Jim Jones, director of the FDA's food division, resigned amid widespread layoffs that he argued would hinder critical efforts to enhance the nation’s food safety. His resignation letter highlighted that 89 employees, including those hired for chemical safety roles, were fired despite the push to improve public health through better nutrition. Jones criticized the Trump administration, claiming a lack of support for essential work and pointedly rejected Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s disparaging remarks about the FDA's food staff, labeling them corrupt.
Mr. Jones estimated that 89 people of the 2,000 in his division were fired over the weekend, many of them freshly hired to do more in-depth work on chemical safety to protect the nation's food supply.
I was looking forward to working to pursue the department's agenda of improving the health of Americans by reducing diet-related chronic disease and risks from chemicals in food.
The secretary's comments impugning the integrity of the food staff, asserting they are corrupt based on falsities, is a disservice to everyone, Mr. Jones wrote in the letter.
But the Trump administration's disdain for the very people who would do that work gave him no choice but to depart.
Collection
[
|
...
]