• 🍦 More Ben & Jerry’s v. Unilever 
• 📣 Basemakers Pivots On Brokerage
• 🥩 Georgia's Alt-Meat Labeling Proposal
• 🐄 Mars Puts $27M To Cut Dairy Carbon
• 🔍 How Emily Griffith Transformed An Overlooked Superfood Into A Beloved Brand

Jim Jones abandoned his post at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday, just 18 months since he took the helm as Deputy Commissioner of the agency’s Human Food program. 

Why the departure? Jones pointed to “indiscriminate” layoffs at the hands of the Trump Administration over the weekend, per a document viewed and cited by Bloomberg. The agency reportedly saw 89 employees within the Human Foods division impacted, including nutrition, infant formula and food safety experts. 

• Ten staffers who review potentially unsafe food ingredients were among the 89 individuals cut, according to Bloomberg. 

Jones said that many of the terminated individuals are essential to pursuing the agency's current priority: reducing diet-related chronic disease and the risk of chemicals in food to improve Americans’ health. Without them, he believes continuing in his role would be “fruitless,” the report states.  

The shakeup comes less than a week after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services, a cabinet position with oversight over the FDA, Center for Disease Control (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

• Upwards of 1,200 employees at the NIH and about 750 CDC employees also received termination notices over the weekend. 

During his tenure Jones helped push through numerous actions including banning Red Dye No. 3 and finalizing the agency’s definition of “healthy” for food packaging use. The former EPA employee brought an expert eye to the agency’s chemical food safety initiatives. 

Quick note: reducing the use of chemicals within the food system is a top priority of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda. 

Jones was the first appointed individual charged with monitoring the agency’s work in food. But remember, his appointment followed the infant formula crisis in 2022, which later led to a comprehensive agency review and directives to reorganize and retool department staffing, as well as enact a program focused specifically on Human Food in an effort to enable the FDA to operate efficiently and effectively. 

Kennedy himself pledged to purge the FDA to rid it of collusion with Big Pharma and Big Food, while pointing directly to departments like nutrition as the first to go. Trump has nominated Marty Marky as FDA Commissioner, but he has not yet been confirmed.  

As the FDA enters an era of DOGE and MAHA crossover, there’s definitely an ample supply of uncertainty in the air. 

Catch Up: What’s Next After RFK Jr. Takes The Helm on Health?

Tensions between Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever are getting intense-r. On Thursday, the mission-driven ice cream maker said its parent company breached its merger agreement by “prohibiting [B&J] from issuing any posts criticizing President Trump until further review.” 

📝 The accusation came in a letter from Ben & Jerry’s to a New York federal court requesting a conference on Unilever’s proposed motion to dismiss its lawsuit, reported Law360. 

⏪ ICYMI: In November, Ben & Jerry’s filed a breach-of-contract suit alleging Unilever repeatedly blocked its attempts to take a public stance on the war in Gaza. 

👀 In the February 13 letter, Ben & Jerry’s fought against Unilever’s argument that its social mission board can’t initiate litigation on behalf of the brand, stating if that were the case, it would “render Ben & Jerry’s ‘custodians’ mere bystanders.” 

Catch Up: Ben & Jerry’s Sues Unilever

CPG retail strategy firm Basemakers is making some changes to its brokerage division just seven months after first erecting the new arm. According to CEO Max Baumann, the company went “too wide, too quick” and is re-strategizing with an “inch wide, mile deep” approach. 

⏪ Basemakers previously operated under the belief that a smaller brand portfolio with key account managers covering more accounts would maximize impact. As the company scaled, Baumann said that strategy failed to deliver “elite results.” 

⏩ Over the next nine months, Basemakers will start with one to two major accounts to ensure its resources and business model are sound while continuing to expand its nationwide retail coverage.

👀 Six Basemakers team members have been let go as a result of the shift. 

A new bill introduced in the Georgia House of Representatives seeks to introduce new labeling requirements for plant-based and cell-cultured meat products at restaurants and other foodservice establishments throughout the state.

👀 House Bill 163 would require all restaurants serving food products containing cell-cultured meat, plant-based meat alternatives, or both to display disclosures on menus or placards visible to customers; it has been sponsored by Republican representative Jordan Ridley, 

⏪ Georgia isn’t the only state taking a stance on cell-cultured meat. Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill banning the manufacture and sale of lab-grown meat in the state, joining similar efforts from Alabama, Arizona and Tennessee. 

Mars is aiming to support about 165 dairy farmers with a $27 million sum as it works to shift its Fonterra-partnered dairy farmers toward climate-smart agriculture practices. 

🧑‍🌾 Dairy is Mars’ fourth-largest carbon contributor, so the investment is essential for its goal to slash emissions in half by 2023, against its 2015 baseline. 

🚜 On-farm tools and tech investments will account for about half of the funds utilized by 2,000 dairy farmers in Mars’ partnership with Fonterra. 

🐮 The efforts will cover about 26,000 hectares of farmland and see up to $15,000 allocated per farm, per year, on average.  

Emily Griffith, the founder and CEO of fast-growing buckwheat-based food brand Lil Bucks, discusses the importance of clear messaging to connect with consumers and how simplicity, rather than over-innovation, led to success. She also talks about sourcing strategies, securing key retail partnerships, including Whole Foods and fundraising for the company’s Series A round.

Listen to the episode now. Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.