Charlotte — U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged Americans Tuesday to eat less processed food and more fresh staples such as meat, fruit, vegetables and whole grains.
Kennedy visited a mid-Michigan apple orchard, speaking at an event hosted by the America First Policy Institute’s Healthy America initiative. Other panelists included Michigan Farm Bureau representatives and U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett, a Charlotte Republican who is seeking re-election in the swing Lansing-based 7th Congressional District.
Kennedy touted Trump administration policies that require more fresh foods to be offered through food subsidy programs such as SNAP, WIC and school lunches in an effort to tackle obesity and chronic disease.
“This is going to change the dietary culture in our country and it’s going to dramatically change the course of American health,” Kennedy said at the Country Mill apple orchard in Charlotte.
Barrett, who helped facilitate Tuesday’s event, said the conversation was needed to tackle growing obesity and chronic disease issues in the U.S.
“We know that the least expensive medicine that we have is the food that we put into our body,” Barrett said.
Kennedy’s meeting Tuesday with Barrett marked the second of three Michigan visits with White House cabinet members in two days. On Monday, Barrett met with U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright in Lansing and, later Tuesday, the congressman was expected to meet with U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner in Lansing.
Barrett’s bid for re-election in the Lansing-based 7th Congressional District is expected to be tight. And, as of June 6, he was the only Republican in a battleground House district to have received an endorsement from groups associated with Kennedy that support the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again,” or MAHA, agenda, Politico reported.
He first won the district in 2024 by 3.7 percentage points against former state Sen. Curtis Hertel, an East Lansing Democrat who now serves as the Michigan Democratic Party chairman. In November, he’ll face one of three Democratic candidates: former Ambassador Bridget Brink, community organizer William Lawrence and former U.S. Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam.
Tuesday’s panel was interrupted briefly by Ashley Meyers, a DeWitt nurse who unveiled a red robe at the start of the discussion, and shouted questions about affordable healthcare toward the end of the panel.
“What about affordable health care?” Meyers shouted. She was escorted from the barn where the panel took place, at which point a second audience member also noted that her health care costs had increased.
Barrett noted there needs to be better regulations on companies regarding how much in federal funding is going to patients and how much is getting skimmed off for bureaucratic administrative costs.
Ahead of Tuesday’s panel, Meyers said she was interested in speaking with Barrett and Kenendy about universal healthcare and the effect that cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill to Medicaid and Medicare have had on people’s access to healthcare. Meyers acknowledged those weren’t necessarily Republican talking points but felt there should be a collaborative discussion on better access – a discussion she said hadn’t been entertained by Barrett’s team or the GOP at large.
“If they want to save money and actually make people healthy, they’ll listen to the experts and evidence that tells us exactly what we need to do,” Meyers told The Detroit News. “It’s just an investment and we didn’t even get a part of the way through that investment before they attacked it and ripped it apart.”
Kennedy spoke at length during the panel about the importance of Americans eating whole foods as well as learning again to cook their own food and eat with family. He even spoke, at one point, about a meat and fermented foods diet he adopted for a period and convinced several people in Trump’s cabinet, including Vice President JD Vance, to follow.
“It’s probably the best-shaped cabinet that has ever been,” said the nephew of slain President John F. Kennedy.
Hannah Anderson, senior director for America First Policy Institute’s Healthy America, praised the work of the Trump administration in targeting better food options for children.
“I love that the department started with the most vulnerable,” Anderson said. “We’re starting with kids in school, starting with kids in head start, we’re starting with kids on formula, and really find ways to pursue the dietary guidelines for the most vulnerable so that we finally have generations who are going back to normal, which is outliving the generation before them.”
Ben LaCross, president of the Michigan Farm Bureau and a participant on Tuesday’s panel, said the Trump administration has “elevated” the conversation around agriculture.
“I think it’s been a great shift in the conversation about where our foods come from and eating whole foods for healthy Americans,” he said.
The meeting with Kennedy was held at Country Mill Farm, an apple orchard and wedding venue in Charlotte that came into the public eye almost a decade ago when the city of East Lansing excluded it from its farmers market because Country Mill refused a gay couple seeking to hold their wedding there.
Country Mill won a lawsuit in 2021 against the city on free speech and freedom of religion grounds, a case that carried about $825,000 in damages and attorney fees for the city of East Lansing.
Donna Brandenburg, a former Republican candidate for governor and current chairwoman of the U.S. Taxpayers Party in Michigan, said she attended Tuesday’s panel because she is concerned about the effect corporate consolidation has had on the health care industry.
“The whole MAHA agenda is about addressing problems that real people have that are affecting them daily, having to do with health and how to increase the quality of their lives,” Brandenburg said.
eleblanc@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: RFK Jr. pans processed food during visit to a mid-Michigan apple orchard
Reporting by Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
