MAHA Commission Shares Strategy: Potential Impacts On Agriculture, Food And Chemical Industries

Highlights

The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission delivered highly anticipated policy recommendations to President Donald Trump on Aug. 12, 2025, and released its report to the public on Sept. 9, 2025.
The policy recommendations shy away from instituting new regulations, instead leveraging existing rules, voluntary incentives and research initiatives to advance policy solutions to reduce chronic illnesses in children.

In accordance with President Donald Trump's Feb. 13, 2025, Executive Order (EO) 14212 to create a commission to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA), the Commission released its inaugural report, "The MAHA Report: Making Our Children Healthy Again" (Report), on May 22, 2025. The EO establishing the Commission also instructed it to create a set of policy recommendations in line with the findings of the report and transmit them to the president by Aug. 12, 2025. Though the Commission met this deadline internally, the public had to wait for the official release of the Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy (Strategy) that outlines the Commission's policy responses. While a draft of the Strategy was leaked to the press closer to its internal transmission,¹ the Commission ultimately released the Strategy to the public on Sept. 9, 2025.

Overall, the Strategy builds off the findings from the May MAHA Report that identifies four potential drivers behind the rise in childhood chronic diseases. (See Holland & Knight's previous alert, "Food and Chemical Regulatory Update: The Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment," May 23, 2025.) Taking these drivers into account, the Strategy identifies potential policy opportunities to combat them to improve public health by reducing chronic illness. Though the Strategy outlines numerous executive actions, agency restructuring efforts and policy reforms, it avoids issuing new regulations and even seeks to deregulate certain food and drug practices. The Strategy groups the actions into four sections:

Advancing Critical Research to Drive Innovation. Conducts "Gold-Standard" scientific research to drive future policy decisions.
Realigning Incentives and Systems to Drive Health Outcomes Research to Drive Innovation. Outlines policy reforms, deregulatory opportunities and structural improvements that prioritize research and innovation.
Increasing Public Awareness and Knowledge. Envisions public awareness campaigns that promote health and nutrition information and ensure transparency from agencies about their operations to restore trust in public institutions.
Fostering Private Sector Collaboration. Identifies opportunities for public-private partnerships and existing voluntary incentives to drive MAHA initiatives.

Diving Deeper: Food Policy Recommendations

To improve the quality of the American diet and prevent chronic diseases, the Strategy proposes that agencies use existing programs, such as the Dietary Guidelines and federally funded nutrition programs, to deploy public information campaigns, create voluntary incentive programs and fund research to lay a foundation for future efforts. Notably, the Strategy discusses several ways to use federally funded programs as means to advance policies such as bans on food dyes and chemicals, increase consumption of whole foods and decrease the prevalence of "highly processed foods" within these programs. Specifically, the Strategy calls for several actions.

Food Dyes and Chemicals

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is instructed to continue to develop and implement an enhanced evidenced-based systematic process for the post-market assessment of chemicals in food, including food additives, color additives, generally recognized as safe (GRAS) substances, substances used in contact with food and chemicals present as unintentional contaminants.
The FDA will expedite the review and approval of color additive petitions for colors from natural sources.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will limit and prohibit petroleum-based food dyes (FD&C certified colors) in food products served through federal nutrition programs, namely the school lunch program, using federally funded opportunities as a mechanism to advance policy.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and FDA will continue working with industry partners in support of the phase-out and abandonment of FD&C certified colors and other potential food additives of concern and will highlight success stories of the private sector.
The HHS and FDA will work with government partners and industry to find ways to lower added sugar and sodium in packaged foods.

Dietary Guidelines (DGAs)

The Strategy affirms that the USDA and HHS will release the 2025–2030 DGAs, which will align with science, data and healthy recommendations, and reform future DGA processes, including membership and scientific review.
The Strategy advocates for a public information campaign to increase awareness about the DGAs and expand upon the guidelines to "prioritize whole foods including protein foods, fruits, and vegetables, minimize highly processed foods and added sugar, and brings awareness to strategies to improve health."

Labeling

The FDA will explore ways to provide greater flexibility in connection with the use of "no artificial color" and other labeling claims as they relate to artificial colors derived from natural sources.
The FDA will consider revisions to its proposed Front-of-Pack Nutrition Information rulemaking based on input received during the comment period and forthcoming DGAs, once released.

Highly and Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs)

The Strategy makes several references to both "highly processed" and "ultra-processed" foods throughout the report and stresses a need to minimize consumption of these foods. At this time, there is not a government-wide definition for UPFs, making it a high priority for the USDA, HHS and FDA to finalize a definition in order to support future policies.
- The agencies have released a joint Request for Information (RFI) soliciting input on this definition, which is open through Sept. 23, 2025. It is unclear how long it will take for the agencies to review the feedback they receive, propose a definition and finalize it.

GRAS Reform

The FDA will update regulations to reform the GRAS designation, within the scope of statutory authority, to ensure that all new food additives meet applicable safety standards with increased transparency.
The report also mentions closing the "GRAS loophole" by implementing a mandatory GRAS notification program that increases transparency for consumers.

