SNAP

No Pulled Punches: Mike Tyson, Federal Leaders Target Processed Food in New Dietary Guidelines

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:28:10 GMT

At a Feb. 11 press conference about the implementation of the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins framed the new guidance around a simple directive: Eat real food.

With speakers ranging from physicians and chefs to military leaders, prison officials and former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, the event positions fresh, minimally processed foods — including fruits, vegetables, seafood and whole proteins — as central to reversing what Kennedy calls “the defining health crisis of our time.”

A Shift Toward Whole Foods

Calley Means, a senior adviser to Kennedy, opened the event by criticizing decades of federal policy that he says steered dollars toward highly processed foods through programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and school meals.

“We must get to whole food,” he says, arguing that chronic disease and rising health care costs are tied to the modern American diet.

Joe Gebbia, U.S. chief design officer, says the new food pyramid flips the script, placing “high-quality protein, dairy, healthy fats, vibrant vegetables and fruits” at the forefront, with whole grains as the foundation and “highly processed junk” clearly identified.

That message was echoed repeatedly: Nutrient-dense, minimally processed foods, such as fresh produce, are no longer peripheral recommendations but rather are central to federal guidance.

Pictured is American Medical Association President Bobby Mukkamala.

(Screenshot via Dietary Guidelines for Americans press conference)

‘Food Is Medicine’

American Medical Association President Bobby Mukkamala connects the new guidelines directly to prevention.

“Choosing protein-rich whole foods while limiting heavily processed foods that are high in sodium and added sugar can help slow or reverse our nation’s growing chronic disease burden,” he says.

He calls the guidelines “a conversation starter and a call to action” and emphasizes the growing movement within medicine to recognize that “food is medicine.”

For the produce industry, the remarks reinforce an expanding role for fruits and vegetables not just in dietary advice but also in clinical conversations, public health strategy and federal procurement.

Pictured is chef Andrew Gruel.

(Screenshot via Dietary Guidelines for Americans press conference)

Chefs Champion Accessibility and American Agriculture

Chef Andrew Gruel underscored that real food is not only healthier but also affordable and widely available. He described a full day of meals built around eggs, fruit, vegetables, seafood and whole cuts of meat that he says could be prepared for $15 to $20 per day.

“Real food is wholesome food. Food is nutritious food. It’s also sustainable food,” he says, adding that the U.S. food supply chain — including produce, ranching and seafood — is “the best of any other country in the world.”

His comments place farmers, ranchers and produce providers at the center of the health conversation.

Mike Tyson speaks at the Dietary Guidelines for Americans press conference.

(Screenshot via Dietary Guidelines for Americans press conference)

Boxing Legend’s Personal Testimony

Tyson provided one of the event’s most emotional moments, speaking candidly about his past struggles with obesity and self-image.

“I was so fat and nasty, I would eat anything. I was like 345 pounds — a quart of ice cream every hour. I had so much self-hate when I was like that, I just wanted to kill myself,” he says.

Tyson connects his transformation to dietary change and sharply criticizes the role of processed foods in the U.S. food system.

“We’re the most powerful country in the world, and we have the most obese, fudgy people,” he says. “Something has to be done about processed food in this country.”

Tyson’s appearance, along with a campaign that aired during the Super Bowl , “Processed food kills. Eat Real Food,” was positioned as a cultural push to normalize fresh, whole ingredients over packaged, ultraprocessed products.

Federal Procurement as a Market Driver

Rollins emphasizes that USDA’s scale gives it leverage to shift demand.

“Every day, the U.S. Department of Agriculture spends almost $400 million on our 16 nutrition programs,” she says, calling that spending “a market mover.”

She points to 18 approved state SNAP waivers removing soda and junk food from eligibility and says updated stocking standards will require retailers accepting SNAP benefits to expand healthy offerings.

Rollins also announced new guidance encouraging child nutrition program leaders to incorporate the updated dietary recommendations, with a proposed school meals rule expected this spring.

Kennedy says the administration is “redirecting government procurement dollars toward American farmers and not junk food manufacturers,” adding that the guidelines will influence food served in schools, the military, prisons and other federal institutions.

Beyond Schools: Military and Prisons

Military and correctional facility leaders shared how nutrition changes are already underway.

Army Undersecretary Mike Obadal says the military branch is increasing access to “lean proteins and complex carbohydrates” and streamlining procurement of “local unprocessed foods” and “fresh American seafoods and produce.”

Bureau of Prisons Director William Marshall says dietary reform aligns with safety and rehabilitation goals, citing research linking improved diet quality to reductions in aggression and disciplinary infractions.

