California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a new executive order Friday targeting food dyes and ultraprocessed foods, a move in line with the Make America Healthy Again agenda of Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Newsom’s Friday order instructs state agencies to develop recommendations to limit the deleterious health consequences of ultraprocessed foods, along with proposals to reduce the purchases of foods made with synthetic dyes and additives by recipients of government food subsidies.
“The food we eat shouldn’t make us sick with disease or lead to lifelong consequences,” Newsom said in a press statement. “California has been a leader for years in creating healthy and delicious school meals, and removing harmful ingredients and chemicals from food. We’re going to work with the industry, consumers and experts to crack down on ultra-processed foods, and create a healthier future for every Californian.”
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Last fall, Newsom signed legislation to ban food additives from school lunches linked to neurodevelopmental problems in children based on a 2021 report from the state environmental health office that found artificial chemicals can disrupt neurotransmitters in children’s brains.
The chemicals banned from school lunches were Blue No. 1 and 2, Green No. 3, Red No. 40, and Yellow No. 5 and No. 6.
Newsom’s new directive, which he characterizes as a continuation of the Golden State’s “nation-leading” nutrition and health standards, is very similar to Kennedy’s goals of reshaping the school lunch program nationwide and removing toxins from the food supply writ large.
Kennedy, a California resident, has long been an outspoken critic of the food industry and has promised to overhaul both the food system and its corresponding regulatory apparatus in his new role should he be confirmed by the Senate after President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
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Food dyes, pasteurized milk, seed oils, and pest control chemicals are some of Kennedy’s top concerns and will likely be his top priorities should he survive the confirmation process.
The Food and Drug Administration, likely to be heavily influenced by Kennedy, oversees the health and safety of about 77% of the U.S. food supply, including nearly $4 trillion worth of food, tobacco, and medical products, according to agency data.
Although Kennedy’s other public health priorities, particularly his deep skepticism of vaccines and pharmaceuticals, will likely pose a significant hurdle to his confirmation, there is strong bipartisan support for his ideas for improving the American diet.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) last month praised Kennedy’s position on the food industry as “exactly correct” but characterized his views on vaccines as “extremely dangerous.”
Others, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), have taken an approach to the nutrition issue much like Newsom, embracing the need for improving public health but without invoking Kennedy’s name as an inspiration.
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Some Republicans from midwestern states, including Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven, have expressed concern that Kennedy’s antipathy for industrialized farm practices will do economic harm to farmers and ranchers.
“They’ve got to be able to use modern farming techniques, and that involves a lot of things, not only really sophisticated equipment, but also fertilizers and pesticides,” Hoeven told reporters in mid-December.
With his deep familial and personal connections to the Democratic Party, Kennedy’s shift to become the standard-bearer of Trump’s health policy is one of the clearest examples of the reorientation of American political parties in the past decade.
With his deep familial and personal connections to the Democratic Party, Kennedy’s shift to become the standard-bearer of Republican health policy is one of the clearest examples of the reorientation of political parties in the Trump-era of American politics.
This summer, when there was speculation that Kennedy would suspend his independent presidential campaign to endorse Trump, Newsom expressed disappointment about Kennedy’s abandonment of the Democratic Party.
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“This is not the RFK Jr. I know,” Newsom said in late August.
“It was inconceivable to me that I would ever leave the Democratic Party. But I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me,” Kennedy said during a Tucker Carlson tour before the election in November, reiterating a point he made multiple times on the 2024 campaign trail.