Each week, Food Tank is rounding up a few news stories that inspire excitement, infuriation, or curiosity.
MAHA Commission Releases Report
The Trump-Vance Administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., released their first report identifying the key contributors to rising rates of chronic disease among American children.
The Commission describes a worsening public health crisis among children, citing increasing rates of obesity, diabetes, neurodevelopmental disorders, cancer, mental health conditions, allergies, and autoimmune diseases. “Today’s children are the sickest generation in American history in terms of chronic disease,” the report states.
According to the Commission, the four major contributors to these trends are poor diet, chemical exposure, technology overuse, and excessive medical intervention.
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, the Director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University praised the report for its focus on the harms of ultra-processed foods but he expressed disappointment that it did not address other serious shortcomings in the American diet.
Several current and former federal health officials also raised concerns, telling CBS News that the report misrepresented key facts and omitted widely recognized drivers of childhood chronic disease—many of which are already the focus of public health efforts.
Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, said the report “did a phenomenal job” highlighting the dangers of UPFs but questioned how the administration will fix the problems that are articulated in the report. Federal agencies and programs, including those relevant to food, health and nutrition, have seen mass layoffs and substantial funding cuts as part of a broader Trump administration effort to downsize the federal workforce.
USDA Ends School Meal Support for Hundreds of Thousands of Children
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is terminating 17 projects under the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, ending school meal programs for hundreds of thousands of children in low-income, food-deficit countries around the globe
The McGovern-Dole Program was created to reduce hunger and improve literacy for young children, especially girls. Through organizations including the World Food Programme and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the program provides U.S. agricultural commodities, funding, and technical assistance to support child nutrition, maternal health, and access to quality education. The USDA has canceled 11 out of CRS’s 13 programs, leaving over 780,000 children across 11 countries without their school meal.
U.S. international food assistance programs, including McGovern-Dole, are structured not only to address global hunger but also to create demand for American agricultural products—bolstering U.S. trade and helping farmers tap into global markets.
The move comes just weeks after the White House released its fiscal 2026 spending plan, in which it proposed eliminating the McGovern-Dole program entirely. The White House argued in its latest spending proposal that although the McGovern-Dole program supports U.S. farmers, it is an inefficient use of federal dollars given “the high transportation costs and large portion of funding provided for technical assistance.”
In addition, 27 projects were canceled last week under USDA’s Food for Progress aid program, which sends U.S. commodities abroad for economic development.
Europe’s Crops at Risk Amid Record-Breaking Spring Drought
Large parts Europe are facing what may be the driest spring in a century. Triggered by warmer-than-average temperatures and record-low rainfall, the intensifying drought is threatening crops during a key phase of growth.
“It’s a critical time,” says Dutch farmer Hendrik Jan ten Cate, noting that crops planted in April now need water every week. However, the rainfall deficit has been building up since March and continues to deteriorate quickly. By early May, nearly a third of Europe was under drought warnings, with some regions on red alert, according to the European Drought Observatory.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that worsening heat and drought could lead to “substantive agricultural production losses” for most European areas this century.
Extreme weather costs EU agriculture more than EUR€28 billion (about USD$31.7 billion) annually—over half of it from drought, according to an analysis backed by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Commission. Between 70 and 80 percent of these losses are uninsured.
“Climate-related risks are an increasing source of uncertainty for food production,” said EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti, calling for expanded insurance and de-risking tools to help stabilize farm investments in a volatile climate. Farmers across Europe say they are exploring ways to adapt to drought but, in the short term, see little choice but to wait for more rain.
New Mexico Advances Heat Safety Standards for Outdoor Workers
As temperature rise statewide, New Mexico’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau is proposing new workplace heat protections.
According to the state’s Environment Department, heat is a leading cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S., and the southwest, including New Mexico, is among the fastest warming regions of the country. The New Mexico Department of Health reported there were over 800 heat-related emergency room visits last year. And Las Cruces, a city in southern New Mexico, experienced their hottest summer on record in 2024.
The rule, currently under public review, would mandate rest breaks, shaded recovery areas, clean water access, and acclimatization protocols for workers in high-heat conditions.
The federal Occupational Health and Safety Bureau began developing national heat safety standards for workplaces in 2021, but the Trump administration has indefinitely paused the process.
With no federal heat standard in place, New Mexico would join six other states—Maryland, California, Nevada, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington—in adopting statewide heat protections if the rule is finalized.
A public hearing is scheduled for July, with implementation expected in August if approved.
PepsiCo Scales Back Climate Goals
PepsiCo has revised its sustainability strategy, scaling back or extending several climate, packaging, agriculture, and water targets.
The company dropped its previous goal of cutting total emissions by over 40 percent by 2030 and extended its net-zero target from 2040 to 2050. It now aims to sustainably source 90 percent of its key ingredients by 2030, down from 100 percent, and to achieve average—rather than “best-in-class”—water-use efficiency. PepsiCo also discontinued its commitment to reducing reliance on single-use packaging through reusable models. At the same time, it expanded its regenerative agriculture goal to 10 million acres by 2030, up from 7 million, with 3.5 million acres reached to date.
PepsiCo says the revised targets reflect external constraints, such as limited recycling and reuse infrastructure, and a clearer understanding of where the company can accelerate impact and improve returns on investment.
The company had signaled difficulties prior to this year. In its 2023 sustainability report, released in June 2024, PepsiCo acknowledged that it was unlikely to meet certain goals.
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Photo courtesy of Keagan Henman, Unsplash
