Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) has been nominated by Donald Trump to be the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and has been the face of “Make America Healthy Again,” a movement dedicated to “public health, sustainable practices and a government that truly serves the people.”

But the key programs that help millions of U.S. households access healthy food, such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), come out of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

“RFK simply doesn't have jurisdiction over most of the policy levers that he would need to make America healthy again,” says Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs.

“The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is contained in the agency he would oversee if his nomination was successful, and the Food and Drug Administration has the ability to regulate dietary additives such as food dyes. So that could be very influential,” Heflin says. “I think there are some natural problems with that as well. This would require, probably, increasing the size of the FDA and would require increasing regulations, both things that are philosophically not in line with current discussions,” she says.

“Philosophically, RFK is in favor of more regulation and in order to be effective at increasing regulation, he would have to increase the federal workforce. So this is going to be a substantial problem,” says Heflin.

Listen to the full interview via the BBC website. Heflin's segment begins at 17:22.