MAHA report disappoints with ‘missed opportunities’
The second report by the Make America Healthy Again commission left supporters of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy dissatisfied with its lack of significant reforms or policies.
Kennedy called the strategy “the most sweeping reform agenda in modern history—realigning our food and health systems, driving education, and unleashing science to protect America’s children and families,” saying it would end “corporate capture of public health.”
But the strategy also relies on voluntary support of industries, sidestepping mandated oversight and regulations.
“The report is disappointing, and its most glaring omission is regulation,” Priya Fielding-Singh, director of policy and programs at the George Washington University Global Food Institute, told The Hill.
“While the commission’s first report directly called out sugar and ultra-processed foods, this one mentions each only once,” Fielding-Singh noted. “For ultra-processed foods, the most it offers is that government agencies will ‘continue to try’ to define them, which isn’t the serious step many of us were hoping for to keep them out of schools or children’s diets.”
Stakeholders were also left wanting more when it came to action on pesticides. The report called for raising public awareness of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “robust” pesticide review procedures and developing “more targeted and precise pesticide applications.”
David Murphy, a former finance director for Kennedy’s presidential campaign last year, called the report a “major missed opportunity for the Trump administration.”
Murphy said it was “a clear sign that Big Ag, Bayer, and the pesticide industry are firmly embedded in the White House and intentionally short-circuiting Trump’s campaign promise to the millions of MAHA voters who helped him return to power.”
Welcome to The Hill’s Health Care newsletter, we’re Nathaniel Weixel, Joseph Choi and Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health.
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