Happy Friday, and welcome to Food Fix. Thankfully we finally reopened the federal government. (This town is so dysfunctional!)
SNAP is now fully funded again, but there are many states where benefits are still delayed as the dust settles. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said this week that all benefits should be fully released by Monday.
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Food Fix on PBS: I was on PBS Newshour Thursday night to discuss the latest in the infant botulism outbreak tied to ByHeart formula (around 46 min mark). The FDA just announced this outbreak has significantly expanded, from 15 to 23 suspected or confirmed cases.
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Alright, let’s get to it –
Helena
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Four takeaways from the swanky (and secretive) MAHA summit
Several top Trump administration officials appeared at the “MAHA Summit” in Washington this week. The posh gathering, held at the Waldorf Astoria just blocks from the White House, was closed to the press (boo!) but of course reporters staked the place out anyway.
The event itself didn’t really make news, other than Vice President JD Vance saying that MAHA was important to the Trump coalition (we already knew this) and that he doesn’t like taking medications like ibuprofen. (Vance’s fireside chat with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was broadcast on various outlets, but the rest of the meeting was closed-door.) Despite it all, I actually learned quite a bit about the state of MAHA from interloping in the hotel lobby and talking to several attendees during and after the event. Here’s four takeaways:
Tech and biotech have taken the wheel. Just about every food advocate I talked to was struck by just how much the meeting was focused on tech and biotech solutions and startups — the agenda was stacked with executives from companies like CRISPR Therapeutics and AtaiBeckley, which is developing psychedelic treatments. There was a panel on “brain computer interfaces” that featured DJ Seo, the co-founder and president of Elon Musk’s Neuralink. (Naturally, there was also a Cybertruck parked in front of the hotel entrance during the event.)
Not everyone I talked to was alarmed by this tech takeover, but some were. As one attendee (who spoke on the condition of anonymity) told me, it felt like the grassroots MAHA movement fueled by moms “had been co-opted to be a tech bro playground.”
Some attendees privately wondered which companies had sponsored the conference and whether it had skewed the agenda. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that organizers were seeking between $250,000 and $1 million for sponsorships. (MAHA Action, which organized the meeting, did not respond to my inquiry about sponsors.)
There were a bunch of hot MAHA topics that were not addressed, including pesticides, soil health, infant formula, and even vaccines were left off the agenda.
MAHA is increasingly mainstream — and big business. In a way, the MAHA summit marked the coming of age of the movement in Washington. Not long ago many of these ideas were considered fringe, but they are moving squarely into the mainstream. It’s not just that the Trump administration, with its MAHA wing, controls all the levers of the U.S. government, but American consumers are also shifting.
While there was surprisingly little focus on the food system throughout the day-long meeting, there was a panel on food as medicine that featured Scott Morris, senior vice president of Food and Consumables at Walmart, who touted the company’s recent announcement to ditch a long list of additives from its private label products — something that he noted responds to increasing consumer scrutiny of ingredients.
“We’ve created a real culture shift in how America eats — people finally understand that the most important thing on a label is the ingredient list,” Vani Hari, commonly known as Food Babe, told me after the summit. (Hari appeared on the panel alongside Walmart and Nourish, a telehealth company that connects patients with dietitians.)
Zooming out beyond food, there’s clearly a ton of money swirling around in this space. The number of tech solutions, wearables, supplements and other products represented at this meeting was dizzying, and the vast majority are targeted at wealthy consumers. The summit swag bags included Vandy potato chips, which are “pesticide free,” fried in beef tallow and run $79 for a pack of six small bags, as well as mouth tape, creatine packets and other high-end wellness goodies.
GLP-1 medications are a major friction point. During the glitzy confab, there was a lot of chatter about the promise of GLP-1 medications (they even had a panel on compounding medications). This was all a bit puzzling because Kennedy and other key MAHA leaders have in the past been extremely critical of this class of medications — instead arguing that the focus should be on “root causes” of obesity and other metabolic conditions.
This is a significant tension point within MAHA. I noticed there was some grumbling on social media, too, after the Trump administration recently announced a new effort to dramatically lower the cost of certain GLP-1s.
Holden Culotta, an influencer who chronicles the MAHA movement from the inside, pointed out the stark turn in rhetoric from Kennedy, in particular. In a post on X, Culotta noted that back in October 2024 Kennedy said that Novo Nordisk is “counting on selling Ozempic to Americans because we’re so stupid and so addicted to drugs.” Fast forward to October 2025, and Kennedy is standing in the White House touting lower GLP-1 drug costs and expanded access, claiming Americans will lose “125 million pounds by this time next year.”
The comments about all of this on X are a wild ride, with many supporters wondering how Kennedy could go along with such a move: “So MAHA is suddenly pro Big Pharma?” one person asked. Another: “This turned #MAHA into #HAHA.”
Policy is taking a back seat. There was not much focus on policy at the summit. Sure, maybe it was meant to be more focused on the private sector and politics (this was all organized by the outside political arm of MAHA, not the Trump administration — though a big chunk of the cabinet was there). But as a reporter focused on food policy, I couldn’t help but notice the stark lack of policy substance.
The one exception was a panel discussion with Kyle Diamantas, deputy commissioner for human foods at FDA, and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. They largely focused on plans to step up FDA’s oversight of food additives (including GRAS reform), which is something many interests seem to agree should happen, but there’s also consensus the agency lacks the resources and manpower to do it.
