Why RFK Jr. and the FDA ought to ban ractopamine

[ad_1] Earlier than changing into secretary of the US Division of Well being and Human Companies and chief of the Make America Wholesome Once more motion, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a swashbuckling environmental lawyer who usually took intention on the meat business. He sued large meat companies and the Environmental Safety Company over water pollution from factory farms , and criticized manufacturing unit farming for its “ unspeakable ” animal cruelty and overreliance on feeding animals hormones and drugs .

For over a decade, a bunch of meals security, environmental, and animal welfare nonprofits has petitioned the US Meals and Drug Administration — which Kennedy now oversees — to ban using one of the vital controversial of these medicine: ractopamine hydrochloride.

Fed to pigs within the closing weeks of their lives, ractopamine hastens muscle achieve in order that pork producers can squeeze extra revenue from every animal. However the drug has been linked to severe adverse events in pigs , together with trembling, reluctance to maneuver, collapse, incapability to face up, hoof problems, issue respiration, and even dying. It additionally carries a lot of environmental and human well being considerations.

Earlier this 12 months, the FDA denied the petition to ban the drug, arguing that present rules guarantee a “cheap certainty of no hurt to shoppers.” Whereas the company doesn’t dispute that ractopamine can hurt animals, and it halved the utmost dose in pigs in 2006, it has argued welfare points may be mitigated by merely asking meat producers to deal with ractopamine-fed animals extra rigorously — a response that the petitioning organizations known as “toothless.”

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The FDA didn’t reply to a request for remark in time for publication. Elanco , the pharmaceutical firm that developed ractopamine, didn’t reply to an interview request for this story.

Whereas 26 international locations have permitted ractopamine use in livestock, greater than 165 have banned or restricted it, and lots of have set restrictions on or have altogether prohibited the import of pork and beef from ractopamine-fed animals — actions which have set off commerce disputes. The bans stem primarily from considerations that the hint quantities of the drug present in meat may hurt shoppers, particularly these with cardiovascular circumstances, since ractopamine belongs to a category of medication (beta-agonists) that may enhance individuals’s coronary heart charges.

There’s solely been one tiny study on ractopamine in humans who took the drug immediately, which European regulators — liable to taking a precautionary strategy with new meals components — say is inadequate to show its security. Chinese language scientists are involved concerning the drug as a result of its residues concentrate at higher rates in pigs’ organs , that are extra generally consumed in Chinese language diets.

The heated worldwide debate led one staff of biotechnology researchers to call ractopamine “probably the most controversial meals additive on the planet.”

<img alt="an inflatable pig with the words “I am a ractopamine pig” written on it flying above demonstrators in Taiwan" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/AP20327299304082.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> An inflatable pig has the phrases “I'm a ractopamine pig” written on it throughout a march in Taipei, Taiwan, in November 2020, as hundreds demand the reversal of a call to permit US pork imports into the nation, citing meals questions of safety. Chiang Ying-ying/Related Press

Daniel Waltz , managing lawyer of the Animal Authorized Protection Fund — one of many organizations petitioning the FDA to ban ractopamine — advised me it looks as if simply the type of factor Kennedy would wish to prohibit. “So why isn’t the FDA leaping on the alternative to do one thing about ractopamine?” Waltz stated.

Kennedy and the broader MAHA motion have lengthy elevated fears over prescribed drugs and meals chemical substances, and it could generally be troublesome to parse their legitimate considerations from their harmful conspiracy theories. However he doesn’t seem to have ever publicly criticized ractopamine, and it’s unknown whether or not it’s even on his radar.

Given the dearth of trials, ractopamine’s risk to human well being is unclear, and cheap individuals can disagree on how authorities companies ought to deal with it. However there’s a transparent case to be made that ractopamine should be banned due to its terrible results on animals. The FDA’s choice to proceed to permit it in meat manufacturing represents a missed alternative to problem the manufacturing unit farm system that Kennedy has lengthy railed towards, and to ban a chemical that nobody — besides the business — actually needs.

“Ractopamine divides the world”

There’s ample real-world proof that ractopamine may be horrible for pigs.

Over an 11-year interval, the FDA obtained stories that over 218,000 pigs fed ractopamine suffered opposed occasions, like trembling, an incapability to face up, hoof problems, and issue respiration. That’s a comparatively small share of the billion or so pigs raised and slaughtered for meat throughout that point interval, however the quantity solely contains opposed occasions reported to the FDA — many extra may’ve occurred with out being reported. The subsequent most reported drug had a bit over 32,738 circumstances spanning 24 years.

The FDA has stated that reports of adverse events don’t set up that the drug prompted the consequences — basically that it’s correlation, not proof of causation. However shortly after the drug got here onto market, the FDA additionally obtained stories of an uptick in ractopamine-fed pigs unable to face or stroll at slaughterhouses.

