Happy Friday, and welcome to Food Fix. If it were a slow news week, I would have loved to have written about this Washington Post deep dive into how rising carbon dioxide levels are fueling a drop in nutrients in the food supply by Naema Ahmed and Sarah Kaplan. The science has been building on this concern for a while now — and I’m always surprised it doesn’t get more attention. Throwback: I wrote a big feature about this for Politico back in 2017 (this story actually went fairly viral at the time).

New Dish: Podcast PSA: There’s a new episode of American Dish out this week — and it’s all about school meals! I talked with Nora LaTorre, CEO of Eat Real, about all the things: school business models, politics, MAHA and more. Listen/watch wherever you get your podcasts.

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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

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I usually pick one topic for this Friday newsletter. It gives me a chance to really dig into something — and hopefully give you all something that’s worth reading and more nuanced than much of the internet. It’s often hard to settle on the topic — there’s a lot going on! This week, however, I found picking one thing impossible.

I just could not do it. Why? Because this week was total chaos. We’ve had busy weeks before — I’ve even dedicated whole editions to how everyone who works in food policy is struggling to keep up in the MAHA era. We hit a new level this week. Consequential news piled up so quickly I started keeping a list so I wouldn’t forget all the things by the time it was time to write this.

In no particular order, here is a (non-exhaustive) rundown of what happened this week:

– The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Monsanto v. Durnell, a pivotal case that could shut down billions of dollars in cancer litigation facing Bayer (which acquired Monsanto) over glyphosate, a widely used herbicide that’s been linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It would also block similar litigation against pesticides in the future. Going in, Bayer/Monsanto seemed heavily favored, but the questioning from the justices has led some to predict it’s now more of a tossup.

– MAHA protested outside of the Supreme Court. As I wrote earlier this week, the crowd was smaller than expected (my best guess is 100-200 people were there, and a large portion of those in attendance were media). Still, everyone I talked to at the rally seemed really happy with how it went and how much press and social media attention they got. It was loud. It was also notably bipartisan.

– MAHA and Democrats teamed up to strip language from the House farm bill that would have helped Bayer shut down thousands of cancer lawsuits over glyphosate (yep, same issue that’s before SCOTUS). Basically, the MAHA moms took on Bayer and the ag lobby (both formidable) and won. Handedly. The vote on the amendment from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) was 280-142.

– The House passed a farm bill. After days of high-stakes drama and a middle-of-the-night floor debate (seriously, why?), the final vote was 224-200. It was largely along party lines: 14 Democrats voted for it, and three GOP voted against. Normally the passage would be big news, but this week it’s barely registering.

– The House farm bill vote lacked Democrat support in large part because the legislation does not restore billions of dollars in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program made by Republicans last year in a reconciliation package. That remains a deal-breaker for the left, but the bill did make a key SNAP policy change that was broadly bipartisan: The House approved an amendment to allow rotisserie chickens to be eligible for EBT purchases. The measure cleared the House by a vote of 384-35. (Currently, no hot food is allowed in SNAP, only groceries.)

– The House Energy & Commerce Committee’s health panel held a legislative hearing on 28 food safety related bills (that’s a lot), including a controversial draft bill by Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) that would preempt slews of MAHA and other state food safety laws, like food additive bans. Americans for Ingredient Transparency (AFIT), a food industry coalition, issued a statement praising the legislation this week. Meanwhile, MAHA advocates railed against Rep. Cammack this week, calling her a traitor to MAHA. (Note: In case you missed it, I covered the current slew of preemption efforts in last week’s newsletter.)

– USDA announced plans to move most employees working in nutrition programs in DC to hubs across the country as part of a broader reorganization plan that’s expected to lead to mass attrition. USDA is also rebranding the Food and Nutrition Service — which administers programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and school meals — as the Food and Nutrition Administration. The administration argued the moves “realign the Department’s focus to the States who administer USDA nutrition programs, the households who benefit from them, and the taxpayers who fund them.” In response, I’ve seen nothing but criticism so far.

– The House advanced a key spending bill through the appropriations committee that would fund FDA, USDA and other programs. The bill has taken heat because it cuts WIC fruit and vegetable benefits for some 5 million mothers and young kids.

– FDA announced that after testing more infant formula than ever before for contaminants like heavy metals and pesticides, consumers should have confidence in the safety of these products. The agency said that the “overwhelming majority of samples had undetectable or very low levels of contaminants.”

–The Senate passed an infant formula bill this week by unanimous consent. The bipartisan legislation requires manufacturers to share positive test results for Cronobacter and Salmonella with the FDA, among other things. Sponsored by Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.), this is one of the biggest moves Congress has made since the 2022 infant formula crisis, but it didn’t get much attention this week (again, chaos).

– President Donald Trump withdrew the nomination of MAHA figure Casey Means for surgeon general amid opposition, including from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and others over concerns about her views on vaccines. This was an L for MAHA, and it came right as many of its most visible advocates were taking a victory lap over the big pesticide vote Thursday.

– President Trump then quickly announced a new pick for surgeon general: Nicole B. Saphier, a radiologist and director of breast imaging at MSK Monmouth, a branch of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, who also has a wellness podcast. Interestingly, Saphier wrote a book called “Make America Healthy Again” back in 2020.

