Could Sen. Cory Booker join with RFK Jr. to get carcinogens out of food?

Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could have an unlikely ally on Capitol Hill – Democratic Senator Cory Booker. They both say diets and ingredients approved by the FDA are poison and they both agree that the food subsidy system in the US needs to be overhauled. 

According to Booker, 93% of food subsidies in the US go to junk food, while only 7% go to health foods recommended by nutritionists. 

Sen. Cory Booker D-N.J.: “So I’m ready for a food fight, and I’m going to look to the Trump administration and say, ‘Put up or shut up’.”

Diet related diseases are the leading cause of death in America. They can include – heart disease, cancer and diabetes – all three of which are on the CDC’s top ten list for underlying causes of death. 

Kennedy and Booker are warning Americans about the ingredients in food and pushing for changes at the federal level. 

RFK Jr.: “I’ve been picking on tartrazine today but that’s just one of at least a hundred chemical poisons that our health agencies allow in our children’s food.” 

Sen. Cory Booker D-N.J.: “Big, consolidated multinational corporations dictate our food policy and continue to poison us with chemicals that shouldn’t be in our foods or shouldn’t be on our crops that we ingest.”

While Booker hopes to work with Kennedy, he did not say he’s prepared to vote to confirm him as HHS secretary and is skeptical of his views on vaccines. Kennedy says he is not anti-vaccine. 

RFK Jr. NBC News: “I’m not gonna take away anybody’s vaccine. I’ve never been anti-vaccine.” 

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.: “I have real concerns about anybody who is going to put information out there that’s going to undermine the safety of our kids. So I have real concerns about that. I’m going to evaluate every one of their nominees on the merits, but with this as an opportunity for me to hopefully get momentum, because this is a movement. And parents all around the country have come to understand why there are chemicals that are being put into our foods that we’re serving our kids that are banned in other countries. Why are we spraying things on crops that we know are known carcinogens, that are hormone disruptors?”

As HHS Secretary, Kennedy would oversee the FDA which could rescind its approval for ingredients that are proven to be carcinogens or hormone disruptors. As a member of Congress, Booker could promote legislation, including the recurring Farm bill, to redirect subsidies to healthier foods.