Plus: Food Giant Nestlé Fires Its CEO Over Scandal |
| Amid calls for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign, including from the Kennedy family, the highly anticipated Make Our Children Healthy Again report finally published on Tuesday, and it abandoned major reform on pesticides and toxic chemicals used while farming. The official report ended up looking a lot like the leaked draft from last month that began to splinter the MAHA base—and includes just six references to pesticides. Glyphosate and Atrazine are not mentioned. The report’s suggestions include calls for more research on the impact of cumulative exposure, as well as more support of technology like precision agriculture, which could decrease the amounts of pesticides applied to crops. That weak language will likely further fracture the MAHA movement. Especially when compared to some of the other policies outlined, like the big win for the dairy industry (“Remove restrictions on whole milk sales in schools”) or deregulation aimed to help the country’s food apartheid (“Fast-track permits for grocery stores in underserved areas.”) As nutrition expert Marion Nestle points out, the report also seems to have capitulated to lobbyists for sugar and salt, after dropping any reference to cutting the amount of either in processed foods. In her newsletter Food Politics, Nestle says the report is a missed opportunity: “I sure wish they had taken it,” writes Nestle. “This was the time to regulate food marketing to kids—not ‘explore,’ get ultra-processed foods out of schools, and promote farm-to-school programs and school gardens—all shown to improve kids’ dietary intake. Where’s the policy? The bottom line: Where’s the action?” Much more to come on MAHA, and I’ll be following closely how the policies outlined in the report like monitoring pharmaceuticals in the water supply and defining ultra-processed foods roll out. Have a great rest of your week! |
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| The Soap Opera Drama Behind A CEO’s Ousting: The details behind the bombshell report of what led Nestlé to fire its CEO last week are scandalous. According to The New York Post, former Nestlé CEO Laurent Freixe was fired after a senior executive, who was also reportedly his mistress, allegedly caught him cheating with another subordinate in a Zurich hotel—and then filed an anonymous complaint through a corporate hotline that “triggered an internal investigation.” Nestlé’s code of conduct prohibits failing to disclose a relationship with a direct report, which is what Nestlé said was the official reason Freixe was abruptly let go, but the company has not confirmed these latest allegations of how Freixe’s affairs were exposed. |
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| Challenging Bans On Cultivated Meat: Texas’s lab-grown meat ban will get taken to court after two California-based, FDA-approved brands Upside Foods and Wildtype together sued the state over its law that passed in June. As the Texas Tribune reports, Upside, which makes cultivated chicken, and Wildtype, which focuses on cultivated salmon, are accusing Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas Health and Human Services, and Travis County of government overreach, and calling out the ban as a way to protect an industry from innovative competition. Texas’s ban on lab-grown meat, which went into effect on September 1, is one of seven others from states prohibiting the sale of the technified food, even though it is barely sold anywhere. |
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| Presented by ForbesLive | | Final Call for Virtual Registration |  | Step into the future of sustainability. Join us virtually for the Forbes Sustainability Leaders Summit on September 22 and hear from today's most prominent leaders tackling our planet's greatest challenges. This is your chance to stream the conversation live and turn world-class insight into real-world impact.
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| Wednesday, September 17, 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. I’ll be doing a talk with the food-focused bookstore Read It & Eat about my book Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed and the Fight for the Future of Meat. The event will be hosted by Caitlin and Tom Moriarty at Moriarty Meats, who will be providing regional specialty sandwiches—boeuf on weck—to fuel us through an evening of live butchery demonstration, an author Q&A, and book signing. See you there! Read It & Eat Bookstore at 1652 Elmwood Ave. Buffalo, NY Get your ticket here. Monday, September 21, 1:00 - 5:30 p.m. I’m excited to be back at the Forbes Sustainability Leadership Summit to kick off New York City’s Climate Week. Not sure what I’ll be moderating yet! Forbes on Fifth at 24 Fifth Ave. New York, NY Register here. Monday, September 21, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. After the Forbes conference, I’ll be heading to Soho to moderate a conversation called Rooted in Change: Women Leading the Regenerative Organic Movement featuring Jen Berliner, head of brand & innovation for Patagonia Provisions, Brita Lundberg from Lundberg Family Farms, and Sarela Herrada, cofounder of SIMPLi, hosted at Patagonia’s flagship. Patagonia store at 61-63 Crosby St. New York, NY You can RSVP here. Friday, September 25, 1:30 - 5:30 p.m. Climate week is packed! I’ll also be moderating at Food Tank’s afternoon season on Regenerative Food Systems: Scaling Impact - Soil to Shelf. I recommend you check out Food Tank’s entire lineup for the whole week! WNYC NPR Studios at 44 Charlton St. New York, NY Get your ticket here. |
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 | | Chloe Sorvino |
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| It’s still tomato season, and I’m holding onto all that summer’s got left. And, after spending all Sunday bulk making tomato sauce from fresh San Marzanos sourced by Farm To People, and subsequently filling up my freezer with jars, I treated myself to some classic comfort food. |
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| Thanks for reading the 158th edition of Forbes Fresh Take! Hit reply to let me know what you think. |
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