The judge who recently threw out a confession by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, previously argued that the U.S. military had a growing domestic extremism problem fueled in part by "conservative tendencies" reinforced by "extreme right-wing groups."

Lt. Col. Michael Schrama, an Air Force judge who specializes in military and environmental law, is presiding over the military commission in the 9/11 case. Last week, he tossed Mohammed’s 2007 confession on the grounds that it was not given voluntarily. The ruling could complicate what has already been a decades-long wait for the suspected plotter to stand trial. Just days before the 25th anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, Schrama rejected prosecutors’ request to begin the trial in January 2027 and instead set it for June 2028.

The decision, which was not initially made public, has drawn criticism, including from journalist and author Gerald Posner, who called it a "shameful prelude to the 9/11 anniversary." Scrutiny of Schrama’s record has also resurfaced a 2023 essay he wrote titled "Creating a Codified Legal Response to Domestic Extremism in the Ranks" for the national security and foreign policy publication "War on the Rocks."

In the essay, Schrama argued for creating a new provision in the military legal code to address what he referred to as the "rising population of military members engaging in extremist activities."

NEWLY UNCLASSIFIED PENTAGON IMAGES SHOW SUSPECTED DRUG BOATS AS OFFICIAL ISSUES DEADLY WARNING

Before his role on the military commission overseeing the 9/11 case, Schrama served as an Air Force trial judge at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia. He has also served as a staff judge advocate and defense counsel and was deployed in 2019 as a staff judge advocate to Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait. Between June 2017 and January 2019, he specialized in environmental law.

He wrote in his essay that "as an active-duty Air Force military judge, I have seen firsthand a rising population of military members engaging in extremist activities."

He said that "there is more than ample evidence that military members are a ripe population for extremist recruitment" and that the "rise of domestic extremism in the military ranks is a threat to national security."

To illustrate his argument, he pointed to a 2021 study by the Center for Strategic & International Studies that said military personnel were responsible for 17.6% of domestic terrorism plots and attacks.

CBC TELLS JOURNALISTS NOT TO CALL 9/11 ‘TERRORIST ATTACKS’ IN INTERNAL GUIDANCE

He also wrote that 12% of those charged with participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot had some form of military experience, including service members on active duty.

As to the reasons for this rising extremism, he argued that "military institutions tend to become more conservative and isolated from civilian society" and that "these conservative tendencies are constantly reinforced, and young military members can be easy prey for the extreme right-wing groups that relate through similar conservative ideology."

"Unfortunately, the United States Criminal Code and the Uniform Code of Military Justice do not currently provide the tools to deal with this crisis, as they do not treat domestic extremism as a specific criminal offense," he wrote, adding, "Codifying domestic extremism as a punitive article under the military code would provide a means for commanders to adequately address the rising tide of domestic extremism."

SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER

He also noted a 2019 case in which a Coast Guard officer pleaded guilty to gun and drug charges after prosecutors said he stashed weapons and planned to murder Democratic politicians, Supreme Court justices and TV journalists.

He wrote that "despite describing Hasson as a domestic terrorist, federal prosecutors chose these more minor charges due to the fact that no domestic terrorism statute currently exists."

NEW EVIDENCE IN LOCKERBIE PAN AM FLIGHT 103 BOMBING CASE PUSHES FEDERAL JUDGE TO POSTPONE TRIAL

Ronald Flesvig, a spokesperson for the Military Commissions Convening Authority, declined to comment on Schrama's ruling, saying it would be inappropriate to comment on the military judge's decision. He also declined to comment on Schrama's essay, saying it was published "not in his capacity as a judge for the military commissions."

Mohammed’s case, along with those of three co-defendants — Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin 'Atash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali — has been stuck in pretrial proceedings for years. Schrama became the fifth judge assigned to preside over the case in 2025.

In response to Schrama’s decision last week, White House senior advisor Stephen Mueller told Fox News, "Our judicial system is so badly broken it sides at every turn with predators, monsters and, in this case, a 9/11 mastermind."

Mueller also railed that the system "enables the persecution of innocent Americans who did nothing wrong, while protecting cartel killers and foreign terrorists."

"It’s a disgrace, it’s a travesty, it’s an outrage," he said.

Listening to most of the media and Canada’s prime minister, you’d think the U.S. and its northern neighbor were in a full-blown trade war after new tariffs were announced days ago. Au contraire: Anyone who checks the numbers can see this is merely a skirmish.

