Scared of E. Coli? Donald Trump Should Terrify You.

Last weekend, ex-president Donald Trump visited McDonald’s election campaign. A few days later, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a food safety alert about the deadly E. coli connected to a fast food chain. So far, the outbreak has sickened at least 75 people in 13 states, sending 22 to the hospital and killing one. The outbreak is part of a wider wave of food safety recalls get up recently, influence everything from waffles to meat.

These recent tragedies are just the tip of the iceberg. CDC assessments that each year approximately one in six Americans (or 48 million people) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne illness. Almost everyone reading this has been sick, or knows someone who has been, from contaminated food.

When it comes to food safety, deregulation is a terrible and deadly idea. This is a huge problem that will take time and money to solve. But one thing is certain: a second Trump presidency will make this problem much worse. During his presidency, Donald Trump worked on to deregulate our food safety laws and he has promised continue to do so by repealing the rules if he is re-elected.

Former President Trump has a solid track record on this issue, and it’s not a good one. His administration has dramatically cut funding for food safety, offering deep cuts to the Food and Drug Administration, including a proposal to cut $83 million specifically for food safety. For all of Trump’s hype about China, he actually made a dangerous trade deal that allowed China to do this import chicken to the US without being labeled as such for American consumers, despite long-standing concerns about poultry farming and slaughter in China. Finally, after heavy lobbying, the Trump administration allowed the pig slaughterhouses speed up processingwhich said the experts of the time may increase the likelihood of disease outbreaks. This is not surprising independent analysis found that food safety oversight has plummeted under the Trump administration.

It has been widely reported that if he is elected, the Trump team plans to use Project 2025 (a broad policy document produced by the Heritage Foundation) as a blueprint, and Project 2025 calls for an even bigger rollback on food safety. He calls for cuts to the USDA, elimination of federal guarantees for meat sales from state-inspected facilities outside the states, and more. The recent E. coli outbreak is just one example of the damage this policy will cause. Government inspectors do not have the ability to recall spoiled food sold elsewhere, resulting in harmful and costly recall delays. Chefs, food industry professionals and Americans across the country agree that we don’t need to weaken the rules, capabilities or enforcement of common sense food safety regulations.

Many of us remember how Trump’s focus on deregulation backfired during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he included a meatpacking CEO on the Economic Advisory Board and reopened a slaughterhouse that had been closed due to the outbreak. In 2021, a House subcommittee looking into the coronavirus pandemic found that plants owned by five major meatpacking plants had resulted in at least 59,000 cases of Covid-19 and 269 deaths. Trump’s mismanagement of the pandemic has been in many ways a failure of leadership, and the consequences have taken a toll on states across the country that depend on responsible regulations and food safety for their industry, as well as for the health and confidence of consumers.

In contrast, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, then-Senator Kamala Harris introduced the Closing the Food Gap Act of 2020 and the bipartisan FEMA Emergency Relief Act. The first bill expanded benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to Americans who are in need during the pandemic. The second allowed the federal government to partner with small and medium-sized restaurants and nonprofits to provide nutritious meals to vulnerable people. But her efforts did not end there.

Vice President Kamala Harris and President Biden have committed $1 billion in their U.S. rescue plan to expand independent processing capacity, including more than $100 million to increase local capacity and increase competition in the sector. They did historical investments training of workers for meat and poultry processing, invested in loan programs that help small poultry and meat processors start and expand their operations, and fought for promotion to FDA programs that protect and promote safe food in the U.S. while making food prices fairer for farmers and consumers.

We can’t afford to make deadly outbreaks the new normal – we need to be sure when we’re shopping for essentials, feeding our children or eating out. That struggle is still ongoing, and it calls for an effective and compassionate president. We need to move forward, not backward, in food safety, but also in the leadership of our country. I pride myself on being a great connoisseur of food and character as a manager of many restaurants and businesses. Kamala Harris is a great leader who will put our safety first and lead with compassion. I am confident that as President she will protect the future of agriculture and the food industry without sacrificing the safety of other Americans.