He may be infamous for his conspiratorial views on vaccines.
But to millions of moms across America, Robert F Kennedy, Jr is the front man and advocate they’ve been waiting for.
The newly-confirmed head of the Department of Health and Human Services has promised to strip harmful chemicals from America’s food supply as one of his top priorities to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA).
He is also a critic of the pharmaceutical industry for what he says is a deliberate push to get as many people, especially children, on as many medications as possible.
To mothers like Vani Hari, a food activist and blogger who is worried about the rising rates of chronic diseases like asthma, allergies and obesity in children, this resonates.
When Ms Hari decided to leave her high-paying consulting job in the finance world to work on her food activist blog, Food Babe full time, she didn’t know the extent to which American food companies have subjected people to unhealthy and even harmful ingredients for decades.
With the backing of RFK Jr, she led a successful campaign against Kraft, exposing the artificial dyes in its US macaroni and cheese, pushing the company to reformulate after consumer backlash.
Beyond Kraft, Ms Hari has pressured major brands like Subway, Panera, and General Mills to remove harmful additives.
While recovering from an appendectomy, Vani Hari had a realization: food could be medicine. At 22, she had struggled with asthma, depression, excess weight, allergies, and eczema. She told DailyMail.com that this moment marked her rock bottom—and a turning point for change
Hari RFK Jr in DC last month
In her activism, she has found that many moms just like her are desperate for cleaner ingredients and lifestyles for their kids.
The North Carolinian told DailyMail.com: ‘RFK Jr has been such an amazing leader, carrying the voice of me and so many Americans that have been set up with our food system.’
His popular rhetoric on food and general physical health is why so many may be willing to look the other way when it comes to his more controversial views, especially on childhood vaccines and autism, a link that has been disproven.
RFK Jr carried Ms Hari’s rallying cry to eliminate artificial food dyes onto the campaign trail, witnessing her deliver 400,000 signatures to Kellogg’s headquarters, where she was met by 1,000 supporters.
It became the largest event ever organized against the food industry and the most extensive petition ever collected, urging Kellogg’s to remove artificial food dyes.
She said Mr Kennedy saw what happened that day, when Kellogg’s executives displayed a large ‘Get off our lawn’ sign and sent their security guards to confront the crowd.
‘They didn’t have the decency to accept the petitions and ignored us,’ she said. RFK Jr took their concerns with him on the campaign trail.
‘When he was asked, what are some of the things you’re going to do when you’re put in a position of power under President Trump, he said, I’m going to get the cereal companies to remove artificial dyes.’
As HHS boss, RFK Jr has sweeping authority to pressure food companies to be more transparent about what goes into their products, set nutrition guidelines for schools, and advance measures to ban certain ingredients.
Ms Hari’s activism and advocacy for consumer safety has fallen in line with that of RFK, Jr, who has often challenged regulatory agencies and corporate influence in the food industry. One of his campaign promises was to eliminate ‘toxic’ food additives
Through her activism, Ms Hari has found that many moms just like her are desperate for cleaner ingredients and lifestyles for their kids.
Months before RFK Jr’s soon-to-be boss Donald Trump won 46 percent of female voters’ support, the HHS pick was running for president himself.
What was left of his support in August included a group that largely identified as independent (74 percent). Among that cohort a larger share leaned Republican.
Among his biggest fans were conservative Christian moms who, if it came down to RFK Jr joining the Harris campaign or Trump’s, would still go for Mr Trump.
After suspending his bid for president, Mr Kennedy reached out to Vice President Kamala Harris’ team to discuss the possibility of serving in her administration.
He sought a meeting to propose dropping out of the race and endorsing her in exchange for a cabinet position, though the Harris campaign declined.
Subsequently, Mr Kennedy endorsed Mr Trump, appearing with him at a rally just days after dropping his bid for office.
In early November 2024, Mr Trump announced he would nominate RFK Jr to head HHS, a notable pick given Mr Kennedy’s past criticism of Mr Trump, calling his supporters ‘outright Nazis’ and him a ‘bully’ and a ‘threat to democracy.’
Not long after President Trump announced his pick, moms sung its praises on TikTok, saying: ‘No more chemicals in our food just for profit! Go get em Bobby!!’
Ms Hari, pictured with her family, primarily shops the perimeter of the grocery store, steering clear of the central aisles filled with ultraprocessed foods like cereals, breakfast bars, cookies, and bread
Ms Hari has become a mouthpiece for concerned moms nationwide and has endorsed Mr Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again initiative. Though she did not reveal her political affiliation, she is pictured here at a conference for conservative policy thinktank Turning Point USA
Another said: ‘RFK is the biggest win for our children and their Health. Thanking God for answered prayers!’
Karlie Reinsma, a 35-year-old nurse and mother of a toddler, told The Free Press that RFK’s appointment gives her ‘hope’ about his objectives to take on the food and pharmaceutical industries and perceived corruption at the FDA, which ‘are all in bed together.’
Ms Hari, whose children are four and eight, echoed the sentiments of many more moms online who have become increasingly aware, thanks in part to her blog, of what is seen as an insidious push of ultraprocessed foods on Americans.
She said: ‘And in his videos and in his campaign promises, he took on my agenda that I have been working on for so long, for over a decade, and that’s what we need from our leadership in Washington, and that’s why I support him.’
Her activism and advocacy for consumer safety has fallen in line with that of RFK, Jr, who has often challenged regulatory agencies and corporate influence in the food industry. One of his campaign promises was to eliminate ‘toxic’ food additives.
The FDA’s Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) designation, formalized in the 1990s, established a self-reporting system that allows companies to determine ingredient safety based on the conclusions of a scientific panel.
Mr Kennedy has advocated to revisiting the FDA’s GRAS standard, saying it ‘looks at any new chemical [as] innocent until proven guilty.’
He told the Senate: We have 10,000 ingredients in our food in this country because FDA employs a standard called the GRAS standard… In Europe, they have 400 ingredients in their food.
In January 2015, Vani Hari petitioned Kellogg’s and General Mills to remove BHT, a synthetic preservative linked to cancer and endocrine disruption, from US cereals
![Mr Kennedy has advocated to revisiting the FDA's GRAS standard, saying it 'looks at any new chemical [as] innocent until proven guilty'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/02/13/15/95133973-14386845-Mr_Kennedy_has_advocated_to_revisiting_the_FDA_s_GRAS_standard_s-a-5_1739462183443.jpg)
Mr Kennedy has advocated to revisiting the FDA’s GRAS standard, saying it ‘looks at any new chemical [as] innocent until proven guilty’
‘We are allowing these companies – because of their influence over this body – over our regulatory agencies to mass poison American children… I believe I’m the one person who is able to end it.’
Over the past two decades, hundreds of food additives have been introduced into the food supply with minimal regulatory oversight.
Unlike European regulators, who proactively review ingredient lists and formulations before products reach store shelves, US regulators tend to take a more reactive approach.
Ms Hari said: ‘I found this situation extremely unethical, un-American, and hypocritical of the American food companies; how they could get away with selling a safer version to other countries and not their own citizens, why they wouldn’t come up with one safe version and sell it to all of their customers and instead, serve us the more poisonous one.’
‘When I was able to be with him in Washington on September 23 and give my testimony on how American companies are poisoning us with ingredients they don’t use in other countries and why it is it that activists like me and in other grassroots citizens have to hold these companies accountable… He nodded his head.’
Ms Hari could not discuss her role in politics further but expects Mr Kennedy will be able to do what past department heads have fumbled – holding the food industry accountable.
