Opinion Today: How to beat Big Food
Here’s what we’re focusing on.
Opinion Today
July 27, 2026
Green ones and zeros in the shape of flowers behind a picket fence.
Illustration by Rebecca Chew/The New York Times

Notable

Protect America’s lead in the A.I. race. “China is working hard to catch up, and the United States should take steps to keep its advantage. Most important, it should continue to prohibit American companies from selling the most advanced chips and equipment to China.”

— The editorial board

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What’s the worst thing Trump can do in the midterms? “Democrats have reason to believe that they can win the House in the midterms. But the path to achieving that victory hinges on a technical detail.”

— Jeffrey Toobin, a contributing Opinion writer

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Asia’s new security order. “The United States will remain a power in the Pacific. But the strategic balance has already shifted.”

— Jennifer Kavanagh, an expert on U.S. defense policy

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Spotlight

An illustration of a person looking into a tunnel made by hot dogs, soda and other ultraprocessed foods.
Andrew B. Myers

This Is the Way Out of Our Ultraprocessed Food Dystopia

A teenager’s lawsuit against the food industry may create a healthier future for us all.

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ICYMI

Christopher Nolan’s zero eros “Odyssey.” “Homer did not portray a world turning against violence. He limned a profoundly martial universe — interspersed with lots of magic and sex and cavorting, conniving immortals. If you smooth it out and modernize it too much, you lose what made it so important to begin with.”

— Maureen Dowd, Opinion columnist

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More in Opinion

An illustration of three people, each with its head covered by a paper bag from a different food chain.

We Can’t Even Agree on Where to Buy Cereal

Our grocery stores mirror the mess of America.

By Frank Bruni

A thick fence of barbed wire and chain-link  rises from the ground against a hazy purple sky.

Immigration Detention Has a Transparency Problem. Private Companies Will Make It Worse.

The Trump administration has a housing problem.

By Lauren-Brooke Eisen

A crinkled piece of blue paper with a watercolor sketch of a Greek warrior’s armor on it.

Guest Essay

‘The Odyssey’ Gives Us the Hero We Deserve

Christopher Nolan’s Odysseus is a halfway hero: he wrestles with the problems he creates. That makes him a perfect figure for our modern moment.

By B.D. McClay

An illustration of people playing American football. One player in a red uniform is running with the ball, while two players in blue uniforms tussle with each other.

letters

Democrats and the Fear of Socialism

Readers respond to “Socialism? Capitalism? Who Cares!,” an Opinion guest essay by E.J. Dionne Jr.

An illustration of a man in a suit from the neck up. Instead of facial features there is a briefcase, watch, pen and book in the place of his eyes, noes and mouth.

Guest Essay

Are You a Jerk or a Sucker?

Do only creeps or chumps still believe in the American dream?

By Robin Givhan

A photograph of a finger touching water, generating ripples in concentric circles.

Guest Essay

Stop Pathologizing Ordinary Life

We need to support psychological well-being without fixating on it.

By Clay Routledge

A white marble sculpture of two hands clasping.

David French

Christopher Nolan Has Rebuked the Spirit of the Age

This “Odyssey” takes us somewhere we didn’t know we were going.

By David French

An illustration featuring squares with different images: holding hands; an empty hand; the side view of a person wearing Army fatigues emblazoned with a patch featuring a unicorn on the shoulder.

Guest Essay

Ukraine’s L.G.B.T.Q. Soldiers Are Still Fighting and Still Waiting

The legal gap for gay Ukrainians has always been unbearable. Then the war with Russia seemed to make the disparity untenable. But the gap remains.

By Alex Averbuch

In Your Words

Re: I’m Native American. Land Acknowledgments Are Infuriating.

Read more Opinion comments here, and check out our Letters to the Editor.

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