Latest from Food Politics: An assessment of MAHA's conflicted interests: Robyn O'Brien's The Signal

I have long admired Robyn O’Brien’s clear thinking about food issues and thought this recent piece, from her Substack “The Signal” especially worth reading.   Be sure and scroll down to the Appendix, where she posts her scorecard. Follow the ...

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By Marion Nestle November 04 2026 An assessment of MAHA’s conflicted interests: Robyn O’Brien’s The Signal I have long admired Robyn O’Brien’s clear thinking about food issues and thought this recent piece, from her Substack “The Signal” especially worth reading.  Be sure and scroll down to the Appendix, where she posts her scorecard. Follow the Money on MAHA. It Doesn’t Lead to Our Kids MAHA leaders borrowed the food movement. Guess who cashed in. Robyn O’Brien I used to analyze food companies for a living. I joined a team that managed $20 billion in assets. We launched the company’s first hedge fund. As the only woman on the team, I was assigned to cover the food industry. Long before I was a mother reading labels, I was reading balance sheets, SEC filings and income statements. So when I want to know what’s really happening in food policy, I don’t follow the press releases. I follow the money. Like countless others, I helped build the food movement years before anyone called it MAHA. I’ve watched as new leaders emerged, with a “dizzying rise,” and took over what so many others built. Then the name itself became property. A company called MAHA TM LLC, whose owners aren’t named in the trademark records, now holds registered trademarks on both “MAHA” and “Make America Healthy Again,” covering everything from clothing and software to retail, financial and health services. But the food movement? It was always and only about what’s in our food and how to make clean and safe food affordable and accessible to all who wanted it. Last Thursday, when Calley Means, MAHA’s most visible food voice, told The Wall Street Journal he was leaving the administration, General Mills jumped 8 percent and Kraft Heinz closed up 6.7 percent. One day’s trading doesn’t prove anything. Both stocks had been smacked down for a year as weight-loss drugs eat into snack sales, and markets overreact. But a stock price is a bet on the future, and that day’s bet was clear: investors judged that tougher food rules had just become less likely. People close to Means said he’d grown disillusioned, convinced food companies had too much sway inside the White House. The reforms parents were promised, including a federal definition of ultra-processed food, addressing glyphosate levels products and limits on sugar in school meals, have been shelved. Means called the rally a misread. I’d call it a signal. And it wasn’t the only one. In May, the president’s own financial disclosure showed his portfolio bought shares of Kraft Heinz, General Mills, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, and pesticide maker Corteva in the first quarter of the year, among hundreds of companies, according to Civil Eats. More recent disclosures include PepsiCo and Walmart. The Trump Organization says outside managers make the trades. Maybe it means nothing. But it’s a signal worth noting, especially while MAHA leaders promised to rein in Big Food. Now take stock. Literally. A scorecard from Tiffany Cianci, a former Kennedy campaign adviser, measured 42 MAHA promises on food, farming, chemicals and health: 37 broken, five partially kept, none kept in full. There were some wins: dietary guidelines that finally name ultra-processed food and promises to drop petroleum dyes. But dye pledges are voluntary, and the rules with teeth, are the ones that got shelved. So as efforts to advance reform in the food industry stalled, another part of the administration’s agenda took off: health savings accounts. Health savings accounts let people set aside money tax-free for medical costs. They sound like they help everyone. They don’t. The benefit goes to people who have spare income to put in and a tax bracket high enough to make the break worth something, which is why the wealthiest Americans use them most. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, expanded them anyway. The CEO of HealthEquity, one of the biggest companies that manages HSAs, called it the biggest change to the HSA business since the accounts were created. Then came the push for more. In January, the White House’s Great Healthcare Plan proposed sending federal health subsidies straight into HSAs instead of to insurers. And the executive order that created the MAHA Commission called for more flexibility in health coverage to pay for lifestyle changes and prevention, the opening a business like Truemed depends on. The prize is big. Before he joined the government, Means estimated that about $150 billion was already sitting in HSAs and FSAs. Even the movement’s name is being positioned for that market: a company called MAHA Worldwide has applied to trademark “Make America Healthy Again” for uses including HSA administration, credit cards and cryptocurrency. Now picture two tracks. On the first, wellness brands push to widen what HSA dollars can buy. In 2024, Truemed helped launch a coalition called End Chronic Disease, with Means as a co-founder. Its members were leaders of wellness brands that stand to gain. Its agenda included real food reform. It also included expanding HSAs to pay for food, exercise and supplements, which is exactly what Truemed and the founding companies of End Chronic Disease sell. On the second track, the financial industry pushes