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RFK Jr. Is Taking an Axe to America’s Dietary Guidelines
Every five years, America’s top nutrition experts jockey to be part of a rite of passage in the field. The federal government chooses a small group of researchers to serve on a committee that spends months poring over scientific literature to answer questions such as: What is the relationship between sweetened beverages and risk of type 2 diabetes?
And how does eating saturated fat influence a person’s chance of heart disease?
The end result is something called the Dietary Guidelines for Americans — in other words, the government’s official nutrition recommendations. The whole process might seem a bit excessive, if not pointless. Presumably, few Americans even know about this document, and even fewer intentionally use it to guide what they eat. But the recommendations touch the diets of tens of millions of Americans, affecting what food is served in schools and in the military. They also influence the food industry.
After the dietary guidelines began more explicitly warning about the risks of added sugar, several major food companies committed to reducing added sugar in their products. Those guidelines are now on the brink of getting MAHA-ed. It just so happens that 2025 marks five years since the previous version, so they’re now due for an update. Much of the work has already been completed.
Why MAHA Wants Whole Milk Back on the Table
At a Brooklyn coffeeshop one recent rainy afternoon, the barista explained that lattes came just one of two ways: with whole milk or almond. It didn’t make sense to stock skim or reduced-fat milk when requests for those varieties are few and far between, she said — though a few months ago, she did notice a curious surge of customers asking for raw milk. “Do you know what was up with that?”
For better or worse — definitely worse, health experts say, in the case of raw milk — Americans seem to be approaching a new chapter in their relationship with dairy. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has suggested the forthcoming U.S. dietary guidelines could start recommending whole milk, against the advice of last year’s advisory committee.
Whole milk got a special shout-out in May’s Make America Healthy Again report, and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the guidelines’ position on dairy “antiquated” in February while urging Head Start programs to adopt full-fat milk. Meanwhile, a House committee recently advanced the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which for the first time in over a decade would allow public schools to start serving whole milk as well as reduced-fat milk, rather than sticking to nonfat and low-fat.
Making America Healthy Begins With Farmers
In January 2019, at the age of 36, I was diagnosed with metastatic cancer. Amid all of the fear and worry over my health and my future, my biggest question was, “why did this happen?” Now, President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again Commission has been established to uncover the causes of the epidemic of chronic disease in our nation’s young people, particularly children, and to do something about it.
The MAHA Commission’s assessment report marks a historic recognition of a crisis decades in the making: The American diet, shaped by a highly consolidated food system dominated by a handful of corporations, is fueling a chronic-disease crisis. Crucially, the report emphasizes that American farmers must be at the center of the nation’s health. As the sixth-generation on my own family’s farm, I couldn’t agree more.
American farmers have contributed to an abundant and affordable food supply, but a growing share of the value created by farmers’ work has been captured by major food manufacturers, processors and retailers. This concentration of corporate power has not only weakened rural economies and limited market access for farmers, it has reshaped the American diet around government-subsidized, ultra-processed products that contribute to rising rates of chronic illnesses.
‘Yuck Factor’: Research Finds Edible Insects Struggling to Win Consumer Acceptance
Peer-reviewed research finds insect proteins still failing to win over western consumers while also failing to make the grade on environmental benefits. Efforts to incorporate edible insects into Western diets continue to face a raft of consumer acceptance barriers, significantly hampering their potential to replace traditionally-farmed meat as a source of dietary protein, fresh peer-reviewed research published today has concluded.
Leading hurdles facing the widespread adoption of insect proteins — which are seen as a more environmentally sustainable and healthier alternative to livestock-reared animal protein such as lamb, beef and pork — in the West include taste, culture, convenience and price, according to the research.
In particular, the research — authored by an international team of academics from the U.K., U.S. and Europe — highlights a “yuck factor” as the biggest barrier to facing acceptance of insect proteins among Western consumers. Many consumers are still put off by the idea of eating crickets or other insects, according to the report, which highlights a continued “psychological rejection and disgust” at the notion of farmed insects.
Revealed: More Than 24,000 Factory Farms Have Opened Across Europe
American-style intensive livestock farms are spreading across Europe, with new data revealing more than 24,000 megafarms across the continent. In the U.K. alone, there are now 1,824 industrial-scale pig and poultry farms, according to the data obtained by AGtivist that relates to 2023.
The countries with the largest number of intensive poultry farm units are France, U.K., Germany, Italy and Poland in that order. For poultry farming alone, the U.K. ranks as having the second-highest number of intensive farms at 1,553, behind France with 2,342.
The top 10 countries for intensive pig and poultry farms combined are Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, U.K., Denmark, Poland, Belgium and Hungary, according to information obtained from the European Commission, and country-specific regulatory agencies and colleges.
Intensive livestock units are farms where 40,000 or more poultry, 2,000 or more fattening pigs, or 750 or more breeding sows are being held at any one time in the EU and the U.K.. The increase in so-called megafarms across Europe comes as the number of small farms has reduced dramatically, and the income gap between large and small farms has increased, according to Guardian research. The rise in intensive farming has coincided with a decline in birds, tree species and butterfly numbers.
