Latest news with #HumanFoodsProgram
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Get Ready for Expensive Tomatoes and Lots of Food Contamination
You could soon be hearing a lot of news about tomatoes. That's because the Commerce Department announced this week that Mexican tomatoes will be subject to 21 percent tariffs starting July 14. If this goes through, expect tomato prices to rise precipitously: The United States relies heavily on greenhouse-grown tomatoes, of which the Agriculture Department estimates 88 percent are imported, with most coming from Mexico. Of course, the Trump administration's tariff policy so far has not exactly been consistent or predictable. The president could drop this tomato tariff tomorrow and announce that he and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum have reached an understanding, brokered by Laura Loomer, that henceforth tomatoes imported from Mexico will be exempt from import duties and be known as 'prosperity apples.' (Any publication daring to call them 'tomatoes' will be kicked out of the White House press corps.) But again, if this tariff goes through, then taxing the bejeezus out of the second-most-consumed vegetable in the country will obviously have a noticeable impact on a lot of people's grocery bills. Yet amazingly, this may be the least of American consumers' worries right now when it comes to food disruption. The Guardian reported Tuesday that recent torrential rains have caused 'millions of dollars of crop losses' in Texas and the Midwest. When added to the Trump administration's cuts to farming infrastructure, climate-smart farming initiatives, and various food assistance programs that provided a market for some farmers, plus the trade war jeopardizing export markets in Mexico and China, this means that many U.S. farms are in trouble. 'Without a bailout, we can only imagine how bad this will be for farmers,' Food and Water Watch's Ben Murray told reporter Nina Lakhani. But other experts noted that even with a bailout, delivering the money fast enough might be an issue, and trade relations in particular could take time to rebuild. All this is in addition to, as this newsletter previously noted, substantial cuts both to the climate adaptation and mitigation efforts vital to long-term food production and to USDA's operating budget. This week, Government Executive reported that planning documents reveal further cuts. They include firing 'thousands' more USDA employees, 'consolidat[ing] … local, county-based offices around the country into state committees,' and a 22 percent cut to salaries and expense accounts at the Farm Service Agency (which directly supports farms with loans and disaster assistance programs). Food safety will also take a hit. The Food and Drug Administration's Human Foods Program, which works on food safety, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Environmental Health and Science Practice, which headed the response to the applesauce lead-poisoning fiasco in 2023, have both been gutted, Time recently reported. This comes after last month's news that the Trump administration had axed two USDA committees advising on food safety: the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods and the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection, the former of which was busy reviewing last year's fatal listeriosis outbreak and figuring out how to prevent repeats of the 2022 infant formula contamination that killed babies. The USDA also announced that it would be increasing line speeds at meatpacking plants and nixing 'redundant' worker safety reports. This is deeply troubling on a humanitarian level, given that worker safety at meatpacking plants is already a nightmare, with gruesome injuries affecting a highly vulnerable workforce. (For more on this, read Melody Schreiber's recent report in The Guardian or Ted Genoways's award-winning 2023 piece for TNR about the shooting of a worker in an Oklahoma pork-processing plant.) As the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union vice president Mark Lauritsen said recently to the Times: 'If the work force is under more pressure for speed, with less safety oversight, that can lead to a miscut on a carcass, bile that could leak out of the intestine, that contaminates the equipment, and then the next carcass and the next and the next.' Numerous outlets in recent years have reported the growing concerns about insufficient safeguards in the U.S. food system. Just two days after Trump's inauguration, the Government Accountability Office delivered a report that rebuked USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service for its delays in finalizing rules to reduce pathogens in meat, and issued several recommendations for closing gaps in the agency's approach to limiting salmonella and campylobacter outbreaks. It's hard to imagine, given the chaos that has now befallen the entirety of the American food system and regulatory apparatus, that those recommendations are going to be speedily how many wildfires the state of Wisconsin has seen this year, as of Monday this week—'double the average for this time of year,' Wisconsin Public Radio's Danielle Kaeding Meat Industry Behind Attacks on Flagship Climate-Friendly Diet Report In 2019, a major, long-researched study