On Aug. 22, the administration's Section 338 tariffs took effect, at 50% on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods, or about 5% of what Canada sells the U.S. Ottawa's answer, effective Sept. 8, will be varying tariffs on roughly $20 billion of American exports to Canada, about 6% of what Canada buys from the U.S.

While tariffs on $40 billion aren’t chump change, they’re a small portion of the roughly $900 billion in products and services that are exchanged across the U.S.-Canadian border annually. Roughly 95% of transactions are proceeding exactly as they did in July.

A POPULAR COCKTAIL HAS A TRUMP TRADE PROBLEM YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT

People should be much more focused on January, because that’s when 50% tariffs hit many more Canadian exports, including cars, trucks and auto parts. Throw in potential Canadian retaliation, and we’re looking at higher tariffs on well over $100 billion of trade between the two countries.

When the artillery joins in like that, we go from a skirmish to a war. However, that doesn’t mean we can brush off these recent developments as insignificant. The current skirmish feels eerily similar to Union and Confederate reconnaissance units encountering each other outside Gettysburg.

‘CAPTAIN CANADA’ FIREBRAND UNLOADS ON TRUMP WITH PROFANE ONE-LINER AS TRADE WAR ESCALATES

What makes this time different is the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Other tariffs had carveouts for USMCA-compliant products. This was extremely important because businesses invested billions of dollars over several years to create supply chains in North America, and they shouldn’t be punished for playing by the rules.

That principle was violated, though not for the first time, with the recent implementation of these Section 338 tariffs, which apply regardless of USMCA qualification and which stack on top of the ordinary rate. Companies that played by the rules are now being punished for complying with a trade agreement that was heralded as "the new gold standard."

WHITE HOUSE EXPOSES ‘TRANSSHIPMENT SCAM’ COSTING US UP TO $26B, POINTS FINGER AT CHINA

This is pulling the rug out from under firms that acted in good faith, and on a large scale. The share of imports from Canada and Mexico claiming USMCA preference climbed from roughly 45% in late 2024 to 86% by February. Federal Reserve economists priced this regulatory compliance at $39 billion to $71 billion per year in manufacturing.

Ironically, some firms that spent years moving some of their production and assembly plants to Ontario now face higher effective tariff rates than some firms that stayed in Shenzhen, China. Certain tariffs that are supposed to serve as leverage for benefiting American production are instead hamstringing it.

TRUMP BET TARIFFS WOULD BRING BACK AMERICAN FACTORY JOBS. NEW REPORT SAYS IT DIDN'T WORK

Consider that an American appliance manufacturer buying Canadian steel pays 50% on that input. The foreign competitor builds the finished washing machine overseas and typically ships it in at a lower rate. Because of how the current tariff regime has been thrown together, an appliance that’s USMCA-compliant can be hit with a tariff higher than an appliance made entirely in China.

If a trade deal is not reached by January, the situation will get even worse. An American automotive assembly plant will pay 50% on Canadian components while a finished Korean car will enter at a lower rate.

CANADA REPORTEDLY SCRAPS JOINT BRIDGE CELEBRATION WITH US AFTER TRUMP RENEWS TARIFF THREAT

President Donald Trump has threatened to take auto parts from no tariff to 50%, slap higher tariffs on medium- and heavy-duty trucks and their components and effectively double the tariff rate on finished cars and light-duty trucks. If that happens, and Canada follows through with its threat to retaliate, then we’ll be in a full-fledged trade war.

That very expensive fate can be avoided, however, if both sides agree to reduce trade barriers and open their respective consumer markets to the other nation’s producers. That’ll reduce manufacturing costs and consumer prices alike through increased efficiency and more competition.

Unfortunately, that’s a tall order because of certain protectionist lobbies in both the U.S. and Canada, especially Ottawa’s notorious dairy lobby which has an outsized influence on its nation’s trade policy. Canada’s cozying up to China and permitting it to abuse country-of-origin provisions are also not helping negotiations.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

It’s important that a deal is reached soon because no one wins in a trade war. Yet not everyone loses equally. Hopefully, Canada realizes it has more to lose than the U.S. and backs down before both sides incur more casualties.

Even if a deal is reached, the U.S. still needs to rationalize its remaining slapdash tariff schedule. Under no circumstances should American-made products face higher effective tariff rates than foreign-made competition. There’s no need to wait on Canada to address that particular issue.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM E.J. ANTONI

Merchandise from a regional grocery store chain with locations across the Midwest and South has become a hot commodity.

