José Andrés, co-owner of a dozen U.S. restaurants, urged foodies to stand up to painful food and immigration policies that he expects to see from the Trump administration. Speaking at the Food Tank Summit, Andrés told the overflow crowd “Food is politics,” reported Quartz.
Andrés, who is engaged in a lawsuit over his canceled plans for a restaurant at a Trump hotel in Washington, said he thinks the new administration will try to cut funding for public nutrition programs in half and deport thousands of undocumented farm workers. “That is going to make America hungry. Where are we going to be knocking on the doors to make sure that it doesn’t happen?” he asked.
Kathleen Merrigan, former deputy agriculture secretary, said, “There are forces of darkness who are coming together and sharpening their knives on organic,” meaning the USDA program that sets national standards for organic agriculture. Merrigan was a leader in enacting legislation to create the organic farming standards and later in implementing them.