Lifestyle Sports: Latest from Food Politics: Is RFK, Jr's interest in food just a smokescreen?

By Marion Nestle

October 28 2025

Is RFK, Jr’s interest in food just a smokescreen?

The September 22 New Yorker had an article titled “Mommy Issues,” a profile of an influencer in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement.

I was stopped cold by its quoted comment from Del Bigtree, “an anti-vaccine activist who had served as the communications director of [Robert F.] Kennedy’s Presidential campaign.” At a MAHA Action dinner in Washington, DC, Bigtree offered a toast to RFK, Jr, and

thanked the assembled group, singling out [Calley] Means, who, he said, deserved credit for “reaching out and bringing in the food issue, which was such a great cover to get Bobby all the way through.” The room erupted with guffaws.

The real agenda? Getting rid of vaccines.

Will the MAHA movement make any real progress on major food issues?

I consider food dyes and closing the GRAS loophole to be long overdue improvements, but minor.

If MAHA wants to improve the nutritional healthy of American children, it needs, for starters, to enact policies to:

Stop marketing unhealthful foods to kids
Reduce consumption of ultra-processed foods
Make school meals universally available
Improve the quality of school meals
Make sure every child has access to sufficient, high-quality food

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