known as the EAT-Lancet report, which compiles top recommendations for sustainable diets, sparked major backlash over one single recommendation: to cut global red meat consumption in half. Now 'new evidence' indicates the backlash 'was stoked by a PR firm that represents the meat and dairy sector,' investigative outlet DeSmog reports: A document seen by DeSmog appears to show the results of a campaign by the consultancy Red Flag, which catalogues the scale of the backlash to the report. The document indicates that Red Flag briefed journalists, think tanks, and social media influencers to frame the peer-reviewed research as 'radical', 'out of touch' and 'hypocritical'... Based on DeSmog's review of the document, Red Flag's attack campaign appears to have been conducted on behalf of the Animal Agriculture Alliance (AAA), a meat and dairy industry coalition that was set up to protect the sector against 'emerging threats'. The AAA counts representatives from Cargill and Smithfield Foods—two of the world's five largest meat companies—on its board. Red Flag is known to have previously worked for members of the AAA. Red Flag's campaign overview evaluates the success of social media posts from the AAA attacking the EAT-Lancet report, including a paid advertising campaign launched on behalf of the alliance that reached 780,000 people. The surge of criticism had adverse consequences for the report's authors.… In some cases, the backlash led them to withdraw from promoting the research in the media, and undermined their academic careers. Read Clare Carlile's full report at DeSmog. This article first appeared in Life in a Warming World, a weekly TNR newsletter authored by deputy editor Heather Souvaine Horn. Sign up here.
Axios
06-04-2025
- Health
- Axios
Key safety hotlines disrupted by HHS cuts
Teams manning government hotlines for reporting adverse events from foods, supplements and cosmetics, and call centers that provide other essential safety information, were among the thousands of Health and Human Services Department employees laid off last week. The big picture: Though the department is hurriedly calling some workers back, the episodes show how information blackouts are becoming a feature of the Trump administration's efforts to reorganize the health bureaucracy. "Very important offices that were directly involved with food safety and public health were axed," one FDA employee, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation, told Axios. Zoom in: The Food and Cosmetic Information Center fields tens of thousands of calls annually from consumers and industry representatives about recalls, nutritional information and food business requirements, along with unintended health consequences from using FDA-approved products. It also operates a toll-free number for information about the Food Safety Modernization Act, the law that regulates the production and distribution of food. Reports about health-related problems with cosmetics, infant formula, meat, poultry, restaurants and more can be made through online portals or over the phone. But communications and outreach staff within the FDA's Human Foods Program that operates the center were caught up in the workforce cuts that began last Tuesday. HHS's reorganization plan includes cutting communications teams across the agency and consolidating them into a central office. The FCIC staff were "swooped up with traditional communications," the FDA employee said. The phone hotline was available to take reports on Friday but the webform and online chats were offline. "All employees affected by the reduction in force may be asked to temporarily work until their government service ends on June 2," HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said when asked whether staff had been re-hired to manage the hotline. "This decision is focused on ensuring that the transition is as seamless as possible, minimizing any disruption to the agency's mission and operations," he added. Nixon did not respond to questions about the long-term plan for the center. HHS also laid off staff overseeing other hotlines that help people who want to quit smoking and new mothers with postpartum depression, per Stat. What they're saying:"The layoffs were random and arbitrary," said Steven Grossman, president of consulting firm HPS Group and former executive director of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA. "FDA functions associated with communications appear to have been heavily targeted because communications is to be centralized at HHS," he said in an email. There's "[n]o evidence anyone would have looked at this and said — specialized function not appropriate for centralization." Zoom out: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said staff cuts wouldn't compromise core agency functions. But some scientific roles were terminated, including at a San Francisco-area lab that supported food inspections and investigations, including testing for dangerous bacteria and heavy metals. The lab also analyzed food colorings and additives, which the new administration has said is a priority, per the New York Times. What to watch: Kennedy said after the layoff notices went out that 20% of terminated HHS staff could be hired back because of "mistakes," the Wall Street Journal first reported.
