a MAHA platform can appeal to Republican voters, even in a quintessential farm state like Iowa. Lahn is a regenerative farmer who made opposition to agrichemicals — and general concern about Iowa’s high rates of cancer — a central campaign issue. Lahn was actually supposed to speak at the People vs. Poison rally in front of the Supreme Court in April, I’m told, but he couldn’t make it due to inclement weather (he often flies himself in his own small airplane).
Down south, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s now in a heated Senate race against James Talarico, this week announced a “sweeping investigation to tackle the major issue of glyphosate residue in food that puts America’s health and children at risk.” Paxton’s office has also sent civil investigative demands to major pesticide and food companies and recently launched an investigation into Alani energy drinks, which are popular with children and young adults.
The fact that more Republican politicians are starting to see MAHA as a politically potent issue is fascinating, but it’s not clear to me whether any of this makes the Trump administration more likely to actually enact any of its outstanding MAHA promises. They’re certainly at a crossroads.
***
What I’m reading
Flesh-eating screwworm found in Texas, sparking fears for U.S. cattle (Washington Post). “A case of New World screwworm has been found in Texas six decades after the flesh-eating pest was largely eradicated in the United States, sparking an aggressive response amid fears about its potential impact on the livestock industry,” reports Victoria Craw. “The U.S. Agriculture Department confirmed the parasite was detected in the umbilical area of a 3-week-old calf in Zavala County. There have been no further cases detected, and efforts are underway to contain and eradicate it, the agency said in a statement Wednesday. New World screwworm is a parasitic fly that affects livestock, pets and wildlife, as well as people in rare cases. It lays eggs in open wounds or orifices, with the hatched maggots burrowing into and feeding on flesh. For more than a year, USDA has been leading an effort to prevent the pest from entering the U.S. from Mexico.”
House passes FY2027 ag appropriations bill (The Hagstrom Report). “The House passed the fiscal year 2027 Agriculture appropriations bill on Thursday by a vote of 213 to 210,” reports Jerry Hagstrom. “The vote was largely along party lines, with five Republicans voting for the bill and four Democrats voting against it. The five Republicans who voted against it were Reps. Bob Bresnahan and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Tom McClintock of California and Greg Steube of Florida.”
Bacteria-tainted raw milk leaves eight hospitalized in Idaho (Bloomberg). “Dozens of people in Idaho contracted a bacterial infection after drinking raw milk, including eight that had to be hospitalized, state public health officials said, underscoring the danger of the increasingly popular beverage,” Annika Inampudi and Jessica Nix report. “The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is investigating two outbreaks, with nearly 60 people falling ill after drinking untreated milk, it said in a June 3 statement. At least 45 people tested positive for campylobacteriosis, a common foodborne illness that can cause bloody diarrhea, fever, stomach cramps, nausea and vomiting. Not everyone who is sick was tested. Patients reported drinking raw milk from two milking operations, one in northern Idaho and the other in southern Idaho. The agency said it’s collaborating with both to identify batches of concern and to test milk samples. There were eight cases in kids under the age of 10, with those infected ranging in age from 1 to 78 years old.”
After infant botulism outbreak, FDA shares root cause analysis findings from ByHeart formula plants (Food Safety Magazine). “Following the infant botulism outbreak linked to ByHeart-brand infant formula that occurred in late 2025 and early 2026, FDA has shared findings from its onsite inspections of ByHeart production facilities and one of the company’s suppliers,” reports Bailee Henderson. “Despite FDA inspection reports from 2023 that surfaced during the outbreak revealing food safety and hygiene violations at a now-closed ByHeart production facility, as well as the company receiving an FDA warning letter in 2023, FDA’s onsite investigation did not identify any such failures as contributing to the 2025–2026 outbreak. The agency’s and ByHeart’s root cause investigations did identify Clostridium botulinum in a powdered milk ingredient, but no additional factors that could explain the cause of the outbreak arose. An ongoing root cause analysis, with a particular focus on ingredients, is still being conducted by FDA.”
Democrat confronts Trump agriculture secretary on ‘totally screwed over’ farmers (MS Now). “Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins sparred with House Democrats on Thursday over the Trump administration’s deep cuts to federal funding for nutrition assistance programs and the Iran war’s economic squeeze on American farmers, at one point calling a lawmaker ‘rude,’” reports Sydney Carruth. “The $187 billion in cuts President Donald Trump’s marquee legislation made across the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a federal food aid program for low-income families, dominated Rollins’ fiery exchanges with lawmakers as her testimony before the House Agriculture Committee got underway. Since Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act was enacted last July, about 3.5 million SNAP recipients have lost their benefits, according to the latest figures from the Department of Agriculture. Rollins argued that the cost changes to the program, which will be determined by states’ payment error rates — a measure of underpayments or overpayments of SNAP benefits to recipients — are a way to reduce ‘fraud’ in the program.”
New SNAP work rules are in effect. What you should know (USA Today). “Some of the nearly 42 million low-income Americans who rely on SNAP have run out of time to prepare for new work requirements,” writes Mary Walrath-Holdridge. “The nation’s largest nutrition assistance program has undergone fresh scrutiny after it became a flashpoint during the 43-day 2025 government shutdown, which ultimately ended with restored funding, though not before a series of lawsuits. SNAP had already been slashed well before the standoff; however, when President Donald Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ passed in July 2025, it outlined tightened restrictions and billions in funding cuts. New work requirements were added to prevent ‘fraud and waste.’ States were given a grace period to enact these rules before recipients would begin to see potential reductions in benefits. In multiple states with large populations, including New York and California, June 1 was the cutoff for work requirements, meaning more Americans are now subject to the stipulations. Here’s what to know about new SNAP work requirements.”
***
Why you should upgrade to a paid Food Fix subscription
Become a paid subscriber to unlock access to two newsletters each week, packed with insight, analysis and exclusive reporting on what’s happening in food, in Washington and beyond. You’ll also get full access to the Food Fix archive — a great way to get smart on all things food policy.
Expense it: Most paid subscribers expense their subscriptions through work. It’s worth asking!
Discounts: We also offer discounts for government, academia and students. See our subscription options. Individuals who participate in SNAP or other federal nutrition programs qualify for a free Food Fix subscription — just email info@foodfix.co.
Get the Friday newsletter: If someone forwarded you this email, sign yourself up for the free Friday edition of Food Fix. You can also follow Food Fix on X, Bluesky and LinkedIn.
See you next week!
