RFK Jr or the Bear? - Why We Need to Listen to the Crunchy Moms

How Everyone Failed Moms on Food Safety and the Environment, and How to Move Forward

I’m coming out today… as a crunchy mom. Wait, wait, before you eyeroll or dismiss me as a dumdum, let me explain.

I moved to the US as a Belgian native, and it was hard to digest the lack of food safety and environmental protections. I was shocked at first, I saw people drive many hours every day, eat fast food, work all the time just to get sick and then take way too many aggressive meds. It was a sharp deviation from my previous life of walking, biking, and eating high quality foods. As a child, my mom didn’t give me meds but only plant-based immune boosters. (For the record, I don’t even remember the last time I got sick).

In Europe, you get climate-shamed for using a car. You get health-shamed for eating large portions. Health and environmental consciousness is a HUGE part of the European identity and part of every day life. When Europeans talk about America, they are in disbelief about the lack of healthy habits. The top complaint of any European traveling in America is that they couldn’t find edible food. Even my own husband had to start making bread because he was tired of hearing me complain about the lack of real bread.

So over the years, your girl had to significantly change her habits in order to fit in in America. Mainly, I had to suppress that part of my identity. But when I’m in Belgium, I’m reminded that the crunchy/wellness way is really just the European way. (My husband once asked the pharmacist in my hometown for a certain medicine he was used to giving our kids in America, and the pharmacist just straight-up said no. He gave us a plant tincture instead.)

So as a European-American mom, I found allies in the crunchy moms, as we share so many of the same values. And living in California, I was exposed to so much of the wellness industry, and I happily incorporated these practices into my life.

I practice attachment parenting, cosleeping, long-term breastfeeding. I read labels. When I feel imbalanced, my first stop is a medicine ceremony. I moved my kids to a forest school when I noticed they were spending too much time inside. I have a reiki healer, an acupuncturist, a chiropractor and a massage therapist. I pull cards and I pray to pagan goddesses. I burn palo santo and I wear crystals and I believe in the magical powers of the plants. In summary, I’m a witch.

And I’m also a trial lawyer, and someone who spends a lot of time with highly educated professionals (who tend to be Democrats). I’ve learned very early not to speak about some of my witchy ways, or wellness in general. Among Democrats, I’m usually met with eyerolls, dismissed as an extremist, or I’m met with categorical characterizations, like “you probably don’t even vaccinate your kids,” (I do, but on the Belgian schedule). And when I’m with Republicans and I speak about health, I get dismissed as elitist, arrogant, or a know-it-all.

And this dismissal from all sides is a problem. After all, I believe the wellness moms are actually right about a lot of things, and both parties have been dismissing these moms for far too long. And when it comes to the health of their babies, you should not underestimate the power of an angry mom.

So when RFK, Jr. came on the scene, his rise to power made sense to me. Many of my closest friends became infatuated with him.

To me, he was always a bit of a weird dude. After all, how many dead animal stories can come out of one person? Plus what he said was basically copy/pasted from Bernie’s platform. But regardless of the man himself, I understood how the crunchy moms felt like someone was listening to them. Most Democrats never spoke to these moms directly or lovingly about these issues. And our good old Bernie, who had been speaking about these issues, had been so indelicately pushed out by his own party. So that left this demographic ready for a fresh start.

So to the RFK, Jr. crowd, let me tell you this: I won’t eyeroll at you, I won’t dismiss you, I won’t call you stupid or a dumdum. Because I actually agree with your core values.

I do however, want to tell you some things:

1. The reason European foods are higher in quality and safety is because the EU has more regulations and controls than the US. In Europe, the EFSA (the European equivalent of the FDA) has banned hormones and additives that are allowed in the US. The EU adopts a precautionary approach, banning a food product until proven safe. The US has the opposite approach, allowing products on the market unless there is evidence of harm. Most pesticides are limited in Europe and these regulations are much more rigorous than in the US. Most GMO crops approved in the US are not approved in Europe. Animal antibiotics are restricted in the EU, while prevalent in the US. Controls are stricter and there is more funding for regulatory agencies. To have food safety, you need MORE regulation, not less.

2. Republicans have voted against every food safety bill. For example, in 2019, 183 House Republicans voted against resuming food safety inspections (HR 265). These are the sorts of bills that fund regulatory agencies to review the safety of foods.

3. The Trump Administration has been the WORST on food safety. The Trump administration worked to unravel more than 100 environmental policies and regulations. For example, they rejected a proposed ban on chlorpyrifos, a pesticide linked to developmental disabilities in children. They allowed toxic chemicals in dry-cleaning solvents. They dismissed pesticide restrictions. They removed many harmful substances from the “hazardous waste” list. They restricted the EPA’s research authorities. Generally, most of the Obama-era environmental protections were rolled back (and remember the “let’s move” campaign?). So yes, “the government” is poisoning our kids, but it’s the Republican government.

4. Food safety inspections plummeted under Trump. All federal agencies slowed down food safety enforcement across the board, and he was always very clear that he intends to dismantle the FDA. This is exactly what his donors want, as the FDA and similar agencies stand in the way of industry profits.

5. RFK, Jr. was always funded by MAGA superPACs. This is all public information. The same guys who were funding him were funding Trump this whole time. It was always the plan to pull you over to Trump. It’s pretty obvious when you follow the money. So no, his campaign was not about independence or unity. It was about dividing democrats and peeling votes away. And it worked.

