Helena Bottomiller-Evich
Appearances
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
You're listening to Today Explained. My name is Helena Bottomiller-Evich. I'm the founder and editor-in-chief of Food Fix, which is a newsletter about food policy. I've been covering these issues in Washington for about 15 years.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
I think overall, Callie is correct that most Americans would agree on those issues. They're concerned about chronic disease, access to healthy food for kids. You know, there's a lot of questions about why our rates of diet-related diseases have continued to climb. Diabetes, obesity, these diseases are not just costly for the healthcare system, but they...
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
really affect people's lives so there is deep concern I think where we get into some division is what to do about that and what the government's role is and that's I think where the rubber is really going to meet the road here. So Maha first became, I think, an actual term that was entering like the fray, if you will, in August when RFK Jr. had dropped out of the presidential race.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
And he endorsed Donald Trump, which surprised a lot of people.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
And in this alliance, Trump then adopted some of the platform around food. So you then started hearing then-candidate Trump saying, like, I want to get the toxins out of food. You know, I want to make America healthy again.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
This immediately perked my ears up because I've been covering these issues for a long time and generally you would hear those arguments being made on the left. And Democrats, you know, here in Washington weren't getting much traction on them, but those are the folks who were raising those arguments.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
So then when I heard Trump raising those issues, I immediately thought something is happening here that is fundamentally different. There is some political realignment that is happening. You know, up until even a couple months ago, I couldn't remember ever hearing a Republican talk about food additives on Capitol Hill.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
And as of September, we were seeing senators like openly and publicly saying, you know, FDA needs to look at red dye three or whatever the issue was. And that was just a real turn of events.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
We're waiting to hear details, but I think in general he has talked about, you know, getting conflicts of interest out of health care decisions and also food decisions. So I focus on food. One of the big issues has been the dietary guidelines for Americans. which is the official nutrition advice from the government.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
RFK has taken issue with a lot of the experts that advise the government on that process, saying they have too many conflicts of interest with the food industry and sometimes pharma. He wants to really reform that process. We don't know exactly how, but HHS and USDA work together on those guidelines, and they're actually set to come out in 2025.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
So he could have a lot of influence over what those guidelines say. For example, the advisory committee that just wrapped up told the government that there wasn't enough evidence to essentially recommend that Americans consume less ultra-processed foods. Kennedy himself has been extremely critical of ultra processed food.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
So that's one area where perhaps, you know, the guidelines would say something about ultra processed food. So there are issues like that. He also wants to reorient NIH research to look more at root causes. More at holistic interventions, so not as much focused on pharma and sort of traditional medical interventions.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
Food additives, cracking down potentially on food additives, although I have a lot of questions about whether or not the Trump administration is really going to regulate, which is what you would have to do to crack down on food additives.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
RFK's also made a lot of claims about completely changing the food system on the USDA side, which he will not have purview over, but he's talked about changing farm subsidies, cleaning up school meals, so actually banning processed foods from school meals, just really upending that multibillion-dollar program.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
So it really depends on the issue. If you're talking about something like totally changing how we subsidize food in this country, that would require Congress. You would have to write a farm bill that's going to reform the system. And a lot of that falls over at USDA, which RFK would not have jurisdiction over.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
That is Brooke Rollins, who's been nominated for that position, and she's much more of, I think, a status quo pick. So that would be one area where it would be very difficult. I would say exceedingly unlikely that that's going to happen. But on some of the issues that would fall under FDA, you could really bring down the hammer on food additives if that were the priority.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
They could speed up all these post-market reviews, which means they take a really hard look at a lot of the chemicals that are already in the food supply supply. they could really close this loophole, which allows a lot of substances on the market without pre-market approval.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
And so there are some policy changes that could happen there, but it would require going through a regulatory process, you know, allowing those bureaucratic wheels to turn. But again, on each of these, it's like pushing a boulder uphill. And so... I would not bet that in five to 10 years we're going to see that reality. But I think that would be the ideal that they would be pushing for.
Today, Explained
How America went MAHA
We'll see, again, the extent to which Republicans in this administration are going to be, you know, using the federal government to push that vision forward. It's in some ways a radical departure from where we are now.