258 food and agriculture groups representing millions of American farmers, ranchers, producers, and manufacturers sent a letter calling on the Make America Healthy Again Commission to create greater transparency and input in the commission’s activities. The groups raised concerns that the erroneous representations about food and agriculture, as well as the poor evidence used to support those findings, could have been avoided if there had been greater opportunities for stakeholders to participate and provide input to the commission.
“The unintended consequences of making uninformed decisions for U.S. food production based on misinformation or unproven theories would be sweeping for our nation’s farmers,” the groups warned. “It has been discovered many of the studies referenced to support erroneous claims significantly misrepresented their findings or in some cases are entirely nonexistent.”
To prevent future misrepresentations and errors, the groups specifically call for formal inclusion of food and agriculture representatives in the commission’s processes moving forward, as well as the opportunity for public comment on all future reports and activities.
The groups appreciate the administration holding ongoing listening sessions with some food and agriculture groups, which is a step in the right direction. However, it remains unclear how these listening sessions will instruct the commission’s work, or if there will be opportunities for stakeholders to provide additional ideas or evidence to help improve health outcomes for Americans.
The MAHA Commission currently has a report on policy recommendations based on the first report due in mid-August. The groups are hopeful there will be more formal processes for input established prior to the next report’s development and release.
