Dr. Charles Benbrook’s lecture focused on how Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs) contribute to public health concerns in the United States. Benbrook is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics and works with the Heartland Health Research Alliance. In his talk, he addressed how the FDA and USDA should define and measure food nutritional quality, as well as the impacts of processing on nutritional quality and food safety. Drawing on three rounds of formal comments submitted to FDA/USDA by a large team from several research institutions, Benbrook outlined a science-based framework for evaluating food quality and the degree of processing, emphasizing the importance of nutrient density, food matrices, and nutrient losses that occur from farm to final product.

He explained that unhealthy UPFs are driving rates of metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and emerging problems like GI disorders and autoimmune diseases. This is supported by a rapidly expanding body of epidemiological evidence—much of it from Europe—showing clear associations between UPFs and adverse outcomes. Meanwhile, political pressure (in this case from the “Make America Healthy Again” movement) is pushing the Trump administration to address UPFs more aggressively.

Front-of-pack labeling, he said, should help consumers easily distinguish healthier foods from less healthy ones through a continuous, or spectrum-based, system. Evidence from Latin America and Europe shows such systems can shift 5–15% of purchasing decisions—enough to drive manufacturers to reformulate products. Benbrook highlighted the importance of using market forces and dynamics to achieve measurable improvements in public health across the US population.

The importance of soil health, agricultural practices, and nutrient dilution caused by excessive nitrogen fertilization and varietal choices were also emphasized. He underscored the concept of the food matrix—the natural structure of whole foods—which affects how nutrients are absorbed and utilized in the body and is often fundamentally changed by food processing.