MANHEIM, Pennsylvania — I’m on a bus with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and it smells like cow dung. It was last Wednesday, and this trip was to kick off his “Take Back Your Health” tour promoting the Trump administration’s new dietary guidelines—released on January 7. Earlier in the day, I watched the Health and Human Services secretary make a speech to a crowd of his “Make America Healthy Again (MAHA)” supporters in the state capital of Harrisburg, where he railed against “an existential crisis in American health.” Now we were touring Kreider Farms, a huge dairy farm, watching 1,600 cows get milked.
“We call it the ‘Milking Merry-Go-Round,’ ” says Ron Kreider, 67, who runs the farm with his two daughters. I’m seated behind RFK Jr. as Ron explains to him that Kreider Farms owns 4,000 acres in three counties. It’s about a 45-minute drive from Harrisburg, and it is just north of Lancaster, effectively the Amish capital of the world.
The two men couldn’t look more different. RFK Jr. is wearing a black suit and black shoes, and a baby-blue dress shirt with a black silk tie that has a little red snake peeking out of the top left corner (Gucci, limited edition). Kreider is wearing a dark khaki jacket, navy-blue jeans, and leather boots. But they are in full agreement when it comes to the importance of dairy.
In addition to being the largest producer of eggs in Pennsylvania, Kreider’s buttermilk, chocolate milk, pumpkin pie milk, and two dozen ice cream flavors are sold across supermarkets in the mid-Atlantic. Before we hop on the bus, one of his daughters shares that she drinks two glasses of milk a day. “We’re happy to have you on our side,” Kreider says to RFK Jr. as they discuss the new food pyramid.
