It’s time to gather over holiday meals. However, the Trump administration is committed to ruining that too. It started in his first administration, with targeting SNAP, slowing down food safety enforcement, and raiding immigrant farm workers. His second term continued what he started, handcuffing the Department of Agriculture with staff terminations, grant freezes, and program reductions.
Food safety took a greater hit. Reducing worker protections in meat processing plants correlates with increased salmonella outbreaks. The Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network reduced surveillance, leaving out pathogens like listeria, which have also emerged in recent outbreaks. And while the FDA oversees 80% of what we consume, from fruits and vegetables to baby formula and processed foods, 65% of FDA staff related to travel and budgets were fired.
This matters: Only 40% of the FDA-regulated facilities are in the U.S. Traveling to facilities abroad covers the other 60%. According to ProPublica, “fewer inspections have taken place than at any time since 2011,” with the exception of the Covid-19 lockdown. And to make it worse?
The Trump administration wastes staggering amounts of food, while 47 million people go hungry. SNAP cuts, tariffs, and ICE raids all impact farm workers and income while food is left to rot in fields and warehouses. About 40%, or 120 billion meals per year, rot before they are consumed. This is enough to give those 47 million people not three but six meals a day, every day.
Attacking our food systems is political violence. Everyone should have the right to eat safely and abundantly, this holiday season and beyond.