Nicola Miller, of Suffolk, England, will detour as much as 50 miles to visit a Piggly Wiggly when she's in America, hoping to add another T-shirt featuring the iconic, cheerful Mr. Pig to her collection, Food & Drink reported.

Miller first encountered the mascot in the 1978 film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," which features the retro pig face in the film's final scene.

6 ICONIC AMERICAN RESTAURANTS STILL SERVING UP NOSTALGIA AND CLASSIC FLAVORS

She told Food & Drink that Piggly Wiggly stores and the company's logo "spark joy" and nostalgia for her.

Miller is not alone.

The Piggly Wiggly brand "resonates across all ages and demographics," Terry F. Goins, Piggly Wiggly director of marketing and advertising for the Midwest, told Fox News Digital.

"Younger shoppers are drawn to exactly the qualities that make it retro: the hand-drawn feel, the humor, the fact that it's unmistakably regional and not from a national chain," Goins said.

"For a lot of younger customers, it's less, 'I remember this' and more, 'This is where I'm from.'"

The branding is warm and "doesn't take itself too seriously," Goins added. 

"Mr. Pig has never been redesigned into something sleek and corporate. He looks like he looked. In a category where most logos get sanded down every eight years, that consistency is rare, and people respond to it."

VINTAGE PHOTOS REVEAL WHAT GROCERY SHOPPING LOOKED LIKE IN THE 1960s

Piggly Wiggly was founded in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1916 by Clarence Saunders.

Saunders pioneered the then-unheard-of concept of modern self-service grocery shopping, according to the company's website. Before Piggly Wiggly, shoppers typically presented their orders to clerks, who gathered the goods from store shelves.

The self-service concept proved wildly successful, helping Piggly Wiggly grow from a single Memphis store into a nationwide chain with more than 1,200 locations by 1923.

Today, there are more than 500 Piggly Wiggly stores across 18 states.

The origins of the Piggly Wiggly name "remain a mystery," according to the company, but its Mr. Pig mascot has been part of the brand since the beginning.

For more than 20 years, Piggly Wiggly has formally sold branded merchandise online and in stores, while individual locations have also created their own designs. Piggly Wiggly shirts, however, had been circulating informally long before that.

TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ

"That's a big part of what makes this fun," Goins said. "Piggly Wiggly Midwest is a mix of franchise and corporate-owned stores across Wisconsin and Illinois, and our independent operators know their communities better than anyone at a corporate office does.

"There are brand standards around how Mr. Pig and the logo are used — that mark is 110 years old and we protect it — but within that, stores have latitude to [make] designs that speak to their town, their high school colors, their local events. That's why you'll find shirts in one store you won't find anywhere else."

Demand for Piggly Wiggly merchandise has been remarkably steady, Goins said.

"What we see instead are lifts tied to moments: a new design drop, a seasonal item, a tie-in with something happening in the community," he said.

"People aren't buying a shirt because a grocery store put its logo on one. They're buying it because Mr. Pig means something to them, and wearing it is a way of saying where they're from."

T-shirts featuring the pig's face on the front and its backside on the back are far and away the favorite, Goins said.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER

"It's not close," he said. "The retro self-service design does very well, and honestly, anything involving the pig butt tends to move."

Some collectors treat the pastime like collecting ballpark or brewery merchandise, Goins said.

"They'll pick up a shirt from a store they haven't been to before," he said. "Nobody has ever told us they own too many Pig shirts."

Piggly Wiggly also offers seasonal and limited-edition designs, along with branded socks, shoes, hats, stuffed animals and more.

At the Wisconsin State Fair this month, the enthusiasm extended beyond merchandise.

"We had people lined up for over an hour — in August, at a state fair, with a thousand other things to do — for a temporary Mr. Pig tattoo," Goins said.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE NEWS

The company also handed out 6,000 Piggly Wiggly reusable bags in under six hours.

"That's not a merchandise transaction," Goins said. "That's people wanting to be associated with something."

Everyone has their own Piggly Wiggly story, Goins said.

"It's never generic," he said. "It's always personal and always tied to a specific place and a specific memory."

In central Washington, a farming town of roughly 8,100 people has become an unlikely showcase for America’s data-center boom.

Quincy, long known for potato fields, apple orchards and food-processing plants, has spent two decades attracting some of the world’s largest technology companies. Microsoft began building data centers there around 20 years ago, drawn by affordable land, the region’s cool climate and abundant hydropower from the Columbia River.

