The Trump administration inherited a huge success story from the Obama administration—the healthiest school meals ever served in American history, and on a trajectory of gradual improvement.
A broad coalition of health, consumer, and religious organizations, as well as 44 leading physicians and nutrition researchers, are urging the Trump administration to withdraw, and Congress to oppose, a controversial proposed plank in the North American Free Trade Agreement that would obstruct member countries from developing mandatory front-of-package nutrition labeling systems. The American proposal was first disclosed by the New York Times last month and was confirmed in Congressional testimony the next day by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
President Trump is reportedly likely to nominate Robert Redfield of the University of Maryland to be director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This appointment would be disastrous for at least three reasons.
In the time leading up to her appointment of the agency that leads the charge on health issues such as tobacco control and thereafter, Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald should have been actively divesting herself of holdings that posed a conflict of interest. Inexplicably, she decided to make matters even worse—at a time when her existing holdings were already drawing scrutiny.
More than 80,000 Americans have filed comments with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to oppose its proposals to weaken school nutrition standards, including a proposed three-year delay of the next phase of sodium reduction in school meals and a possible elimination of any further decreases.
All Americans, regardless of their political affiliation, want safe food. That’s why the Food Safety Modernization Act passed with broad bipartisan support. Make no mistake: The Trump administration is today undermining that landmark legislation by indefinitely delaying enforcement of the rules that would put it into effect.