to grow how much money flows into those accounts. This year, HSA companies formed the Great American Health Alliance. GAHA. Its members include HealthEquity, one of the largest HSA administrators, and the American Bankers Association, whose members hold about 90 percent of HSAs. It’s run by Keith and Ken Nahigian; Ken was Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s guide to senators during his confirmation. As a 501(c)(4), GAHA can lobby without limit, spend on elections and keep its donors secret, which is why STAT described it as a dark money group. The two tracks don’t need to coordinate. They just need the same policy. And that’s the policy that moved, as MAHA policies stalled. Who benefits when tax-free health dollars can buy saunas, ice baths and supplements? Companies like Truemed, which collects fees on the letters of medical necessity that unlock that spending. The administration says Means divested. But the business he co-founded is booming while the food reforms so many championed sit in a drawer. Truemed says its revenue has tripled two years running. Why does that matter? Because the food movement spent two decades creating the market that MAHA’s corporate leaders captured. Marion Nestle spent a career exposing how food companies shape nutrition science. Eric Schlosser taught a generation to ask where their food comes from. Alice Waters brought real food into schools. Groups like the Center for Science in the Public Interest documented and petitioned for years. And millions of moms, farmers and parents of kids with allergies, ADHD, pediatric cancer and diabetes read the labels and changed what companies put on the shelves. MAHA’s corporate leaders borrowed that energy. SEC filings show that in February 2025, Truemed began selling shares in a roughly $34 million offering, raising $32.6 million within weeks, with Means listed as a director. Weeks later, he joined the White House as an adviser. The raise wasn’t announced until a press release was that December, as a Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz. In the meantime, the policies that benefit companies like Truemed moved forward. Means says he’ll keep fighting from the outside, and maybe he will. But it’s fair to notice the timing. He walked out less than two weeks before a midterm many see as a verdict on MAHA, nearly a year after Democratic lawmakers pressed him on his Truemed stake. Whether this is a reformer who lost or a brand repositioning for its next chapter, the receipts will tell us. Watch where the money goes next. Meanwhile, the policies parents care about most haven’t just stalled. Some have been reversed. Proposed salmonella limits for chicken: scrapped. Tracking of foodborne illness: cut. Glyphosate, the weedkiller MAHA’s own commission flagged as a concern for children’s health: declared a national security priority. New “forever chemical” pesticides: approved for the crops used in the food our families eat. So here’s my invitation: measure progress the way an analyst would. Not by speeches, but by final rules, share prices and who profits. And if a definition of ultra-processed food suddenly appears before Election Day, read the fine print. A non-binding white paper changes nothing on a grocery shelf. It’s another press release, not a policy. Our health is not a commodity. It is not a trade, a ticker or a tax break. It is the one investment we cannot afford to lose, and the bottom line that matters most. We built this movement to protect children. In order to do that, you have to watch the policies, not the press releases. And always follow the money. Appendix: The Record Status as of October 2026. MAHA food promises that failed or stalled Ultra-processed food definition: shelved. The federal definition meant to lead to labels was set aside by the White House, as reported in October 2026. School meal sugar and protein rule: shelved. The rule requiring less added sugar and more protein in school meals was deferred. Petroleum-based food dyes: voluntary only. FDA revoked Orange B, a dye no longer in use, and proposed revoking Citrus Red No. 2. Removing the main petroleum dyes depends on voluntary company pledges. Front-of-package nutrition label: stalled. Proposed in January 2025, it missed its spring 2026 target. In March 2026 FDA said everything was on the table, including revising or rescinding it. Post-market review of food chemicals: process only, no rule. FDA finalized an internal review process in May 2026, but no new binding rule requires removing chemicals already on the market. GRAS loophole: proposed, not final. FDA proposed in August 2026 that companies notify it of self-declared safe ingredients. It is not yet in force. MAHA Scorecard verdict. Of 42 MAHA promises on food, farming, chemicals and health, tracked through July 2026, 37 were rated broken, five partially kept and none kept. Policies put in place that work against the MAHA food agenda Glyphosate executive order (Feb 2026). Invoked the Defense Production Act to prioritize production of glyphosate-based herbicides and elemental phosphorus. Five new PFAS pesticides approved (Nov 2025 and July 2026). Approved for food crops including tomatoes, lettuce, wheat and citrus. EPA disputes that they meet its PFAS definition. Bifenthrin and chlormequat expanded (July 2026). New crop uses for bifenthrin, which EPA classifies as a possible human carcinogen, and the first food use of chlormequat. Dicamba re-registered (Feb 2026). Re-approved for over-the-top spraying on soybeans for 2026 and 2027, after federal courts twice ruled earlier approvals unlawful. Salmonella limits for poultry withdrawn (April 2025). Scrapped proposed enforceable salmonella limits for raw chicken and turkey. Faster slaughter line speeds (proposed Feb 2026). Would raise chicken lines from 140 to 175 birds per minute and remove the pork line speed cap. Not yet final. Food traceability rule delayed to 2028. Pushed compliance from January 2026 to July 2028; Congress barred enforcement before then. FoodNet surveillance cut (July 2025). Active tracking reduced from eight foodborne pathogens to two, dropping listeria, cyclospora and others. Food safety advisory committees dissolved. USDA eliminated its two scientific advisory committees on microbial food safety and meat and poultry inspection. Inspection workforce cut. FDA lost 3,859 employees agency-wide in 2025, including 89 food safety staff whose firing prompted its food deputy commissioner to resign. USDA’s inspection service lost about 775 employees who are not expected to be replaced. Foreign food inspections fell sharply. Policies put in place that advance health savings accounts MAHA Commission executive order (Feb 2025). Called for more flexibility in health coverage to pay for lifestyle changes and disease prevention. It does not name HSAs, but critics, including Rep. Jake Auchincloss, say it opened the door to wellness spending through them. One Big Beautiful Bill Act: marketplace plans (law, effective Jan 2026). Made bronze and catastrophic plans, the cheapest marketplace tiers, HSA-eligible whether or not they are bought through the exchange. One Big Beautiful Bill Act: telehealth and membership-fee doctors (law). Made pre-deductible telehealth coverage permanent and let people who pay a doctor a monthly fee keep contributing to an HSA. Treasury and IRS implementing guidance (Dec 2025). Explained how the new HSA eligibility rules apply. Great Healthcare Plan (proposed Jan 2026). Would send federal health subsidies directly into HSAs instead of to insurers. Requires Congress. Sources Wall Street Journal, STAT, Food Fix, Politico on the Means resignation and shelved food rules (Oct 2026) MAHA Promises Scorecard, mahascorecard.com (Oct 2026); FDA, Federal Register and Covington on GRAS, front-of-package and post-market review (2026); Supermarket News on dyes (July 2026); Marion Nestle, Food Politics (July 2026); Connector Inc., The MAHA Report Card (Oct 2026) CNBC and The Hill on the glyphosate order (Feb 2026); Center for Biological Diversity, EWG, Civil Eats and CNN on PFAS pesticides (2025-2026) Federal Register and FSIS on the Salmonella framework; USDA and Civil Eats on line speeds; Food Safety Magazine and SeafoodSource on FSMA 204 NBC News and AP on FoodNet; Investigate Midwest, FoodNavigator and CBS News on staffing cuts CNBC and IRS on HSA changes; Reuters and Newsweek on the Great Healthcare Plan; the MAHA executive order (EO 14212); Rep. Auchincloss; STAT on GAHA; FITT Insider on End Chronic Disease SEC Form D and Form D/A for True Medicine Inc. (CIK 0002004109), signed March 4, 2025; Reuters (Nov 2025) and Rep. Auchincloss and Sen. Schiff (Oct 2025) on Means’s White House role; Bloomberg (Dec 2025) on the Series A STAT (Oct 22, 2026), Food Fix (Oct 2026) and The Wall Street Journal on Means’s resignation, his statements afterward and his earlier clashes with White House officials; Rep. Jake Auchincloss and Sen. Adam Schiff, letter of inquiry on Means’s Truemed interests (Oct 2025) StockAnalysis.com (S&P Global Market Intelligence) daily closes for General Mills and Kraft Heinz, Oct 2026; Bernstein downgrades of General Mills, Kraft Heinz, Conagra and Campbell’s citing GLP-1s (Investing.com, 2026); Journal of Marketing Research study (Dec 2025) on GLP-1 households’ grocery and snack spending, via the Motley Fool (Oct 11, 2026) Trademark records via Trademarkia and Justia for MAHA TM LLC registrations (USPTO Serial Nos. 98730861, 98978027, 98978173) and the MAHA Worldwide LLC application (Serial No. 98904507) Office of Government Ethics financial disclosure of President Trump (filed May 2026), as reported by Civil Eats (May 29, 2026) and Sludge (May 14, 2026) Newsweek (Jan 2026) and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on who benefits from HSAs; HealthEquity CEO Scott Neeleman’s earnings-call remarks, via Charles Gaba (2026) Truemed’s Series A announcement (Dec 2025, via Pulse 2.0) on revenue growth; AP (June 2025) and KFF Health News (2025) on Truemed’s fees, products and Means’s departure; NewsBreak (2024) on Means’s $150 billion estimate; Reuters (Nov 2025) on HHS’s divestment statement The post An assessment of MAHA’s conflicted interests: Robyn O’Brien’s The Signal appeared first on Food Politics by Marion Nestle      Related Posts Industry funded study of the week: Trans fats What’s going on with MAHA? Calley Means resigns. Industry funded study of the week: Beef   Now Available: What to Eat Now My new book, What to Eat Now, is officially out! It's both a field guide to food shopping in America and a reflection on how to eat well—and deliciously. For more information and to order, click here. You can explore the full archive of this (almost) daily blog at foodpolitics.com, where you'll also find information about my books, articles, media interviews, upcoming lectures, favorite resources, and FAQs. Visit the Site » ​​​​​​​ Marion Nestle Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, Emerita © Marion Nestle. You're receiving this email because you've signed up to receive updates from us. If you'd prefer not to receive updates, you can unsubscribe. Safely Unsubscribe • Archives • Preferences • Contact • Subscribe • Privacy

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