Happy Friday, and welcome to Food Fix. We are on day three of the government shutdown. This is the 290th edition of this newsletter.
No Food Fix next week: We’re taking a break next Friday. Paid subscribers will still get the Tuesday newsletter. We’ll be back in everyone’s inbox on Oct. 17.
Beef demand booms: If you work in the food space, it’s worth upgrading to get Tuesday newsletters, which cover more topics and are (I’m told) enormously helpful for making sense of the food policy landscape. This week, I wrote about why Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins sees growing demand for beef (and whole milk) even amid high prices and more.
On the pods: Be sure to check out Forked, the podcast on food politics I do with the Food & Environment Reporting Network. So many of you have been enjoying this podcast — love to see it.
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Alright, let’s get to it –
Helena
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What a government shutdown means for food — and for all of us
We’re on day three of a government shutdown with no clear sign of how or when this ends.
In a town that doesn’t agree on much, there’s near universal agreement that shutdowns are bad. Not only do they send legions of federal employees into furlough or work without pay, they upend important government services, pose risks to the market, chip away at GDP — and send a signal to the rest of the world that we don’t have our sh*t together.
And that’s before you get to the specific food impacts, which I almost know by heart at this point because this is the fourth government shutdown I’ve covered in my (still relatively youthful) career.
Nutrition impact: Federal nutrition programs that serve tens of millions of low-income Americans are understandably top of mind. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which serves more than 40 million Americans, is considered OK for a time — October benefits will go out as normal, but if this lingers on things start to get complicated.
Federally-funded school meals are also considered OK for a while, too. It’s the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) — which provides staple foods and infant formula to nearly 7 million pregnant women, infants and young children — that everyone is super concerned about right now.
The National WIC Association said this week it expects the program has enough funding on hand “to remain open for the short term—likely one to two weeks.” The program is least able to handle a lapse in funding right now at the beginning of the fiscal year — if it were happening at another point in the year, there may be more funds to work with.
“This failure needlessly jeopardizes the health and nutrition of millions of pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and young children who rely on WIC,” said Georgia Machell, president and CEO of the National WIC Association. “Every day of inaction brings us closer to a crisis.”
Food safety: Federal agencies charged with ensuring the safety of the food supply get pared down, but many essential functions continue on in a shutdown. Meat inspectors with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, for example, are considered essential and stay on the job (albeit without pay) because meat and poultry plants cannot (by law) operate without them.
FDA food safety inspections, which are infrequent even when the government is fully funded, typically scaled back considerably to only urgent ones which means some routine inspections won’t happen during the funding lapse. Many state food safety inspections will continue to happen in the meantime.
FDA in its update to the public said that it would continue to “handle and respond to emergencies — such as monitoring for and quickly responding to outbreaks related to foodborne illness,” which is good because there are numerous ongoing outbreaks right now, including a deadly listeria situation tied to cooked pasta. The agency will also continue screening food imports.
That said, the agency also said this week that it won’t publish its regular weekly update on all the ongoing outbreaks under investigation but added: “FDA will continue to issue public warnings if there is actionable information to protect consumers from foodborne illness.”
Thomas Gremillion, director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America, argued this week in Food Safety News that this shutdown is likely to weaken food safety more than past shutdowns have because it comes in the wake of DOGE layoffs and reductions in force across key federal agencies.
“Government shutdowns have always undermined food safety,” Gremillion wrote. “That is true today as well. But the circumstances leading up the current federal funding impasse have raised the stakes significantly. Unlike previous shutdowns, this one takes place amidst an unprecedented withdrawal of support for the nation’s state and local public health infrastructure.”
Website weaponization: Of course, the political blame game is in high-gear — I’ll leave that analysis to the political pundits — but one thing that was remarkable to me as a longtime policy reporter is the extent to which the Trump administration is using government websites for overtly political messaging.
I actually gasped when I saw usda.gov. It has a takeover banner at the top of the page that reads in overly large text: “Due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown, this government website will not be updated during the funding lapse. President Trump has made it clear he wants to keep the government open and support those who feed, fuel, and clothe the American people.”
Set aside whatever you think about which party is to blame for this shutdown, this is not normal. (Here’s an example of what a normal government website looks like during this kind of thing.)
Ethics experts have raised concerns about these political takeovers as an inappropriate use of taxpayer resources, meanwhile some legal experts believe the language at least gets close to violating the Hatch Act, which strictly limits the political activity of federal employees and may flout a legal obligation for feds to “provide nonpartisan service to their constituents.”
Political games: Government shutdowns are bad news, but Democrats and Republicans appear dug in (for now at least). The Trump administration is now threatening to fire thousands of federal workers as it tries to ratchet up pressure on Democrats to back down.
