Each week, Food Tank is rounding up a few news stories that inspire excitement, infuriation, or curiosity.
MAHA Commission Strategy Report
The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission has released its Strategy Report, outlining the federal government’s approach to reducing childhood chronic disease. The 20-page document confirms earlier leaks that the administration will avoid imposing new restrictions on pesticides or ultra-processed foods—despite naming them as key contributors to poor health outcomes in the Commission’s initial report assessing the key contributors to rising rates of chronic disease among American children.
The strategy focuses on four pillars: advancing research, realigning incentives, fostering private sector collaboration, and increasing public awareness. While the report highlights nutrition-related goals—including reforms to dietary guidelines, food labeling, and federal meal programs—it stops short of regulatory mandates. Instead, it promises measures such as closing the “GRAS loophole” for food additives and allowing full-fat milk in schools.
Some agriculture groups welcomed the report. The American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall expressed gratitude for the report’s recognition of the vital role farmers play in the food supply chain and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers applauded the MAHA Commission. According to the International Fresh Produce Association, the strategy report “marks an important step in elevating nutrition as a national public health priority.”
Others, like the American Soybean Association (ASA), expressed more cautious optimism. Though grateful for the opportunity to provide input on the report, the ASA remains concerned about the Commission’s “misinformed rhetoric” regarding the safety of soybean oil, which the organizations says has been backed by decades of science. The Modern Ag Alliance praised the report for avoiding “damaging potential outcomes for American agriculture,” but urged the Commission to “support sound scientific standards that are based on real-world risk.”
Health advocates and environmental groups were more critical, lamenting the report’s tepid recommendations and criticizing the agricultural sector’s influence. Marion Nestle noted missed opportunities to curb ultra-processed food consumption and promote school gardens. Rebecca Wolf of Food & Water Watch called the report “a gift to big agriculture,” arguing it lacks meaningful action on toxic pesticides. Earthjustice said the plan dismantles protections and benefits corporations “while families, especially children, will pay the price.”
Zen Honeycutt, founder of the Moms Across America movement and a vocal MAHA supporter, says her group is “deeply disappointed that the committee allowed the chemical companies to influence the report.” George Kimbrell, legal director of the Center for Food Safety, called the report a betrayal of the MAHA grassroots movement.
Critics also point to contradictions between the report’s goals and recent policy actions, such as cuts to nutrition education and local food programs under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. As Kennedy declared the strategy “the most sweeping reform agenda in modern history,” skeptics like Jennifer Harris, senior research advisor with the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at the University of Connecticut, questioned its capacity to deliver change without clearer enforcement or new regulatory mechanisms.
FAO Reveals “Pervasive” Gender Inequalities in sub-Saharan Africa’s Agri-Food Systems
A new report from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reveals persistent gender disparities in agrifood systems across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), despite women comprising nearly half of the sector’s workforce.
About 76 percent of all working women in the region are employed in agrifood systems, with increasing participation in off-farm roles like processing and packaging, the report finds. Yet over 90 percent work in the informal sector, where jobs tend to be low-paid, precarious, and largely unrecognized.
Women dominate food processing and services—making up 73 percent of the workforce in those segments—but represent just 3 percent of workers in transport, reflecting a concentration in roles tied to domestic labor, FAO says. In 28 of 33 countries, men are more likely than women to own land or hold secure land rights and In 2023, 64 percent of men held a financial account, compared to 52 percent of women—a 12-point gender gap, up from 5 points in 2011. Nearly half the countries in the region have weak or no legal protections for women’s land access. And women face higher food insecurity: 11.2 million more women than men in the region are affected by hunger.
The report emphasizes that women are essential to food systems—as farmers, processors, traders, and caregivers—but their contributions are often invisible. “Their productive work is often informal, precarious, and poorly paid, while reproductive labour remains invisible,” says Dr. Fiorella Picchioni, a lead author of the report.
FAO’s Abebe Haile-Gabriel calls for “investments and enabling policies” to create formal jobs and expand social protections, arguing that supporting women will strengthen both food security and resilience.
Punjabi Farmers See Worst Floods in Three Decades
Heavy monsoon rains have caused severe flooding across the Punjab province of Pakistan and the Indian state of Punjab. Rivers across the region have breached their banks, submerging entire towns, decimating farms, and displacing millions.