Now the town is becoming central to Microsoft’s response to a backlash against the facilities powering cloud computing and artificial intelligence. The company this year cited Quincy as proof that data centers can bring tangible benefits to the communities that host them, as residents elsewhere raise alarms over electricity prices, water use and limited local job creation.

ONE OF THE WORLD'S HOTTEST INDUSTRIES IS SPARKING A BLUE-COLLAR JOBS BOOM

The economic gains are visible in Quincy.

KUOW reported that years of data-center tax revenue have helped support a state-of-the-art high school and hospital.

The city recently opened a new aquatic center, complete with a six-lane lap pool, lazy river and waterslides, while a planned indoor sports complex

Data centers are not an employment engine on their own. A single facility can operate with 50 employees or fewer, KUOW reported. But Quincy has enough facilities that the sector has become a meaningful employer in aggregate, while also supporting construction, service businesses and the city’s broader tax base.

TRUMP HEADS TOWARD UNLIKELY CLASH WITH CLOSE ALLY OVER FUTURE OF MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR INDUSTRY

Microsoft says its new national approach will ask local utilities to set rates high enough to cover data-center energy use and grid upgrades without raising prices for residents. The company also says future facilities will use closed-loop cooling systems that recycle water rather than drawing from local supplies.

Quincy already has such a system. Microsoft and the city partnered on a $31 million water-reuse utility that treats and recirculates cooling water. The EPA says the project reduces the company’s reliance on potable groundwater and saves an estimated 138 million gallons of water a year.

Still, Quincy is not without skeptics.

Former Mayor Patty Martin, according to KUOW, has warned that the town must look beyond its immediate economic gains and consider its long-term water and electricity needs, pointing to population growth, electric vehicles and changing snowpack as added pressures on the region.

Quincy’s boom shows what data centers can bring to a small town and the questions communities must answer before they arrive.

Ibn Khaldun warned us about Mayor Zohan Mamdani’s ideas. I first encountered Ibn Khaldun while studying Islamic political thought at the American University in Cairo. His 1377 masterwork, the Muqaddimah (The introduction to his universal history), pioneered systematic approaches to historiography, sociology, economics, demography, and the philosophy of history.

Khaldun’s book features a clear description of what became known six centuries later as the Laffer Curve — the economic theory that, as tax rates rise there will be a peak in revenue, beyond which as rates continue to go up, revenue starts to decline as economic activity collapses.

Per Khaldun, early in a dynasty, low taxes encourage enterprise; revenue rises and civilization flourishes. Later, rulers demand more luxury and larger armies. Taxes climb. Businessmen compare their shrinking profits to the growing burden and lose incentive. Production falls, and with it tax yields. At that point, governments often turn to subsidies and then enter commerce themselves — buying and selling, establishing monopolies, competing directly with private traders. Independent merchants are further discouraged. Many leave or quit. The tax base collapses. The empire weakens and falls.

EXPERTS SCORCH MAMDANI'S GROCERY PLAN AS AN 'ILLUSION' THAT WILL HAVE TAXPAYERS FOOTING THE BILL

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is now testing a modern version of the later stages of that cycle. The mayor is advancing a plan for city-owned grocery stores — one in each borough — with the first expected to open in the Bronx in 2027 and others by the end of his term. The city will own the land, cover construction (tens of millions of dollars already allocated), waive rent and taxes, and subsidize a core basket of staples so they sell roughly 30 percent below typical retail prices. A private operator will handle day-to-day management under city-set rules on pricing and labor.

Supporters frame this as relief for high food costs. History and Khaldun suggest a different trajectory. When government subsidizes and then operates in a competitive sector, private operators face distorted competition. Capital and effort shift away from the independent businesses that generate the tax revenue governments need. Inefficiencies multiply. Shortages and declines in quality follow. The temporary political win of cheaper eggs and bread is purchased with long-term damage to the commercial vitality that sustains cities.

Mamdani’s background makes the irony sharper. As the son of a prominent scholar of postcolonial societies, it is conceivable that he would be familiar with Islamic Golden Age thinkers who analyzed why states thrive and why they decay. Ibn Khaldun stands among the most famous. His warning was empirical, drawn from observing North African and Near Eastern dynasties: When the state moves from light taxation and order to heavy extraction and direct commercial intervention, the productive classes withdraw. Civilization contracts and then collapses.

Quoting Khaldun: "It should be known that the finances of a ruler can be increased, and his financial resources improved, only through the revenue from taxes. (The revenue from taxes) can be improved only through the equitable treatment of people with property and regard for them. … Other (measures) taken by the ruler, such as engaging in commerce or agriculture, soon turn out to be harmful to the subjects, to be ruinous to the revenues, and to decrease cultural activity."

