Researcher who took money from meat industry confirmed as head of food safety

In late March, the U.S. Senate confirmed Mindy Brashears—a researcher who has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from the meat industry—as the country’s top food safety official, Texas Observer reports. President Trump nominated Brashears to the undersecretary of food safety role back in 2018, and she’s been working as a “deputy” undersecretary since, a workaround that doesn’t require Senate approval. Food safety advocates vocally opposed Brashear’s nomination, arguing that her industry ties could jeopardize food safety. Case in point: Brashears has greenlit a rule that would eliminate speed limits for pork slaughterhouses and shift inspection oversight from federal inspectors to plant employees.