Happy Friday, and welcome to Food Fix. We’ve just about made it through the first week of September, which I expect will be a very busy month.
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Alright, let’s get to it –
Helena
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Opposition to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ratchets up in Washington and beyond
Pushback against HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reached a new level this week.
Lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday grilled Kennedy, blaming him for weakening CDC, for sowing distrust in vaccines, for endangering the nation’s health. A handful of Democrats went as far as calling him a liar and urged him to resign or be removed as the nation’s top health official. At one point, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wa.) called the secretary a charlatan.
Hazardous debate: It was an unusually combative hearing and Kennedy seemed to grow more defiant, flushed at times, as the criticism piled on. In a particularly heated exchange, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) criticized Kennedy:
“Despite your lack of credentials and expertise, clearly you have an agenda, it is a threat to the public health of the American people. It’s clear that you are carrying out your extremist beliefs, which is why you attempted to fire Dr. [Susan Monarez] —”
Kennedy interrupted: “Senator, we’re the sickest people in the world! We’re the sickest people on earth! How am I a threat?”
Warnock was having none of it: “For the first time, we’re seeing deaths from children from measles. We haven’t seen that in two decades … you are a hazard to the health of the American people.” Warnock concluded by urging Kennedy to resign or be fired by the president.
I’ve watched a lot of hearings over the years, and I struggle to think of one that was testier than this one. But it was also notable for a different reason: Republicans started to join in the pile on.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who was the pivotal vote to confirm Kennedy back in February, sharply questioned him on his approach to vaccines, specifically the recent moves to significantly scale back Covid-19 vaccine recommendations. Kennedy also got pushback from Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the Senate’s second-ranking Republican, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
“In your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines,” Barrasso said. “Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.”
Food was barely mentioned in this hearing — the Senate Finance Committee’s jam is definitely more health care policy — but the whole ordeal offered a temperature check on Kennedy’s support on Capitol Hill. Cracks are forming.
GTFO: The hearing comes as Kennedy is facing an increasingly loud and organized opposition from all corners of public health, the medical establishment, industry groups and rank-and-file Democrats.
On Thursday, Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee issued a statement calling for Kennedy’s resignation because “he continues to push his dangerous anti-health and science agenda, lie to Congress, and push disinformation on American families.” A day earlier, more than 1,000 current and former federal health officials called for Kennedy’s resignation, as did several medical groups, including the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Public Health Association.
Earlier in the week, nine former CDC directors issued a stark warning about the agency being imperiled in a New York Times guest essay.
If you listen to Kennedy, his defense boils down to basically: The whole system is corrupt and lying to the American people. Only I can fix it.
Kennedy’s supporters believe that he will. Meanwhile, doctors, infectious disease experts and much of the U.S. health system is issuing a code red alarm.
President Donald Trump on Thursday evening stood by Kennedy, whom many Trump aides believe helped the president win in November: “He’s a very good person and he means very well,” Trump said. “He’s got a different take and we want to listen to all of those takes … it’s not your standard talk.”
“If you look at what’s going on in the world with health and look at this country also with regard to health, I like the fact that he’s different,” Trump said.
All of this brouhaha comes right as the MAHA Commission’s big strategy report is expected to be rolled out early next week (I’m hearing Tuesday). (Recall that the leaked draft of this report was heavily criticized from all directions, including from within the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.)
Meanwhile, Kennedy’s crusade continues. This is probably only the beginning of the fight.
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What I’m reading
Why Iowa chooses not to clean up its polluted water (Bloomberg). “In Iowa, which by some measures has the most polluted water in the US, people who advocate for the environment are widely scorned as enemies of farming. Few dare criticize the state’s $50 billion agricultural industry,” writes Peter Waldman. “Located 40 miles northeast of Sioux City, Remsen lies in the heart of corn country. Like much of agricultural rural America, Remsen is saturated with pollution from pesticides, hanging in the air as aerosolized particulates or lurking in the dust kicked up by thundering combines. For years, the state government has crushed almost every effort to hold farmers and agribusinesses accountable for their increasingly dirty footprint. Known in the state as the fourth branch of government, the Iowa Farm Bureau boasts a storied record of lobbying success. The Farm Bureau has chapters in all 99 Iowa counties, its own in-house lobbyists and media organs, $65 million in annual revenue, $80 million of annual expenses, $1.7 billion of corporate assets and an unwavering opposition to any shift of the public burden of nitrogen pollution onto the polluters.”
