Washington, D.C. — Today, the Center for American Progress released a sweeping new agenda to protect American families from harmful chemicals, protect public health decisions from efforts to politicize and prioritize corporate interests, and make healthy food more affordable and accessible. CAP’s new Path Forward report offers a science-based reform agenda to improve Americans’ health and deliver on the promises that the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement has failed to fulfill.
Nearly 62 percent of calories consumed by American children come from ultra-processed foods, and just 1 in 10 adults eat the recommended daily amount of fruits or vegetables. At the same time, Americans have strong concerns about widespread and harmful chemicals in food and everyday products.
Despite campaign promises, President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have repeatedly failed to deliver meaningful action on harmful chemicals and pesticides, while undermining independent scientific recommendations and siding with corporate interests.
“American families have legitimate concerns about the health and safety of their food, which the Trump administration has only exacerbated,” said Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress and co-author of the report. “Our plan lays out an actionable agenda to make healthy choices easier and protect our kids by prioritizing science and taking on special interests.”
“The Trump administration promised to make America healthier, but over the last two years has repeatedly sided with industry,” said Topher Spiro, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and co-author of the report. “We have an opportunity to lay out a better path forward for Americans. Our plan closes the loopholes, gets harmful chemicals out of everyday products, and puts independent science back in the driver’s seat.”
CAP proposes a comprehensive agenda to improve food safety and make healthy food more accessible, including:
- Protect sound public health decision-making from efforts to politicize and prioritize corporate interests. Establish an independent Preventive Health Science Commission to oversee recommendations on issues including dietary guidelines, vaccines, and preventive care. CAP also proposes the creation of a National Institute of Nutrition at the National Institutes of Health to strengthen independent research into the effects of food on health.
- Ban harmful chemicals and close food safety loopholes. CAP proposes immediately prohibiting chemicals with overwhelming evidence of harm—including PFAS—in everyday products and eliminating the loophole that allows food companies to declare their own ingredients safe without FDA approval.
- Strengthen protections against dangerous pesticides. CAP’s agenda recommends fast-tracking reviews of pesticides banned in peer countries and restoring stronger safeguards for children’s exposure to pesticide residues. Currently, the United States allows more than 80 agricultural pesticides that are banned or being phased out in the European Union, China, or Brazil.
- Give families clear information about the food they eat. CAP’s plan would require prominent front-of-package warning labels for foods and beverages high in added sugar, sodium, saturated fat, and concerning ultra-processed ingredients.
- Expand access to healthy food for children and families. CAP’s alternative agenda would provide free fruits and vegetables to all 21 million public elementary school students in kindergarten through fifth grade and establish a nationwide program to match SNAP spending on fruits and vegetables.
- Make healthy food more affordable. CAP proposes supporting American farmers through expanded fruit and vegetable subsidies, stronger local food purchasing programs, and investments that increase the supply of affordable produce.
New national polling conducted by the Center for American Progress and Blue Rose Research finds overwhelming support for CAP’s proposed agenda. Most Americans across the partisan spectrum are concerned about the safety of the food Americans eat (73 percent) and harmful chemicals in everyday products (72 percent).
More than half of Trump voters say MAHA was a reason they voted for Trump, but a majority of Americans disapprove of President Trump’s job performance on keeping his public health promises.
Read the plan: “You Are What You Eat: An Alternative to MAHA for Healthy Food and Chemical Safety” by Neera Tanden, Topher Spiro, Anne Knapke, Jill Rosenthal, and Kierra B. Jones
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Christian Unkenholz at [email protected].