Donald Trump roused plenty of controversy with his nomination of Matt Gaetz as attorney general, but it’s his selection of Robert Kennedy Jr. as the nation’s next food and health czar that should worry the restaurant business, according to the industry-centric election analysis that makes up this week’s Working Lunch podcast.
Although Kennedy may be best known as a vaccine doubter, he’s also ripped the food business for flooding the U.S. market with highly processed options. If he should act on those convictions, as the evidence suggests he will, the eccentric with the famous name “will likely cause shock waves up and down the supply chain,” observed Working Lunch co-host Joe Kefauver. As a principal of the political consulting firm Align Public Strategies, he’s seen how disruptive a scrambling of that sort can be.
No doubt about it, there could be some significant impact, agreed podcast co-host and Align partner Franklin Coley. For one thing, any curbs on Kennedy’s activism could be light. He’ll have support from both the hemp-underwear set on the left and the pro-agriculture traditionalists on the right in his quest to wean America off factory food, according to Coley.
At the very least, said the veteran lobbyist, Kennedy would be in a position of prominence where he could focus the interests and efforts of Americans who oppose the widespread use of artificial ingredients and chemical fertilizers. “Using the bully pulpit will throw gasoline on this issue,” Coley predicted.
Listen to the episode for a fuller download on what Trump’s nominees, Kennedy included, could mean for restaurants.
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