'WASTEFUL DISTRACTION': EXPERTS SLAM MAMDANI'S TAXPAYER-FUNDED GROCERY STORES

Khaldun would have strongly advised against government-run grocery stores.

New York already struggles with high costs of living, regulatory burdens, and businesses that have fled or scaled back. Layering municipal grocery stores on top of that environment does not reverse the incentives Khaldun identified. It accelerates them. Private grocers who cannot match subsidized prices will struggle. The city’s fiscal commitments grow. Taxpayers fund the difference. The cycle continues.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

Khaldun’s remedy was straightforward: Keep taxes low enough that people retain the energy and desire to produce. Lower the burden, and cultural and commercial enterprises expand; revenue follows. Modern supply-side insights rest on the same foundation. Government-run stores move in the opposite direction.

America’s great cities succeeded because independent enterprise created abundance, not because mayors decided to stock the shelves. New York should remember that lesson — and the 14th-century scholar who explained it long before Art Laffer sketched a curve on a napkin. Ignoring it will not make groceries cheaper for long. It risks making the city poorer.

Americans' sensitive information could increasingly be processed overseas if restrictions on artificial intelligence data centers slow construction in the U.S., a data privacy advocate and industry executive warned.

The warning comes as states and local governments weigh new restrictions on the rapidly expanding data center industry amid concerns over electricity costs, grid reliability and other impacts on surrounding communities.

Brittany Kaiser, CEO of Alpha Compute, said state moratoriums and restrictions on new data centers could push American companies to seek computing capacity in other countries as demand from AI continues to surge.

"One of my top concerns as a top data protection and privacy advocate is that with data center moratoriums being passed in the United States that it will force Americans and American companies to send our data to be processed abroad in other countries," Kaiser told Fox News Digital.

"American companies are going to still run their AI," she added. "They're still going to be purchasing data center space in other countries, and it means our sensitive information will be sent abroad and shared with companies and organizations that might not have America's best interests at heart."

FROM NETFLIX TO GPS: 10 WAYS THIS HIDDEN TECH INFRASTRUCTURE QUIETLY POWERS MODERN LIFE

Data centers are large facilities filled with servers and computing equipment that process, store and transmit information behind many everyday technologies. They support everything from email, social media and internet searches to online banking, streaming services and AI platforms. As demand for AI grows, companies are building increasingly powerful data centers that require vast amounts of electricity, advanced chips and high-speed network connections.

Kaiser said the facilities have become critical infrastructure for the digital economy, making decisions about where they are built and who controls the data they handle a matter of growing economic and national security concern.

Artificial intelligence, however, requires significantly more computing power, fueling a rapid expansion of data center construction across the country.

That growth has sparked pushback in some communities over concerns about electricity costs, water consumption, noise and environmental impacts. Kaiser acknowledged those concerns and said companies should be subject to "common sense regulation" designed to protect communities.

"Not all companies are doing it [building data centers] in the same way," she said. "Some are more responsible than others."

Kaiser said responsible developments can use closed-loop water cooling systems and generate power independently rather than increasing demand on the existing electrical grid.

Alpha Compute, she said, is pursuing projects designed to operate "off-grid, behind the meter," meaning the facilities would generate their own power rather than relying on electricity supplied through the local grid. Kaiser said that approach is intended to prevent the massive energy demands of data centers from straining existing infrastructure or contributing to higher electricity costs for nearby residents.

ONE MONTHLY BILL AMERICANS CAN’T AVOID IS QUIETLY SURGING THANKS TO EMERGING INDUSTRY

The company is developing a project in Pennsylvania, where Gov. Josh Shapiro recently imposed new requirements on large data center developments. Kaiser said Alpha Compute plans to comply with the regulations and welcomed provisions promoting cleaner energy.

Pennsylvania is among a growing number of states confronting the rapid expansion of data centers. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has pushed data centers to provide more of their own power and shoulder infrastructure costs as development accelerates across the state.

Other governors have gone further. Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul imposed a one-year moratorium on new hyperscale data centers as states grapple with concerns over electricity costs, grid reliability and the pace of development.

ONE OF AMERICA'S OLDEST MANUFACTURERS SAYS AI IS CREATING JOBS — NOT REPLACING THEM

But she cautioned that policies that significantly restrict domestic development could have broader consequences for America's position in the global AI race.