Not only is progress not being made toward reopening, but our political discourse has devolved into AI slop, with deepfake (and not so deepfake) videos and memes being slung by the president (and others) amid the messaging war. It would almost be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
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What I’m reading
Chelsea Clinton launching podcast targeting public health misinformation (The Hill). “Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former President Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is launching a podcast about public health,” reports Tara Suter. “‘How many of us have looked at the latest headlines and thought ‘that can’t be true?!’ Starting tomorrow, I hope you will join me and a series of experts on my new podcast – That Can’t Be True! Together, we will sort fact from fiction – especially on issues impacting our health,’ Chelsea Clinton wrote in a Wednesday post on the social platform X.”
Walmart plans to remove synthetic dyes and 30 other food additives from its store brands (CBS News). “Walmart announced Wednesday that it would remove synthetic dyes and 30 other ingredients, including artificial sweeteners and preservatives, from its private-label food brands by 2027,” reports Mary Cunningham. “The retailer said the change would affect around 1,000 products, including salty snacks, baked goods, power drinks, salad dressings and frosting. Customers can expected to see some of the reformulated products on shelves in the coming months. Walmart told the Associated Press that the changes primarily affect Great Value, the company’s largest private-label food brand. Walmart, which serves over 250 million customers a week globally, billed the change as a means to address changing consumer preferences. Several of the ingredients on Walmart’s removal list, including some of the 30 non-dyes, are already are banned, not widely used or have not been used in the U.S. food supply for decades. Others were included despite no known problems or have been targeted by the Trump administration for review and possible elimination as an approved food additive, according to food safety experts.”
Right direction or wrong track: Is RFK Jr.’s food policy really making America healthier? (Food Dive). “It appears RFK’s rhetoric – amplified by the Make America Healthy Again movement – is having an impact on public opinion. A recent NBC News poll showed 35% of Americans place most of the blame for chronic health problems on the food industry,” writes Sean McBride, founder of DSM Strategic Communications and the former executive vice president of communications for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, in an opinion piece. “Taken as a whole, the MAHA food policy agenda represents the federal government’s most aggressive intervention in food production since the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act of 1938. But many of the regulatory interventions come at great cost to companies and consumers with little or no benefit.”
Trump making plans to send billions in cash bailouts to farmers with taxpayer money (Politico). “The Trump administration is planning to roll out the first tranche of bailout payments for farmers in the coming weeks, likely using billions of dollars in funding from an internal USDA account, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter,” reports Meredith Lee Hill. “But it won’t be enough: USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation fund — which President Donald Trump previously tapped to provide $28 billion in farm aid during his first-term trade war with China — has just $4 billion left in the account. Trump officials, including those at the Treasury Department, are looking at how to tap tariff receipts or other funding to supplement the payments without triggering a messy fight in Congress.”
SNAP waivers place new cost burden on grocery retailers (Supermarket Perimeter). “Three food retail trade groups peg the cost of implementing state waivers to disqualify certain foods and beverages for purchase via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at about $1.6 billion for grocery retailers,” reports Russell Redman. “The total cost of the SNAP restrictions – granted by the US Department of Agriculture on products deemed ‘unhealthy,’ namely soda and candy – would amount to 1.9% of 2024 net income for all food retailers, according to an analysis released Oct. 1 by FMI-The Food Industry Association (FMI), the National Grocers Association (NGA) and the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS). ‘These new restrictions are unprecedented,’ said Margaret Mannion, director of government relations at NACS. ‘Without clear rules and the time to implement them, they will impose significant costs on all American consumers, not just SNAP participants.’ Key cost drivers include technology updates, software and point-of-sale system upgrades, and the necessary labor to comply with new stocking, replenishment and labeling requirements, the report said.”
GenX faces higher risk of food addiction, study finds (Consumer Affairs). “Gen X may be paying the price for growing up in the snack-food boom. A new University of Michigan study finds that people in their 50s and early 60s show high rates of addiction-like behavior around ultra-processed foods — especially women,” writes Mark Huffman. “Researchers found 21% of women and 10% of men in this age group meet the criteria for food addiction, compared with just 12% of women and 4% of men aged 65 to 80. The difference? Baby Boomers only encountered mass-produced snacks and ‘diet’ foods as adults, while Gen X grew up surrounded by them. The study used the Yale Food Addiction Scale to track symptoms such as intense cravings, failed attempts to cut back, and withdrawal-like effects when cutting down on foods like chips, fast food, and sugary drinks. Unlike alcohol or tobacco, food addiction skews heavily female. Researchers point to the marketing blitz of the ’80s and ’90s — low-fat cookies, frozen dinners, and ‘diet’ bars sold as healthy but designed to hook.”
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