Is it already Victory?
For those of us who have long lost hope for any positive actions from the government, we should seize this moment to CELEBRATE victory, nonetheless. This is evidenced by the new dietary guidelines published last week, which are truly groundbreaking and represent a huge step towards genuine, normal, and above all, healthy dietary recommendations.
As we know, dietary guidelines form the basis of school lunches, meals served in institutions, military canteens, and kitchens providing public food assistance. I think most of us still underestimate how significant an impact these guidelines have on the perception and practices of institutional culinary communities.
For the first time – do you understand this? – for the first time, the guidelines address processed foods, the addition of sugar to foods, and pre-packaged meals ready for immediate consumption that contain so-called highly processed foods. Instead of Cheerios or Fruit Loops at the base of the food pyramid, you will find – you won’t believe it! – animal protein, eggs, and whole-fat dairy products (not skim milk). For the first time, our government recognizes the difference between various food products.
Livestock farmers and the animal protein industry are celebrating. Ritz crackers – not necessarily. In supermarkets and big-box stores, there may be a closure of the cereal aisle, or at least a tossing of them into a storage area behind the back door of the grocery store. A similar reshuffling may occur in the current aisles with soft drinks, potato chips, and Triscuit crackers.
For the first time in our country's history, the government has acknowledged that the calories in Lucky Charms cereal are not the same as the calories in a boiled egg. This is an important step towards the truth about nutrition, and I believe that it should not only be acknowledged but also valued as a victory.
If we want to find some faults in this gesture, we can certainly complain that the mentioned guidelines do not take into account plants grown in good soil and animals raised in healthy environments. The Bionutrient Food Association discovered that to obtain the same nutritional value as one carrot from the best cultivation, one would need to eat about 80 carrots of the worst quality. That’s still quite a significant difference.
When it comes to animal protein, grass-fed beef contains 300 percent more riboflavin than corn-fed beef. Yes, we still have things to nitpick and find faults in the fact that the guidelines do not account for all significant differences... Yet! However, let us be understanding and appreciate this step. I think what has happened is a big deal, and I am grateful to MAHA.1 for such a positive influence on the scientific elite of our country.
Next week, I will be speaking to about 1,800 farmers who grow traditional corn and soy at a large conference in Des Moines, Iowa. I will try to instill fear and even horror in those involved in corn and soybean farming about the new dietary guidelines. And rightly so! I will be promoting the transformation of those native prairie lands that once created the soil farmers happily worked on into habitats for multi-crop farming serving – as it used to be – cattle raising. At a time when our country is flooded with corn and soybean crops, we need grass-fed beef. Just like we need the healthy soil that has been present there for centuries.
Positive actions from the federal government are still rare. So let’s appreciate what is good, what deserves recognition. Let’s also imagine all the lobbying and resistance from the industrial base on K Street.2, which people like RFK Jr., Dr. Oz, Marty Mackey, Brooke Rollins, and other inspiring bureaucrats have to deal with to come up with current and healthy dietary recommendations.
An important question in this context is, of course, how to implement these recommendations. How to change this colossus made up of thousands of dietitians and chefs accustomed to cheap, highly processed carbohydrates? The network of buddies and cronies, receiving kickbacks from the industry for buying their junk food, exerts unimaginable influence on this edifice. Will school quartermasters and institutional suppliers be able to forgo free Caribbean cruises from Duncan Hines and start ordering regenerative beef for cafeterias and dining halls? After all, the devil is in the details, right? So I am happy, but cautiously. Do you think that is fair on my part?
Joel Salatin
Virginia, January 9, 2026
1Popularized by the current Minister of Health and Social Care, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the movement references the campaign slogan of President D. J. Trump, Make American Health (Great) Again.
2K Street is the name of a street in the U.S. capital, Washington, D.C., where the headquarters and offices of the largest lobbying agencies, advertising firms, and other interest groups that shape the development of industries and sectors in the country are located.