I briefly spoke with Makary on the sidelines of the meeting to try to get an update on FDA’s work on food additives and also ultra-processed foods (FDA and USDA are currently working to define UPFs — a big job). He told me he didn’t have an update to give because these issues are under “active discussion” right now.
Big picture: I am interested to see where all of this leaves MAHA as a force in Washington: Will we see technology companies increasingly overtake the agenda? Does this grassroots backlash against GLP-1s matter? I’ll be watching all of this closely, especially as Republicans try to keep the MAHA coalition together ahead of the midterm elections next year.
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What I’m reading
Infant formula company tied to Botulism outbreak had known problems (New York Times). “ByHeart, the company linked to a botulism outbreak in infants, shut down one of its manufacturing plants this year after federal investigators found a series of safety violations, including a leaking roof and hundreds of dead bugs where infant formula was produced,” report Christina Jewett and Julie Creswell. “Inspection reports by the Food and Drug Administration detailed significant problems at the company’s site in Reading, Pa. Although the reports did not involve the plants that made the formula recalled in the botulism outbreak, food experts say the findings raise concerns about the company’s safety record. Now the F.D.A. is investigating the company’s facilities in Allerton, Iowa, and Portland, Ore., that produced the formula that was widely recalled from supermarket shelves.”
Tufts MD on GLP-1 and the protein obsession: ‘I worry we might be missing the mark’ (AgFunderNews). “Protein is hot. And the GLP-1 trend is only accelerating it, with firms competing to come up with ever more soluble and better absorbed options enabling brands to pack ever greater amounts into everything from protein water to drinkable yogurt,” writes Elaine Watson. “However, our current obsession with this particular macronutrient ‘might be missing the mark,’ says one expert. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey in 2024 said 6% of US adults are taking GLP-1 drugs with 12% having tried them at some point. But what might it mean for the food industry if 10% or even 20% of the population is on these drugs at any one time should they become more accessible, more affordable, and better tolerated? AgFunderNews assembled an expert panel to probe these issues further.”
America’s best pasta is slipping away (The Atlantic). “Several weeks ago, the U.S. Commerce Department announced that, starting in January, most pasta imported from Italy could be subject to a preliminary 92 percent tariff—on top of the 15 percent blanket duty on goods from the European Union. Outraged Italian pasta manufacturers are threatening to pull their products from American shelves,” writes Yasmin Tayag. “The proposed tariff, the result of a year-long investigation into the pasta industry, targets 13 Italian companies that have allegedly undercut U.S. manufacturers by selling underpriced pasta. The affected companies, which include La Molisana, Pasta Garofalo, and Rummo, manufacture the usual penne and rigatoni as well as fancier shapes. … Notably, all of them specialize in ‘bronze-cut’ pasta. Most of the pasta made and sold in America is not bronze-cut, but extruded using plastic molds coated with Teflon. These days, the average American is likely more concerned with price than the mouthfeel of their macaroni. Still, over roughly the past decade, demand for better-quality pasta has grown.”
Bill Cassidy should make sure Casey Means isn’t America’s doctor (The Hill). “After their shameful approval of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions has an opportunity to redeem itself when it considers the confirmation of Dr. Casey Means to serve as U.S. surgeon general,” writes Irwin Redlener in an opinion piece. “When the Senate was considering Kennedy’s confirmation to lead HHS, it was physician-Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) who played a key role in pushing the committee to accept the terribly unqualified candidate. As I’m sure Cassidy now realizes, the right decision would have been to resist White House pressure and reject the nomination of a grossly unqualified individual to be the nation’s most important health policy leader. So now we have another candidate for a key health role facing Senate scrutiny. And the same players … have a chance to redeem their reputations by honestly appraising Means’s actual qualifications to serve as surgeon general.”
MAHA is embracing Elizabeth Holmes. Here’s why. (Politico). “The Make America Healthy Again movement may have found its next cause: justice for Theranos founder and convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes,” Catherine Kim reports. “On Oct. 31, mommy-blogger-turned-MAHA-influencer Jessica Reed Kraus wrote a Substack post titled “Elizabeth Holmes’ Redemption Arc Loading” for her nearly 500,000 subscribers. Holmes has welcomed the affection from prison. What’s behind this budding alliance? For starters, both have presented themselves as eager to take on entrenched interests. There’s also a common streak of ‘rugged individualism’ that champions people taking control of their own health — Holmes via an at-home health monitoring device and MAHA via looser public health regulations. But perhaps Holmes’ most attractive quality as a MAHA anti-establishment hero is her prosecution itself: It’s seen as proof that she was an outsider being punished for pushing back against corporate interests.”
Food and nutrition in the MAHA strategy—promise and peril (JAMA). “On September 9, 2025, the White House released the Make Our Children Healthy Again (MAHA) Strategy—more than 120 planned actions to address the epidemic of chronic disease in youth,” write Dariush Mozaffarian, Emily A. Callahan and William H. Frist. “The strategy builds on the earlier MAHA Assessment, which diagnosed 2 converging problems in food driving the nation’s burden of diet-related illness: the pervasive intake of ultra-processed food (UPF) and the striking deficit of protective foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, whole grains, and fish. The MAHA Strategy has potential to catalyze a bold, multifaceted approach to address food, nutrition, and health. Further success will now depend on execution, funding, scientific rigor, and insulation from political interference.”
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