Some research, together with a pair carried out by the drugmaker — Elanco — have proven that ractopamine is related to a lot of points in pigs, together with hoof lesions, fatigue, elevated aggression, and metabolic stress. Through the years, Elanco has added warning labels that ractopamine-fed pigs are at an elevated threat of fatigue and incapability to stroll.

<img alt="a pig unable to walk or stand" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/This-downer-pig-is-dragged-away-without-being-stunned.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> A “downer pig” — a pig unable to stroll or stand — is dragged at a slaughterhouse that provides to Hormel. When ractopamine first got here onto the market, the FDA obtained stories of an uptick in ractopamine-fed pigs unable to face or stroll at slaughterhouses. Animal Outlook

On the identical time, a literature evaluate by Elanco workers and college researchers taking a look at ractopamine studies discovered it had minimal impact on pig mortality, inconsistent results on aggression and acute stress, and blended outcomes on a lot of physiological responses, like cortisol and coronary heart price, with some analysis exhibiting little to no results, and others exhibiting reasonable results. The dimensions of the dose — and the way staff deal with the animals — have been usually necessary elements. Elanco has up to date its label to make clear that there’s no profit to feeding pigs greater than the bottom dose.

There’s additionally some proof to recommend ractopamine negatively impacts the welfare of cattle , a few of whom are fed the drug.

Much more than considerations over animal welfare, the uncertainty over ractopamine’s impact on shoppers’ well being has courted worldwide controversy. These considerations have led to international locations rejecting shipments of US pork and beef; Taiwanese lawmakers throwing pig intestines at each other and mass protests in a dispute over the nation’s choice to permit US pork imports from ractopamine-fed pigs; and a extremely contentious, multiyear debate on the United Nations-run Codex Alimentarius Commission , which units meals requirements necessary for worldwide commerce.

By the late 2000s, quite a few international locations had restricted imports of meat from ractopamine-fed animals, which posed a monetary risk to the US meat business. So the US Division of Agriculture spent 5 years advocating for the Codex fee to approve most residue ranges of ractopamine in beef and pork as protected, which might give the US extra authorized leverage to problem different international locations’ import bans.

The fee’s battle over ractopamine was “actually, actually ugly,” Michael Hansen , a senior scientist at Customers Union — the writer of Client Experiences — who attended fee conferences, advised me.

European Union officers argued there wasn’t sufficient knowledge to make sure shoppers could be protected from ingesting hint quantities of ractopamine. Whereas the drug had been examined on varied animal species, solely one human clinical trial had been carried out in 1994, which included simply six wholesome younger males taking the drug, one among whom dropped out after complaints that his coronary heart was pounding.

In response to the trial, an FDA official on the time acknowledged that “the info from this research don't present satisfactory assurance that the anticipated ractopamine ranges in meat merchandise might be with out cardiovascular pharmacological results in man.”

In 2012, the UN fee narrowly voted to set most protected ractopamine residue ranges in beef and pork by a margin of simply two votes — an uncommon end result for a fee that traditionally ran on consensus. China and EU representatives, Hansen advised me, have been livid. US meat industry groups and the USDA secretary on the time, Tom Vilsack , cheered the choice.

Writing concerning the fee battle, commerce lawyer Michael Burkard wrote that ractopamine “divides the world.”

Shortly after the Codex vote, Taiwan loosened its restrictions on imported beef from ractopamine-fed cattle, although China, Russia, and the EU preserve their bans. The US pork business has tailored. Some firms have devoted entire slaughterhouses to ractopamine-free pigs , whereas others have phased out ractopamine entirely . Within the early 2010s it was estimated that 60 to 80 % of US pigs were fed ractopamine , however that determine has doubtless since gone down.

Nonetheless, ractopamine stays controversial and the topic of commerce disputes; simply final 12 months, China blocked shipments of US beef that contained traces of the drug.

The battle over ractopamine is a microcosm of a broader downside within the meat business: The government’s reluctance to regulate it .

Over the past century, meat firms have remodeled how animals are raised for meals. They’ve packed animals into crowded, sprawling warehouses; bred them to grow bigger and quicker to the detriment of their welfare; saved huge quantities of their manure in open-air lagoons that leach into the atmosphere; and designed complex drug regimens to maintain them alive in unsanitary circumstances or, like within the case of ractopamine, make a bit more cash off every animal.

Every time shoppers and advocacy teams elevate considerations over the issues manufacturing unit farming has created, most of the time, a authorities company tasked with regulating it takes motion to defend the meat business, not reform it.

Kennedy has gained notoriety as somebody unafraid to problem each the pharmaceutical and agricultural sectors. Whereas a few of his concepts are downright harmful, his critiques of manufacturing unit farming are largely proper. Prohibiting US meat producers from utilizing a drug that advantages the business on the expense of animals — and presumably shoppers — would present his grandiose guarantees to reform the American meals system are greater than empty rhetoric. Doing so could or could not make America more healthy, however it might make animals undergo much less.