Exclusive: RFK Jr. and the White House buried a major study on alcohol and cancer. Here’s what it shows. (Vox). “Most Americans still don’t know that alcohol can cause cancer — and the alcohol industry is working hard to make sure it stays that way,” writes Dylan Scott. “For the past three years, the industry, aided by its allies in Congress and later the Trump administration, has sought to discredit and eventually bury a major analysis that offers new evidence of the link between drinking alcohol and getting sick and dying from various causes, including cancer. It appears their campaign has succeeded. Three co-authors on the Alcohol Intake and Health Study, which was commissioned in early 2022 by the US Department of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden, told Vox that they were informed last month that the Trump administration did not intend to publish the final draft of the study or its findings.”
In tariff standoff with Trump, China boycotts American soybeans (New York Times). “For all the chokeholds China maintains on global supply chains, it is overwhelmingly dependent on soybeans from other parts of the world,” writes Keith Bradsher. “Now with China and the United States locked in a tense standoff over tariffs, soybeans have emerged as a central dispute between the trading partners. China has been boycotting purchases of U.S. soybeans since late May to show displeasure with President Trump’s imposition of tariffs on imports from China. The pain is being felt in Midwest states, especially Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Indiana. For the first time in many years, American farmers are preparing to harvest their crop this fall with no purchase orders from China. ‘The further into the autumn we get without reaching an agreement with China on soybeans, the worse the impacts will be on U.S. soybean farmers,’ the American Soybean Association warned in a letter to Mr. Trump on Aug. 19.”
Campbell’s to eliminate synthetic food colors by 2026, warns of tariff hit (Reuters). “Campbell’s Co on Wednesday said it will remove synthetic dyes from its food and beverage portfolio starting in fiscal 2026 and forecast annual profit below Wall Street expectations, hurt by higher tariffs,” Savyata Mishra reports. “The New Jersey-based company joins U.S. peers including PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz, and Nestle USA, in phasing out the use of FD&C colors, responding to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative and shifting consumer preferences. The company will replace artificial dyes in products like Lance crackers and V8 Splash with natural colors from sources like annatto and purple carrot juice. Its regional snack and cookie brands will also stop using synthetic colors. Campbell’s said tariffs are expected to account for roughly 4% of cost of goods sold in fiscal 2026. It plans to offset about 60% of that impact through selective price increases and cost savings.”
Are ultra-processed foods really so unhealthy? What the science says (Nature). “Although there’s good evidence that diets high in UPFs are associated with poor health, some scientists are sceptical that the UPF category is useful for research or as the basis for dietary advice, arguing that it is too broad and ill-defined,” writes Nic Fleming. “It makes little sense to lump together foods as diverse as shop-bought yogurts and wholegrain breads with doughnuts and potato crisps. Questions remain, but recent research findings can provide some guidance for people trying to make healthy choices. A study published last year found that those with the highest proportion of calories from UPFs were 4% more likely to die of any cause during the study than were those with the lowest intake. The study also suggested that nutritional quality could be a big factor in why diets high in UPFs might be unhealthy. Still, other research indicates that nutritional composition is not the whole story.”
Texas sued over its lab-grown meat ban (Texas Tribune). “Two cultivated meat companies have filed a lawsuit against officials in Texas over the law that bans the sales of lab-grown meat in the state for two years,” reports Jessica Shuran Yu. “California-based companies UPSIDE Foods, which makes cultivated chicken, and Wildtype, which makes cultivated salmon are suing Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas Health and Human Services, and Travis County, accusing them of government overreach. ‘This law has nothing to do with protecting public health and safety and everything to do with protecting conventional agriculture from innovative out-of-state competition,’ said Paul Sherman, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that is representing UPSIDE Foods and Wildtype.”
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