CBS News
02-04-2025
- Health
- CBS News
FDA lays off bird flu leadership, among steep cuts to senior veterinarians
The top veterinarians overseeing the bird flu response at the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine were laid off on Tuesday, as part of sweeping cuts ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the nation's health agencies. Out of some 10,000 workers laid off Tuesday across the Department of Health and Human Services, more than 130 staff were cut in the FDA's veterinary center, multiple officials said. The center oversees medicines and food given in the U.S. to animals, ranging from pets to cattle. Officials said cuts impacted virtually all of the leadership team in the Center for Veterinary Medicine's office of the director, except for the director herself, Tracey Forfa. Management and administrative teams were also gutted at CVM, including communications and purchasing staff, officials said, similar to other centers within the FDA. "The food compliance officers and animal drug reviewers survived, but they have no one at the comms office to put out a safety alert, no admin staff to pay external labs to test products," one FDA official said, who was not authorized to speak publicly. Two senior veterinarians in CVM had been overseeing its bird flu efforts, which was tasked with leading several aspects of the FDA's response to the virus, including investigating pet illness complaints and recalls. Other work overseen by now-cut senior veterinarians at the agency included work on antimicrobial resistance and investigations into contaminated animal feed, which could end up contaminating meat or dairy products made from animals who consume tainted products. News of the veterinarians' layoffs was previously reported by Reuters. Several multistate recalls of pet food contaminated with the bird flu virus have been announced in recent months by the FDA and pet food manufacturers. While most humans have survived bird flu infections, the virus has been especially lethal to some animals like cats. Veterinarians in the office had also been overseeing other efforts to curb bird flu, including standing up lab capacity to test pet products and research into gene editing chickens for resistance to the virus, as well as interest in better therapeutics for animals, an official said. The FDA's chief medical officer, Dr. Hilary Marston, was also ousted Tuesday from the agency. She had been closely working to coordinate the agency's bird flu response with CVM's veterinarians, as well as to lead its oversight of human drugs and vaccines for the virus. "I am sad that this chapter is coming to an end and very sorry for others experiencing the same," Marston, who also played a key role in the federal government's responses to the COVID-19 and mpox outbreaks, posted Tuesday on LinkedIn . The FDA's Human Foods Program also lost more than 100 staff, including administrative and communications staff supporting scientists and health officials responding to the bird flu response alongside other teams, multiple officials said. Other parts of the bird flu response may have also been affected as a result of Tuesday's cuts, officials said. Staff in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's divisions investigating respiratory diseases and emerging infectious diseases were not among those cut at the Atlanta-based agency, according to unofficial lists circulated among CDC staff. But more than 80 people were cut at the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, two officials said. ASPR, which is set to be merged into the CDC as part of Kennedy's restructuring, oversees funding of pandemic stockpiles of influenza vaccines and treatments. Cuts at the agency affected ASPR's IT teams as well as the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which funds research and production of vaccines and drugs, as well as workers for the Strategic National Stockpile, one official said. Unlike Kennedy's HHS, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has not begun its White House-ordered "reduction in force" efforts, one official said, aside from offering early retirements and buyouts to many staff.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
The Trump administration's approach to food safety continues to be tough to swallow
New safeguards related to food safety were poised to take effect in January 2026, but as The New York Times reported, that's apparently no longer going to happen. The Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday that it would delay by 30 months a requirement that food companies and grocers rapidly trace contaminated food through the supply chain and pull it off the shelves. Intended to 'limit food-borne illness and death,' the rule required companies and individuals to maintain better records to identify where foods are grown, packed, processed or manufactured. The Times quoted Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, saying, 'This decision is extremely disappointing and puts consumers at risk of getting sick from unsafe food because a small segment of the industry pushed for delay, despite having 15 years to prepare.' Sarah Sorscher, director of regulatory affairs at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, added, 'This is a huge step backward for food safety.' Making matters worse is that it's not the only step backward for food safety that the Trump administration has taken lately. The day before the Times published the aforementioned report, the newspaper ran a