President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration, Martin Makary, is a Johns Hopkins surgeon who has linked pesticides to cancer. While he hasn't attracted as much attention as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., members of Congress and members of the Make America Healthy Again movement say Makary and RFK Jr. are fully in line.
But consumer groups say they believe Makary will take a more measured and scientific approach to food issues in comparison to Kennedy, and that there are opportunities for collaboration on shared public health goals.
In addition, any efforts by Makary to address things like food additives could be hindered by efforts to cut the federal workforce and resources.
Makary's confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which last month narrowly approved Kennedy's nomination to be secretary of health and human services.
In public appearances, Makary has linked pesticides to cancer and called the U.S. food supply “poisoned.” Specifically, he’s criticized ultraprocessed foods and chemicals in the food system.
Ahead of Trump’s election, Makary was part of a September roundtable hosted by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., that featured Kennedy and other Make America Healthy Again allies.
“We have poisoned our food supply, engineered highly addictive chemicals that we put into our food. We spray it with pesticides that kill pests. What do you think they do to our gut lining in our microbiome?” Makary said at the time. He answered his own question, saying they contribute to the increase in chronic diseases.
He has also attributed certain types of cancer, including gastrointestinal cancers and colon cancer, to pesticides and ultraprocessed foods.
Makary is a “pillar” of the MAHA movement, said Vani Hari, an author and activist on food issues. She also authors the blog “The Food Babe” and has been critical of food chemicals and the broader food industry. After the Senate roundtable, Hari said Makary demonstrated an understanding of “how desperately broken our food system has become.”
“I am confident with his leadership, we will finally be able to address the issues I have been working on for over a decade,” Hari said in an email. “The FDA needs to urgently fix the GRAS loophole that allows industry to introduce new chemicals into our food system without third-party oversight and review.” GRAS stands for Generally Recognized as Safe.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who has become an outspoken supporter of Kennedy and the MAHA movement, said Makary is going to be a “disrupter” and improve the FDA overall.
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“I think he does fit with Secretary Kennedy’s agenda as well,” Marshall said. “He’ll put the F in food back in the FDA and look at a lot of these food additives.”
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan.Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, said based on Makary’s books and public remarks, it appears he could be a collaborator on efforts to reduce the level of food additives, chemicals and dyes. Additionally, Makary appears to share concerns about the GRAS process used by food manufacturers to introduce new ingredients.
Ronholm sad the key difference between Makary and Kennedy could be their approaches to nutrition and food issues. Ronholm thinks Makary would take a more “measured, science-based perspective.”
Ronholm noted that the new acting deputy commissioner of FDA’s Human Foods Program, Kyle Diamantas, also appears to subscribe to MAHA ideas.
Thomas Gremillion, director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America, said Makary has “excellent credentials” and has raised serious concerns about things like ultraprocessed foods and industry-funded nutrition science.
“He’s quite a contrarian,” Gremillion said. “He also seems to be grounded in the science for the most part.”
There are specific areas that Gremillion could see Makary taking action, based on his public stances, that wouldn’t require a major regulatory push. These include changing the term "natural flavor" to “added flavor.”
Gremillion pointed to Makary’s comments on artificial sweeteners and additives having negative effects on people as a sign he could be interested in taking up this effort.
However, in the quest to meaningfully address these issues or even maintain necessary oversight for food safety, Ronholm and Gremillion said Makary will need adequate staffing and resources.
In recent weeks, federal agencies have seen cuts to primarily probationary workers. Nearly 90 employees from the human foods portion of FDA were cut last month. While there are reports that some of these staffers were rehired, it’s unclear which roles were reinstated. The Trump administration has retracted previous guidance on firing probationary employees, which could provide an avenue for rehiring.
Additionally, agencies face even steeper cuts ahead. The Trump administration sent a letter to heads of departments and agencies with guidance on how to execute a more large-scale reduction in force and reorganization.
“That should be kind of priority No. 1 in trying to resist the substantial cuts that the Trump administration is proposing for the department,” Ronholm said.
Brian Ronholm, Consumer ReportsGremillion said addressing ultraprocessed foods, for example, will require major regulatory actions based on solid evidence to stand up against potential industry lawsuits.
“Formulating those protections and figuring out what are the food additives that pose the biggest concerns and the biggest harms to health, establishing a record to defend whatever action you take against those additives,” Gremillion said. “That’s going to require a lot of manpower and expertise.”
Gremillion said staffing at FDA has remained generally flat because the agency has struggled to entice and keep highly specialized experts from taking higher paying jobs in the private sector. The efforts by DOGE to downsize the workforce, and the messaging to federal workers will make it even more difficult to maintain the necessary staffing, he said.
“If you're gonna call the food supply poison … I don't know how you come back to that with the answer is firing all of the food regulators,” Gremillion said.
One area consumer groups say Makary and Kennedy have been relatively quiet about is food safety. FDA oversees about 80% of the food supply, including domestic and imported seafood, fruits, vegetables, grains and more.
“I think what they’ll discover is food safety is a really important part of overall nutrition goals,” Ronholm said. “You can’t have a healthy diet if things like produce safety, leafy greens are considered unsafe or consumers don’t have confidence.”
The first test on how Makary will handle food safety specifically will likely come with his handling of the traceability rule. This regulation, FSMA 204, requires enhanced farm-to-table recordkeeping to help FDA identify and remove contaminated foods. The rule was finalized in 2023 but the supply chain has until Jan. 20, 2026, to comply.
Similar to Kennedy and others in the MAHA movement, Makary has criticized reliance on industry-funded nutrition studies. This is something CFA is also concerned by, but Gremillion said it will be difficult to address this while DOGE also pursues cuts at the National Institutes of Health.
As for Makary's concerns about pesticides, FDA does have some control over the chemicals through pesticide residue monitoring, but this is more of an inter-agency effort in collaboration with USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency.
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