Food Policy Experts Comment on Bests, Worsts, and What's to Come
The year that was and the year that will be.
For my last column of the year, I asked a handful of food-policy experts to comment on the year that was and the year that will be in food policy. Their responses are below.
Don Carr, food and agriculture writer
1) What was the best food-policy news of 2016? Why?
Consumers flexing their purchasing muscle to spur food system change when government is paralyzed. My question for the consumer-led, food system reform movement is can it be harnessed to have positive impacts on water, wildlife and our changing climate?
2) What was the worst food-policy news of 2016? Why?
Clearly the election of Donald Trump is bad news for food and farm system reform efforts. The president elect proudly subsists on fast food and is staffing his team with conventional agriculture proponents. His agriculture advisors made a point of calling out food reformers in their talking points, so I'd be surprised if First Lady Michelle Obama's kitchen garden isn't burned to a stubble and the ground salted for good measure. The election is also scary news for effective, low-fraud hunger programs that have been in the crosshairs of Republicans for years.
3) What changes do you think 2017 might bring to food policy? Why?
Based on the following confluence of factors, we are going to see a work on new federal farm bill that will shower tax dollars on the same historically subsidized group of commodity growers like nothing before. 1) These farmers are facing chronic low prices and low income with no help in sight. 2) Trump's stated trade policies could even put them in a bigger hole. 3) Since Trump is demonstrably not "conservative" and Congress continually votes for more farm subsidies there is no ideological barrier in view. 4) The farm lobby is successfully conflating the very real notion that rural America turned out for Trump with the idea that Trump "owes" farmers.
Julie Kelly, food-policy writer
1) What was the best food-policy news of 2016? Why?
Not a lot of good food-policy news in 2016, but I think the delay of the ill-conceived menu labeling is one win. It's an onerous, unnecessary regulation on business that is frankly none of the federal government's business.
2) What was the worst food-policy news of 2016? Why?
Hands-down, the mandatory GMO labeling law signed by President Obama in July. This law tells consumers nothing, will cost food companies millions and leads to more misinformation about biotechnology.
3) What changes do you think 2017 might bring to food policy? Why?
Hopefully, both of the aforementioned labeling laws will be repealed under a Trump administration. I also think you will see some reforms to both SNAP and the National School Lunch Program, as well as a reexamination of strict regulations overseeing genetically engineered crops/food.
Pete Kennedy, Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund
1) What was the best food-policy news of 2016? Why?
A ruling by a Michigan judge that recognized the property rights of consumers to have their foods processed by someone else into other food products without government interference. This ruling is a significant step forward in establishing that there is a legal distinction between the public and the private distribution of food with the government having no jurisdiction over the latter. The court ruling in the Michigan case protected the right of those having ownership in dairy animals to have their milk processed into dairy products (e.g., cream and butter) by others without government interference.
2) What was the worst food-policy news of 2016? Why?
Passage of the DARK Act, a corporate powerplay that co-opted part of the organic foods industry, trampled States' Tenth Amendment powers and saddled consumers with [a] GMO labeling bill [worse] than the prior bill defeated by GMO-labeling proponents.
3) What changes do you think 2017 might bring to food policy? Why?
Continued passage at the State level of bills that expand consumer access to locally produced foods and deregulate producer to consumer direct sales. More States legalizing the sale of raw milk, getting closer to the point where the federal interstate ban will be meaningless because there will be legal access in every State.
Jeff Stier, National Center for Public Policy Research
1) What was the best food-policy news of 2016? Why?
It may not have made many headlines, but the publication of Professor Jayson Lusk's Unnaturally Delicious: How Science and Technology are Serving Up Super Foods to Save the World delivers a highly accessible look at the food technology that both exists today and is in our near future. Lusk takes readers on a mouthwatering tour of a smorgasbord of new foods, crops and technologies which provide a backdrop for an exciting and truly progressive way to think about the future of food. His insights offer a potential paradigm shift in how we can feed the world healthier foods- that people want to buy and eat. It's a stark contrast from the stale and highly ineffective command and control food police playbook.
2) What was the worst food-policy news of 2016? Why?
While Whole Foods continues to bill itself (and bilk consumers) as "America's Healthiest Grocery Store," it fails to deliver on its promise. Yet in a devastating June 8 warning letter—one of the most severe compliance actions that the FDA has at its disposal—the FDA said Whole Foods was manufacturing, packaging and storing food in ways that promoted contamination with microorganisms that cause food poisoning. The fact that so many problems failed to be detected by Whole Foods' quality-control systems strongly suggests that there are far more safety problems that we don't know about. Yet Whole Foods continues to enjoy a health halo because of it's marketing of so-called natural, local, and organic fare.
3) What changes do you think 2017 might bring to food policy? Why?
In response to the Trump administration's expected easing off of efforts to control how we eat, activists at the state and local level will build off of their gains on issues such as local soda taxes, arguing that without an aggressive federal approach, local governments must step in to fill the void to prevent us from making unhealthy individual choices.
Nina Teicholz, journalist and author, The Big Fat Surprise
1) What was the worst food-policy news of 2016? Why?
The worst food policy news of 2016 was the announcement of the 2015 dietary guidelines [DGAs], which were based on weak science—non-systematic reviews of only a sliver of the relevant science—for another five years of the same non-evidence based nutrition policy that virtually ensures zero progress on reversing the tides of obesity and diabetes in America
2) What was the best food-policy news of 2016? Why?
Acknowledging that the DGAs have completely failed in their mission to protect Americans from nutrition-related diseases, Congress calls for the first-ever major peer review of the DGAs, by the National Academy of Medicine, and appropriates $1 [million] to ensure the review is completed.
3) What changes do you think 2017 might bring to food policy? Why?
I predict the DGAs will change in one fundamental way, at the outset: members of the DGA advisory committee will, for the first time, be required to publicly disclose their conflicts of interest.