Food Regs Could Be Rolled Back Under Trump

Chef​ Colicchio vows to fight

December 16, 2016, 03:09 pm

In response to an agenda released by the House of Representatives’ “Freedom Caucus” that outlines more than 200 regulations that conservative lawmakers are hoping to roll back during the incoming Trump administration, Tom Colicchio, chef and food advocate, has ​declared: “The fight is on.”

Accusing the caucus of ​"[setting]​ out to blatantly try and reverse progress that has been made on nutrition, hunger reduction, and agricultural sustainability,” Coliccho, co-founder of Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Food Policy Action, noted: “We will fight for a food system that ensures that every American has access to healthy, affordable food that is fair to workers, good for the environment and keeps farmers on the land."

Colicchio added that "we will keep turning the dial forward towards good food policy and arming the public with information to hold their legislators accountable for their food policy record. We're not going to let Washington turn back the clock on critical child nutrition programs, funding for hungry Americans, water and environmental protections, consumer transparency, or regulations that keep our food safe. Not by a long shot.”

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a member of the caucus who issued a report containing the 200-plus regulations the group hopes to get rid of, believes that the rules, most of them enacted under the Obama administration, “have been devastating for working families, businesses and taxpayers.”

"These last eight years, we have seen a disturbing trend of the federal government unnecessarily inserting themselves more and more into the lives of hard-working Americans – and the results have been economically disastrous,” said Meadows. “When the American people spoke on Nov. 8, they provided conservatives with an opportunity to restore order in our government and to remove the out-of-control bureaucratic red tape that so often stunts the growth of otherwise successful Americans. My colleagues and I look forward to helping President-elect Trump in any way we can as we work toward the most productive ‘first 100 days’ in modern history.”