The Trump administration is imperiling access to safe and healthy food, throttling organic farmers and siding with meatpackers on livestock sales regulation, said the Food Policy Action Education Fund in a “State of the Plate” report. “This administration’s regulatory rollbacks, political appointments, and executive orders have affected everyone within our food system–from workers to producers to consumers,” said Monica Mills, head of the group.
President Trump’s first year in office “provided numerous examples of the executive branch having a huge impact on the food system and the lawmaking behind it,” said Mills. “In one year, this administration has systematically overturned rules, policies, and regulatory tools.”
The report divided into three areas the administration’s impact on food and agriculture, scoring it for adverse decisions on the pesticide chlorpyrifos, animal welfare standards for organic farms, the Waters of the United States rule, fishery and stream protections, proposals for large cuts in food-stamp funding, stalling healthy-food reforms in school meals, delaying the updated Nutrition Facts label, eliminating the post of agriculture undersecretary for rural development, and withdrawing the so-called GIPSA rule on fair play in livestsock marketing.
To read the State of the Plate report, click here.
A video of a panel discussion about the report, click here.