"Compute power has now become nearly a utility," Kaiser said, comparing the need for domestic computing infrastructure to energy independence.

"We want to have the right to compute," she said. "We want to be able to process data within our own borders as a national security priority, but also for our own intellectual property to make sure we're not sending our data abroad."

Kaiser has launched a campaign called "Right to Compute," advocating for domestic data center development alongside sustainability standards and regulation.

"We should have the right to both energy independence as well as compute power," she said, "so that Americans and American companies can process all of our sensitive data within our own borders."

When most people are done eating the sweet, juicy flesh of a watermelon, they toss the rind.

But the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently added an official nutrition profile for watermelon rind, providing new information about its nutritional value while highlighting a potential way to reduce food waste.

A one-third-cup serving of raw, seedless watermelon rind contains 10 calories, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 140 milligrams of potassium and 4 milligrams of vitamin C, according to the USDA. While the rind is edible, it is not necessarily a replacement for the fruit's nutrient-dense flesh.

POPULAR GROCERY STAPLE COULD TAKE HIT AS CALIFORNIA FACES MAJOR SUPPLY VULNERABILITY

Watermelon rind nutrition has previously been analyzed by other institutions around the world, but not according to the USDA's standardized requirements, Stephanie Barlow, senior director of communications for the Florida-based National Watermelon Promotion Board (NWPB), told Fox News Digital.

The NWPB funded the watermelon rind analysis and spearheaded the effort to add watermelon rind to the USDA's FoodData Central database, Barlow said.

"Most consumers do not know the rind is edible," she said. "Plain and simple."

A watermelon is, on average, 70% flesh and 30% rind, and 62% of consumers throw out the rind, according to the NWPB's 2023 Watermelon Consumer Usage Study.

SEAWEED-BASED COATING COULD KEEP STRAWBERRIES FRESH FOR DAYS WITHOUT REFRIGERATION, STUDY FINDS

Barlow said that amounts to an average of five pounds of rind that could instead be used in a wide range of recipes.

"The watermelon rind is an interesting addition to the nutrition conversation, especially because it is a part of the fruit we typically throw away," Lisa Young, registered dietitian and adjunct professor of nutrition at New York University, told Fox News Digital. "Eating the rind can be a simple way to get a little more nutrition while reducing food waste."

Young added that she wouldn't call watermelon rind a nutritional powerhouse or suggest eating it instead of the juicy flesh. 

"The flesh provides important nutrients and antioxidants, including lycopene," she said. "Rind is tougher and less sweet, so preparation matters. … Just be sure to wash the watermelon well before cutting and eating the rind."

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER

As more consumers look for ways to stretch their food budgets and use food in new ways, interest in watermelon rind recipes and the rind's versatility has increased year after year, Barlow said.

"Food creators on TikTok and YouTube have contributed to watermelon rind awareness in recipes from around the world, and interest continues to grow," she said.

Because of increasing consumption of the rind, "we wanted to explore what the nutritional benefits of the rind were," Megan McKenna, NWPB's senior director of marketing and food service, told Fox News Digital.

"This required employing the services of a USDA-approved lab to do the testing, as well as working with health professionals to verify the results."

"The new USDA nutrient profile gives dietitians and health professionals standardized data they need to confidently incorporate watermelon rind into recipes and nutrition guidance," Barlow added.

"It helps consumers – and also food service – get even more value from every watermelon they bring into their kitchens."

For someone interested in trying watermelon rind, one of the easiest preparations is adding it to a smoothie, she said.

Her favorite way to incorporate it is in a rind slaw that involves shredding pieces of rind and adding vinegar, sugar, salt and oil.

The recipe "even leaves on the edible outer green skin and is easily made with simple ingredients," she said.

Watermelon rind can also be pickled, used in stir-fries, roasted or incorporated into baked goods.

"Proper food safe handling at home with all watermelon must start with washing the watermelon under cool, running water," Barlow said.

TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ

"A simple rinse is best, no need for any abrasive scrubbing or solutions. Once your whole watermelon is rinsed and dried, it's ready for cutting into slices, dices, sticks and cubes, reserving that rind for recipes."

If a recipe calls for removing the green outer skin, a vegetable peeler works well, she said.

"The rind skin is similar to its cousin, the cucumber, and it peels right off," Barlow said.

For storage, the NWPB recommends refrigerating cut watermelon in a glass or plastic container, where it should keep for three to five days, McKenna said.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE NEWS

"Our watermelon rind pickles keep for up to two weeks when sealed in a glass jar and refrigerated," she said.