Why tho? If you’ve made it this far, you might be wondering: Why is it so chaotic right now? Why this week? I’d argue it’s a confluence of things. First, some of this is driven by President Trump’s penchant for flooding the zone and stated desire to “deconstruct” the administrative state (AKA shrink and minimize agencies). Some of it is real activist and legal pressure boiling over (like the Bayer/glyphosate issue). Some of it is just coincidence — it’s a busy time of year, budget season, etc.

But there’s also an undercurrent here that’s hard to not notice: The politics on many of these issues is shifting. The farm bill fights looked different, for example, than they have in the past because MAHA is now flexing some real power in DC.

Ken Cook, president of Environmental Working Group, who has been very critical of MAHA (he argues this whole thing has been a fool’s errand because the Trump administration is full throttle de-regulating on basically everything MAHA cares about), acknowledged this week that there’s clearly something happening here.

Cook noted that Rep. Luna brought a “surprisingly large bloc of Republicans with her” in the hot button vote to strip the pesticide language.

“About 35 percent of Republicans voting sided with Luna. There’s a story there,” Cook wrote on LinkedIn. “About 97 percent of Democrats voting voted with her. There’s a story there, too.”

Everyone’s been so focused on the midterms, but I’m not sure that this chaos lets up even if Democrats take the House and/or Senate. The political dynamics continue to be scrambled, and the only safe bet these days is that the chaos will continue.

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Food giants hit with consumer lawsuit calling ultraprocessed ingredients addictive (FoodDive). “Kraft Heinz, PepsiCo and other packaged food giants have been named in a consumer lawsuit claiming their products are designed to be addictive,” reports Sarah Zimmerman. “The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin seeks $1 billion in damages. It argues ultraprocessed foods are scientifically engineered to be addictive and that companies took a page out of the tobacco industry’s playbook when marketing them to children. This is the second consumer lawsuit targeting ultraprocessed foods. It comes a few months after San Francisco filed the first government lawsuit on the issue, claiming food manufacturers engineered a ‘public health crisis.’”

A generation of chemical safety progress, undone in 15 months (The Environmental Health Brief). “The pesticide liability shield debate is just the tip of the iceberg,” writes Lindsay Dahl. “Since January 2025, the Trump administration has moved with extraordinary speed to roll back a sweeping range of federal protections against toxic chemicals—targeting everything from the ‘forever chemicals’ contaminating the drinking water of more than 100 million Americans, to the mercury pouring from coal-fired power plants into the air breathed by children near those facilities. The rollbacks span nearly every major category of chemical regulation: drinking water standards, air toxics, chemical disaster prevention, pesticide approvals, industrial solvents, and the scientific infrastructure the EPA relies on to protect the public in the first place.”

Democrats ask USDA to drop ‘risky’ meatpacking proposal (Civil Eats). “Congressional Democrats are asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to reverse course on a proposed rule that would permanently increase line speeds at meatpacking facilities,” reports Rebekah Alvey. “In February, the USDA proposed rules to increase production line speeds at poultry and pork processing facilities. Already, the Trump administration had extended waivers that allowed select producers to increase line speeds at the new proposed limits. In response to this proposal, Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) led a letter to the agency opposing the higher line speeds and asking the agency to halt further rulemaking, arguing it will lead to more worker injuries and less safe food.”

More than two-thirds of U.S. schools say they’re unable to afford the cost of student free lunch—and MAHA’s dietary guidelines may make it worse (Economist). “For the 2023-2024 school year, the government provided 4.8 billion lunches to the nearly 29.4 million students belonging to the National School Lunch Program, at a cost of $17.7 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture data,” writes Sasha Rogelberg. “Many schools, however, say the assistance they receive to feed students the subsidized meals are not enough. The Department of Health and Human Services, under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has made a concerted effort to address the quality of school lunches, pushing schools to eliminate ultra-processed foods in favor of whole foods, fruits and vegetables, and more protein. The push is part of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement and retooled dietary guidelines released at the beginning of the year. Schools must abide by these guidelines, intended to address children’s health, in order to continue receiving federal funding. While nutrition experts have lauded the push toward scratch-made meals and more whole food options under the updated dietary guidelines, economists worry the push will further strain schools already concerned with the future of their school lunch programs.”

Got ‘Ozempic Breath’? Hershey sees GLP-1 lift for gum, mints (Bloomberg). “New weight-loss drugs are making people eat less food, but chew more gum,” reports Kristina Peterson. “Hershey Co. Chief Executive Officer Kirk Tanner said GLP-1 drugs are helping to boost sales of mints and gum, including the company’s Ice Breakers. Retail sales of the line, now its third largest confection brand, grew 8% last quarter, the CEO said Thursday. ‘We’ve also seen strong demand for gum and mint products as the category benefits from functional snacking tailwinds, including GLP-1 adoption,’ Tanner said in prepared remarks. Because GLP-1 drugs slow down digestion, users can experience side effects, including nausea, dry mouth and a phenomenon known as ‘Ozempic breath’ or burps.”

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The post A non-exhaustive guide to a crazy busy week in Washington appeared first on Food Fix.