During an event to promote nutritious school meals from local farmers on Monday, Dr. Ben Carson<\/a> talked about teaching children where their food comes from and having them taste veggies straight from the soil. <\/p>\n \u201cI remember not too many months ago, [Agriculture] Secretary [Brooke] Rollins and I went to a school, and we were giving the children whole milk. They were just so amazed. They said, \u2018I didn\u2019t know milk could taste this good!\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd what if we introduced them to food fresh from the ground? Teaching them \u2014 making these relationships with the farmers so they learn about the soil. They learn about irrigation. They learn about the effect that it has on their crop,\u201d Carson said.<\/p>\n Carson then listed some examples of food children could eat on these farms, with one processed meat catching the audience\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n \u201cThey get an opportunity to eat a tomato fresh off the vine. It\u2019s a different food than you get in the store, quite frankly. Fresh sweet corn and hot dogs,\u201d Carson said to laughter. \u201cBut what a difference it makes when they can taste these things. They won\u2019t have a craving for the unhealthy foods that are so prevalent in our society.\u201d<\/p>\n Carson, a former neurosurgeon and an opponent of Trump during the 2016 presidential election, was sworn in as the national advisor for nutrition, health and housing at the Department of Agriculture last September. He also served as Trump\u2019s Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary during his first presidential term. <\/p>\n His comment about feeding children hot dogs for a nutritious lunch is the latest flub from a Trump official attempting to carry out the goals of the \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d movement, which scrutinizes ultra-processed foods<\/a>. <\/p>\n In late July, Kennedy grossly underestimated ingredient costs <\/a>while presenting a recipe on his cooking show, The Real Food Show, which is focused on healthy, affordable meals. Instead of calculating how much it costs to buy the whole ingredient, just the price of each serving of the ingredient needed for the recipe was shown. <\/p>\n As Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse noted in an article<\/a>, \u201cthat kind of practical thinking is not helpful to a parent who has $20 in cash to get them to tomorrow\u2019s paycheck.<\/p>\n \u201cSafeway does not let you walk in, scoop some mayo out of a jar and pay one dollar at the cash register. You have to buy the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Rollins was also roasted earlier this year for suggesting Americans eat<\/a> \u201ca piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, corn tortilla and one other thing\u201d as a budget meal.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018You should eat prison meals\u2019 prob not the best message,\u201d Variety\u2019s Chief Correspondent Marlow Stern wrote<\/a> on X at the time.<\/p>\n Carson was at the Agriculture Department\u2019s Washington, D.C. headquarters on Monday to support Rollins and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a>\u2019s new \u201cHarvest to Hallways\u201d initiative as part of the administration\u2019s MAHA agenda.<\/p>\n The initiative will include a $50 million investment in school cafeterias, which, in part, will help pay for new equipment and up to $25 million in grants for schools to provide kids with locally grown foods. <\/p>\n These investments in healthy school lunches come at a time when a packed lunch for children costs more than $6<\/a>, and Americans struggle to pay for their grocery bills. <\/p>\n![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2282949850.jpg\")
President Donald Trump\u2019s nutrition adviser has said kids should eat food fresh from the ground, and then listed hot dogs as an option (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/iStock-2231524335.jpg\")
Dr. Ben Carson from the Department of Agriculture listed \u2018fresh sweet corn and hot dogs\u2019 as examples of food children could eat straight from local farms at an event Monday (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2162341281.jpg\")
The Washington, D.C., event Carson attended was promoting a new initiative part of the \u2018Make America Healthy Again\u2019 movement, which scrutinizes ultra-processed foods (Getty)<\/p>\n