Over 950 people have died in Pakistan in rain-related incidents since the monsoon season began in late June, according to the disaster management authority. Floods have submerged 4,000 villages, impacting 4 million people, including almost 2 million who have been evacuated.
In Punjab, the country’s breadbasket, hundreds of thousands of people and businesses rely on agriculture. The floods have destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of crops, including rice paddies, cotton, and sugarcane, and grazing fields for livestock are now muddy pools.
Watching the floodwaters rise, Surinder Singh, a farmer from Sarala Kalan village in Patiala, said: “Floods and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, and the future does not look any better. If the farmers of Punjab—the food bowl of India—cannot even feed themselves, how will they feed others?”
In the Indian state of Punjab, tens of thousands have been evacuated and over 60,000 square miles of farmland have been destroyed. Over 500 cows died in the floods, and around 18,000 chickens died in collapsed poultry sheds, according to India’s Animal Husbandry Minister.
While heavy rains are typical during the monsoon season, the United Nations says that the conditions have been exacerbated by the climate crisis.
Countries Take Action on Hazardous Pesticides
Recent developments in Mexico, France, and South Africa signal growing, though uneven, momentum for global pesticide reform.
Mexico has enacted a ban on the use, production, import, and commercialization of DDT and 34 other pesticides identified as high-risk by international agreements. The new regulation is part of a broader national strategy to transition to safer agricultural practices.
“The goal is to establish much stricter regulations because these are products that cannot be used as if they were aspirin,” says Julio Berdegué, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. The decree commits to supporting small- and medium-sized producers in accessing safer, cost-effective alternatives. A second round of bans is planned for 2026, followed by a third in 2027.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) welcomed the move, stating: “It has been 34 years since Mexico adopted a measure of this scale. This is a key step toward sustainable and safe agriculture.” However, civil society groups expressed concern that the ban falls short. Pesticide Action Network and Alternatives in Mexico (RAPAM) notes that most of the banned chemicals are older substances, while over 200 pesticides restricted in other countries remain authorized. These include ethyl chlorpyrifos, fipronil, paraquat, and neonicotinoids.
In France, the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal ruled that the government must revise its pesticide authorization procedures. The court found that existing rules violated a 2009 EU regulation requiring that pesticides cause no harm to human health or the environment. The case was brought by five environmental groups, who argue that the state has failed to protect biodiversity through weak pesticide rules. The government has now been asked to review pesticide authorizations that have already been granted to make sure they meet the rules.
Pollinis, one of the advocacy organizations, celebrated the court’s decision, calling the ruling a “historic victory.” Other organizations voice concerns that, despite stricter domestic regulations, EU-based manufacturers—including in France—continue to create and export banned pesticides abroad, especially to countries in the Global South.
Meanwhile, South Africa recently banned the import of terbufos, a highly toxic pesticide linked to the deaths of six children. The South African Human Rights Commission called the ban a “historic milestone” for realizing basic rights such as health, food, and a safe environment.
Nearly US$50 Million for Farmers on Hold at USDA
Nearly US$50 million in congressionally mandated funding for farmers remains unspent at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and time is running out before the unspent money is automatically returned to the U.S. Treasury, Politico reports. The funds are intended to support the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program, which helps farmers test new methods, manage environmental challenges, and collaborate on research.
The SARE program, first authorized in the 1990 Farm Bill and reauthorized in subsequent legislation, typically distributes grants to more than 500 farmers and ranchers annually. Thousands more benefit from research funding administered through universities. Recipients use the grants for projects such as pest management, yield improvement, drought mitigation, and cover cropping.
If the USDA does not obligate the unspent US$48 million by September 30, the money may be returned to the U.S. Treasury through a process known as impoundment. Sources familiar with the situation say the reason for the delay is unclear. No public explanation has been provided by the USDA.
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), alongside 100 food, farm, conservation, and rural organizations, urges Congress to fully fund the SARE program, highlighting the need for and value of the initiative. According to NSAC, SARE helps farmers make meaningful changes, like adopting new practices or reducing inputs and is one of the most cost effective and administratively efficient competitive research programs within the USDA.
Others, including the National Organic Coalition, assert that SARE funds may not be impounded without congressional authority. The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the “power of the purse,” meaning it has the sole authority to control government spending. Under the Impoundment Control Act (ICA) of 1974, legislation passed to protect this power from presidential overreach, prohibits the President from impounding congressionally mandated funds without Congress’s approval.
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Photo courtesy of Paul Sivot, Unsplash