6. All of the big environmental organizations have endorsed Harris. The Sierra Club launched a nationwide program to mobilize swing state voters to elect Harris and defeat Trump. They confirmed Trump was the worst president for the environment in history.

7. Democrats are the food safety party. Yes, they are not talking about this enough, but when you track the votes, the picture is very clear. California, a Blue state, has the most food protections. The California Food Safety Act (HB 418) puts restrictions on the sale of many harmful additives, including dyes, parabens, bromates, and brominated oils and toxic packaging products. All additives are found to have carcinogenic effects and are endocrine disruptions. If you want these policies at the national level, Republicans need to get out of the way. The GOP and right wing judges have historically blocked any food and environmental protections.

8. RFK Jr.’s campaign was never about protecting kids. It was about saying the right things to get power. Democrats weren’t saying it, so they did. Mainstream republicans can’t speak about environmental or food safety issues because they would lose corporate donors, so they needed a straw man to convince those voters who care about this issue to vote for Trump.

9. He says he will be able to influence Trump. Puh-lease!!! Do we really think the man is receptive to anyone’s opinion? Even Ivanka couldn’t get through to him.

RFK Jr’s grab of the crunchy moms has been one of the most impressive and effective power plays I’ve seen in my life time. Republicans were able to peel greenies (and even former Bernie supporters) away from the left and get them to vote for politicians who side with corporate polluters. RFK, Jr. is a hypocrite, talking about unity all while ending up encouraging people to vote in favor of those who block any environmental protection. So between RFK, Jr. and the Bear, definitely the Bear (at least, if he can get away from RFK, Jr. fast enough) 

It’s heartbreaking to watch propaganda play out in real life. I really hope we can track funding, court decisions and congressional votes more than nonsense speeches and lies. But again, I understand the appeal of someone who takes a stand for the environment and against the polluter industry, and I wish Democrats would spend more time demonstrating that they have historically been the pro-environment party.

Frankly, it’s been hard for me to make an argument to support Democrats on this issue when I see Kamala Harris praise US oil and gas production. And while she was in favor of fracking bans in 2019, she has since changed her tune. Walz did sign a law in Minnesota requiring all power plants to use climate-friendly energy by 2040. Biden-Harris rejoined the Paris Agreement, but also, extended its lead as the world’s largest oil producer.

It looks like she’s saying the things to get the votes, which is what politicians do at this stage in their campaign. But still, I’m disappointed because she had a pretty solid track record on the environment, and she is actively alienating the crunchy moms.

So let me remind you of a few things she’s done: as California AG, Harris investigated ExxonMobil for misleading the public about climate change, and created an environmental justice unit to address environmental crimes. She also supported the Green New Deal.

So while Harris is still the most environmentally-friendly candidate, her position on it has not been consistent. It seems like she was initially a greenie, but had to move towards fossil industry to gather funding and votes. This is what always happens to Democrats, and it’s quite frankly heartbreaking. While we can cognitively and strategically understand they need to do this to win, it also leaves us with no one to rally for who is truly uncorrupted. And that’s a scary place to be as a crunchy mom. 

I’ll end with one more story:

In 2018 I was talking to a juror. We had just finished a trial. He said he didn’t want to make a decision because he didn’t like that we were fighting. He didn’t like being in the courtroom. He didn’t like that we couldn’t just get together and be kind to each other. So he didn’t want to vote but because he had to, he ended up siding against us, “out of protest,” like he said, as we were the party that brought the case. We did end up winning this trial, but this juror’s obstinance was very close to derailing the whole thing.

I had tears in my eyes from rage and sadness. After all, I also didn’t want to fight. I also didn’t want to be in the courtroom. I also wanted us to just get along and be kind to each other. I had left my newborn baby at home to do that trial. I had been working the case for years. I was so exhausted from the never-ending battle. And then here this guy comes to sabotage it all, just because he doesn’t like the system. My friends, I don’t like the system either.

This was truly a slap in the face to me. We were representing a disabled veteran who had been fired for requesting accommodations, and we were up against the largest hospital district in the county. We were facing an extremely well-resourced and powerful opponent. And because this juror didn’t like the fighting, he plotted a mini-revolution that was completely misguided and destructive.

To me, a man like RFK Jr. is the equivalent of someone saying to this juror, you shouldn’t vote for either of them, all they do is fight, instead you should vote for me because I don’t want to fight.

But to a party that can win a trial, you have to do all the grunt work first: file your case, do the discovery, the investigations, document review, years of tedious and exhausting work. You can’t just be declared the winner. You need to actually be in the trial, or at least in a multi-party case, to win.

In my native Belgium, you can absolutely vote for the smaller parties because they build coalitions, and in fact I vote for smaller parties in Belgium. But in America, these votes do nothing except sabotage the hard work of activists who are leaving their babies to fight for the common good, in a fight they are forced into and also do not want to be in.

Because yes, we all want unity. All of my clients want unity too. I am such a pacifist, a gentle and sensitive soul, and yes I still walk into the fighting ring every day. Why? Because we are facing an extremely well-resourced, destructive and manipulative opponent. And RFK, Jr has been one of its most masterful agents. My friend, let’s not fall for yet another conman. Our best shot is to elect Harris, and then push her to follow through on her original promises.