For produce suppliers, these institutional shifts represent potential long-term demand growth across large-volume federal channels.

Cultural Reset

Kennedy frames the guidelines as a turning point.

“For the first time in our nation’s history, the federal government put real food at the center of the American diet and protein in the center of the American plate,” he says.

Rollins distills the message further: “Eat real food.”

For the fresh produce industry, the rollout signals more than a revised pyramid. It suggests an alignment of federal policy, medical advocacy, cultural messaging and procurement dollars around whole fruits, vegetables and minimally processed foods — positioning fresh as foundational to national health strategy through 2030 and beyond.

USDA’s National Farm Security Action Plan Targets Billions in SNAP Fraud

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 12:28:29 GMT

From SNAP benefit reform and fraud crackdown to the continuation of mass deportations with “no amnesty,” the USDA’s newly launched National Farm Security Action Plan touches on several issues that may impact the fresh produce industry.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins held a press conference Tuesday to unveil the seven-point plan, which the USDA says seeks to position American agriculture as a key element of national security and to strengthen the domestic food supply.

Among the plan’s action items: “Protect U.S. nutrition safety net from fraud and foreign exploitation.” The USDA says billions have been stolen to date from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by foreign crime rings.

Rollins held a virtual press briefing Monday evening in advance of Tuesday’s conference, during which she told reporters: “We absolutely have to get all illegal aliens off of our SNAP programs and make sure that taxpayer funded dollars are being spent the way that they were intended.”

The SNAP program is facing major reform from the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which intends to slash billions from program over the coming years.

As part of the SNAP reforms, Rollins says for the first time in USDA history, it is calling on “absolute” and “complete transparency” of data sharing for SNAP programs across the country.

“The largest program here at USDA is not a farming program; it’s actually the SNAP or the food stamp program,” Rollins told reporters Monday, adding that the USDA spends $405 million a day across its nutrition programs.

“And vulnerabilities within that payment system — our payment system — are a persistent target of transnational criminals and gangs,” she said. “Law enforcement has identified a troubling trend of transnational criminal organizations stealing from the poor and the American taxpayer by cloning point of sale devices and card skimming.

“Just based on what we have seen and some pretty major stings that have happened in the last few months by the Secret Service and by DOJ on SNAP fraud, [it’s] equaling tens upon tens upon tens of millions of dollars — just one case after another,” she added.

To address these vulnerabilities, Rollins says the USDA is actively ensuring no funds across the department’s 16 nutrition programs are being used to fund activities related to terrorism or criminal activity.

“In addition, the department will disqualify authorized retailers that are complicit in SNAP fraud or otherwise demonstrate a lack of responsible business behavior to transact purchases made with SNAP,” Rollins continued. “We’re also conducting regular assessments to identify risks and security vulnerabilities to the food and agriculture critical infrastructure sector, including transport vulnerabilities.”

Rollins says the USDA will be looking at the situation every single day, and that she thinks, ultimately, the reforms will be helpful to those who really need SNAP the most.

New Dietary Guidelines

Also on the nutritional horizon, new dietary guidelines are expected to land in the next month or two, said Rollins.

“Most people don’t realize what an important document or set of guidelines that is,” she said Monday. “It drives almost all of the food purchasing for schools, for prisons, for the different nutrition programs, etc.

“We are both, Bobby [Kennedy] and I, are very encouraged that we’re going to be able to change the game in terms of the quality and the type of food that we are feeding, especially to our schools,” she continued.

Rollins says they’re also working to get more smaller farms involved and tap into more locally sourced foods for federally funded nutrition programs.

Mass Deportations to Continue

Much of agriculture, including the fresh produce industry, has been feeling the effects of the Trump administration’s ongoing ICE raids and immigration crackdown since they began in June. During a Q&A at Tuesday’s press conference, Rollins fielded a question from a reporter who asked about mass deportation’s impact on the farm industry and if there would be amnesty for agricultural workers.

“There’s been a lot of noise in the last few days and a lot of questions about where the president stands and his vision for farm labor,” said Rollins. “The first thing I’ll say is, the president has been unequivocal that there will be no amnesty, and I think that’s very, very important.”

Rollins went on to say that Trump has always been of the mindset that “at the end of the day, the promise to America to ensure that we have a 100% American workforce stands, but we must be strategic [in] how we are implementing the mass deportation so as not to compromise our food supply.”

The ag secretary pointed to automation, government reform and tapping American workers as potential solutions to the labor crisis.

“When you think about the 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program — there are plenty of workers in America … So, no amnesty under any circumstances,” she said. “Mass deportations continue, but in a strategic and intentional way as we move our workforce toward more automation and toward a 100% American workforce.”

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