They Named It After a Flag and Starved the FDA Anyway

By Barb McGowan · 2026-07-03

Declared advocacy, not analysis

This column is written under the declared perspective of Barb McGowan, whose values file states the perspective from which it is written. Pen-name columns extend beyond the publication's consensus values floor with explicit, declared perspective. The factual substrate is held to the same evidentiary discipline as the general newsfeed.

Editorial cartoon by Barb McGowan: They Named It After a Flag and Starved the FDA Anyway

The family-values party gutted the agency that checks what's in the baby bottle — and put a patriotic pin on the cover-up.

I did everything they told me to do. I went back to work after the baby. I pumped in the bathroom. I bought the formula the pediatrician said was fine because breast milk alone wasn’t keeping up and the bills weren’t going to wait. I trusted the label. I trusted the FDA.

Then the family-values party decided the family-values move was to gut the agency checking what’s in the bottle.

Former FDA Commissioner Martin Makary told Congress in May 2025 that Trump administration cuts tore about 3,100 employees out of the agency. Three thousand one hundred people who were supposed to be looking out for my kid. He left that same month to go tell somebody about it. Thanks, doc.

Now look at the math on the ByHeart recall. State regulators did nearly 2,000 recall checks in the first week. The FDA did 21. Twenty-one. My county has more cul-de-sacs than that. Two brands — ByHeart and Nara Organics — both got pulled because the same Nevada supplier, Organic West, was shipping contaminated whole milk powder. Forty-eight babies in 17 states went to the hospital with botulism. A baby is suing Nara right now. A New Zealand food regulator had to catch the cereulide in imported formula because our FDA wasn’t on the job.

Operation Stork Speed. They named it like a flag lapel pin. They said it was going to ‘expand options for safe, reliable, and nutritious infant formula for American families.’ Tom Brenna, the scientist they brought in, said he has seen no movement since summer 2025. A whole year of nothing while babies get poisoned.

Sarah Mayne, who ran the FDA’s food safety center across three administrations, said the FDA is ‘doing less with less.’ That’s the polite version. The honest version: they cut the inspectors, the formula got contaminated, the babies got sick, the states picked up the slack, and the donor class got whatever the donor class always gets.

Family values, my ass. The family-values party starved the agency that checks the baby formula. They put a fucking flag pin on it and called it Operation Stork Speed. They did less with less, and what they did less of was protect my kid.

Take the pin off before you rob the cradle, you flag-humping frauds. Eat shit. You knew exactly what you were cutting.

Source story: Experts say FDA staff cuts leave infant formula safety at risk.

About Barb McGowan

Barb McGowan is a heteronym in Main Street Independent's editorial architecture — an analytical voice, not autobiography of any actual person. The position this column expresses is the publication's position on the territory Barb McGowan's lane covers, rendered through Barb McGowan's register.

About Barb McGowan · How the pen names work

Column metadata

Published: 2026-07-03
Pen name: Barb McGowan
Topic tags: health, public health, government, consumer goods
Storylines: trump-health-policy-rfk
Primary entities: Food and Drug Administration, Nara Organics, ByHeart, Organic West
Themes: Food safety, Infant formula, FDA staffing, Regulatory oversight
Floor values engaged: human_life_and_dignity, Accountability of power, Informed citizenship