Marketing and Food Education

The HHS and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), along with other relevant agencies, will explore the development of potential industry guidelines to limit the direct marketing of certain unhealthy foods to children, including by evaluating the use of misleading claims and imagery.
In terms of proactive education about food, the Strategy outlines several public information campaigns to promote the benefits of whole, healthy foods, along with publicizing the DGAs.

Emphasis on Whole Foods

The Strategy emphasizes the importance of consuming whole foods and seeks to improve public awareness of their benefits, along with increasing access to whole foods through federally funded programs.
- This includes reviewing existing guidance on food service in hospitals, facilities operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and school lunches and potentially updating their guidelines to increase healthy food availability.
- The Strategy also calls for developing options to get whole, healthy food to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants through food box distribution, as well as through supplemental funding opportunities to provide whole, healthy foods to childhood nutrition programs.

Deregulating the Food Industry

The Strategy seeks to reform outdated and unnecessary food standards that stifle innovation and no longer protect consumer interests.
It also calls for removing or amending regulations with outdated submission requirements (e.g., paper records) that present obstacles for submission and switching to use of modern analytical techniques.
The Strategy also withdraws outdated or obsolete guidance documents to reduce regulatory burden, eliminate potential confusion and better reflect modern practices.
It also explores opportunities to introduce flexibility in manufacturing requirements while maintaining high standards to protect public health.

Diving Deeper: Agriculture Policy Recommendations

Supporters of the MAHA movement have made their opposition of pesticide use and desire for regulation clear through their responses to a recent U.S. House of Representatives proposal to limit regulation of pesticides and shield liability for pesticide distributors. The Strategy tries to balance the views of the MAHA coalition against other constituencies such as farmers who rely on a variety of pest management strategies and fertilizers, including chemical solutions, for their operations. In reconciling these views, the Strategy relies on existing, voluntary measures that promote nonchemical pest management, soil health strategies and precision agriculture to reduce the prevalence of pesticide use, along with new research and public trust-building initiatives, rather than creating new regulations that crack down on pesticide use.

Pest Management and Pesticide Policy

The Strategy directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reform the approval process for chemical and biologic products in order to bring new pest management solutions to the market.
It also directs the USDA and EPA to partner with the private sector to continue increasing investment in precision agriculture technologies that support crop productivity and reduce the total amount of pesticides needed.

Soil Health

The Strategy outlines several initiatives to promote soil health and land stewardship in agricultural practices without imposing mandates on farmers. Instead, the Strategy encourages increasing incentives for farmers to participate in preexisting programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP).

Diving Deeper: Environmental Policy Recommendations

The Strategy emphasizes collaboration between agencies to leverage and streamline existing programs to study factors that impact children's health. Out of these factors, the Strategy places a great emphasis on studying the impacts from exposure to chemicals through drinking water, along with exploring the appropriate policy remedies. At the same time, however, the Strategy advocates for targeted deregulatory efforts for industrial wastewater discharges in order to alleviate pressures on the agriculture industry.

Water Quality

The Strategy directs the EPA, USDA and other relevant agencies to assess ongoing evaluations of known water contaminants and their associated guidelines, along with researching potential pharmaceutical contaminants.
It also places an emphasis on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and EPA to research the impacts of fluoridated water and update recommendations in conjunction with new data and scientific findings.
The Strategy also encourages the CDC, NIH and EPA to research the effects of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure through drinking water and update recommendations accordingly.

Industrial Wastewater

The Strategy builds off recent EPA actions² to reduce costs imposed on low-volume meat and poultry processors by considering increased exemptions from water discharge and waste permitting requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
It also proposes to explicitly define post-harvest rise and wash water as nonhazardous under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to alleviate produce handling operations from wastewater treatment costs or fines.

Microplastics

The Strategy directs the HHS, in collaboration with the NIH and EPA, to complete an evaluation of the risks associated with exposure to microplastics and synthetics, including via textiles.

EPA Research and MAHA Advisory Committee

The Strategy redirects the EPA's existing Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) to focus on advancing research in line with the MAHA agenda.
It also uses existing EPA regulations that mandate data reporting to compile data on how environmental factors can impact children's health and communicate findings through the existing America's Children and the Environment tool.

What's Next for MAHA

Holland & Knight's FDA, Agriculture and Food and Chemicals Regulatory Teams are tracking the Commission's activity closely, as well as the intersecting issues occurring across these industries before state governments and the FDA, USDA and EPA. The teams provide clients strategic policy and legal counseling, including evaluating policy, legislative, administrative, operational and transactional solutions. Please reach out to the authors if you have any questions.

Footnotes

1 The New York Times obtained a draft of the Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy (Strategy), and Politico went a step further and leaked the draft Strategy, dated Aug. 11, 2025, allowing deeper analysis into the report.

2 On Sept. 2, 2025, the EPA finalized an action revising and effectively eliminating Biden-era Effluent Limitation Guidelines requiring meat and poultry processors to pay a fee for wastewater discharged from their operations.

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