related article that noted, 'At the Food and Drug Administration, freezes on government credit card spending ordered by the Trump administration have impeded staff members from buying food to perform routine tests for deadly bacteria. In states, a $34 million cut by the F.D.A. could reduce the number of employees who ensure that tainted products — like tin pouches of lead-laden applesauce sold in 2023 — are tested in labs and taken off store shelves.' The same article went on to note that at Trump's Agriculture Department, 'a committee studying deadly bacteria was recently disbanded, even as it was developing advice on how to better target pathogens that can shut down the kidneys. Committee members were also devising an education plan for new parents on bacteria that can live in powdered infant formula.' This came on the heels of multiple reports that the Trump administration disbanded two federal committees tasked with advising policymakers on food safety, the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods and the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection. Alas, the list keeps going. The Times also reported that the administration has 'slowed or stopped some testing of grocery items for hazardous bacteria and monitoring of shellfish and food packaging for PFAS, chemicals linked to cancer and reproductive harm.' What's more, the Department of Health and Human Services recently sent out emails asking most of its workforce to consider an offer to quit their jobs in exchange for $25,000. The list included food inspection workers at the FDA — of which there are already too few. And did I mention that the administration appointed Donald Trump Jr.'s hunting buddy to serve to the FDA's Human Foods Program, overseeing all nutrition and food safety activities? Because that happened, too. There is some good news, however: These developments should only matter to Americans who eat food. This post updates our related earlier coverage. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump tasks son's hunting pal with keeping the US food supply safe
The acting federal government official overseeing the vast majority of the US's food supply is a Florida attorney who reportedly is a hunting buddy of Donald Trump Jr, the president's eldest child and namesake. As Vanity Fair reported, acting deputy commissioner for human foods at the Food and Drug Administration Kyle Diamantas will be responsible for overseeing all FDA activities related to nutrition and food safety for the elder Donald Trump's second presidential administration. The FDA's website says the 37-year-old's role has authority over all entities and operations within the Human Foods Program. Duties include resource allocation, risk prioritization strategies, decision-making, policy initiatives and major response activities concerning human foods. Diamantas will also oversee food resources in the agency's office of inspections and investigations in a post that does not require Senate approval. And, as reported by Vanity Fair on Monday, Diamantas will oversee approximately 80% of the country's food supply. In reporting on his friendship with the president's son, Vanity Fair pointed to a photograph of Trump Jr and Diamantas together in 2021, grinning while holding dead wild turkeys. Diamantas holds a juris doctorate from the University of Florida's Levin College of Law and a bachelor's in pre-law political science from the University of Central Florida. In 2024, he became a partner at Jones Day law firm in Miami, having joined the firm three years earlier, according to his LinkedIn page. Vanity Fair asserted it was unclear 'what skills … Diamantas will bring' to his role in Trump's administration. But Food Safety Magazine reported that Diamantas has authored several articles on food regulatory topics. And in his now-archived Jones Day biography reported by Vanity Fair, he is described as having 'more than 10 years of experience advising food, cosmetic, dietary supplement, drug, and other life sciences and consumer goods clients on a wide range of regulatory, compliance, and enforcement matters'. The FDA's website states that Diamantas has 'extensive experience' working with various federal and state agencies and policymakers, scientific organizations, consumer advocacy groups and industry stakeholders. The website also claims he has 'wide-ranging experience on matters spanning regulatory, compliance, investigative, enforcement, rule making and legislation'. Bloomberg recently reported that Diamantas in November was part of a team that wrote about a new post-market safety assessment group established by the FDA to review chemicals in food. Diamantas's appointment comes as the FDA grapples with investigating an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infections linked to frozen supplemental shakes. The outbreak had resulted in 12 reported deaths as of Monday. The former head of the FDA's food division, Jim Jones, resigned on 17 February after the Trump administration laid off 89 staffers in that division. Jones described the layoffs as 'indiscriminate'. In his resignation letter, obtained by Bloomberg, Jones reportedly expressed that he was 'looking forward to working to pursue the department's agenda of improving the health of Americans by reducing diet-related chronic disease and risks from chemicals in food'. However, he felt that due to the new administration's 'disdain for the very people' needed to make these changes, it would be 'fruitless for me to continue in this role'.
