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  • From: Alliums <garlicgrower AT earthlink.net>
  • To: community_garden AT mallorn.com, listwfan AT iastate.edu, market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
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  • Subject: [Market-farming] Book Review: Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health
  • Date: Wed, 08 Dec 2004 13:18:29 -0500

Hi, Folks!

Received the book to review before Marion Nestle speaks at the 2004 PASA conference. If you'd like to use the review, let me know -- I retain copyright.

Dorene


Food Politics:  How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health by Marion Nestle, University of California Press, 2002.  ISBN:  0-520-24067-7, 457 pages.
 
Timing, in life as well as comedy, is everything.  Food Politics was published in 2002 just after Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation had shocked the North American continent.  Now, a new book from a respected nutritionist (Chair of New York University’s Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health and the managing editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition in Health) was saying that deception was endemic across the entire food industry, not just the fast food portion.  Primed on Fast Food Nation, the country was ready to hear Nestle’s larger message.
 
People continue to read the book (currently in its seventh printing), not just for its surprising statistics, but for Nestle’s style.  Here’s how she sums up agribusiness’ current dilemma:
 
“The food industry is in trouble, in the sense that it is in a hugely competitive environment. Our country has available in the food supply 3,900 calories a day for every man, woman, and child in the country. That's roughly twice what the actual population needs. Food companies are beholden to stockholders. They have to grow in order to maintain their stock prices. We already have 3,900 calories a day and 320,000 different food products in the American marketplace. They can't all keep growing in that situation. So all they can do is to try to get consumers to eat their products instead of somebody else's, or to eat more in general, and they're just terrific at doing that.
 
Remember, that 3,900-calorie-a-day figure is 600 calories higher than it was in 1970. A hundred of those calories came just between 2001 and 2002. So the food supply is expanding, putting increasing pressure on food companies to sell more in a competitive environment”
 
Her experiences as managing editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition in Health are equally insightful:

“We were struggling not only with the complexity of nutritional advice but also with lobbying activities from food companies, that made it impossible for the surgeon general's recommendations to say eat less of anything. So if you look at those recommendations, those recommendations are: Choose lean meat. The report couldn't say: Eat less meat. Eat a diet moderate in sugar. The report could not say: Consume fewer soft drinks. This was, after all, the Reagan administration. It was very pro-business, and it really wasn't possible to put in any "eat less" messages. That is still true. If you look on the Web sites of the major federal organizations and agencies that are dealing with the obesity epidemic, not a single one of the says, "Eat less." They all talk about activity. Now, mind you, activity's very important and I'm for it. But I think we have to talk about diet as well.”
 
If you haven’t read this book yet, toss the seed catalogs in the corner for a day or so (pick a really blustery day when you’re outside as little as possible anyway) and take the time to digest it thoroughly.  If you’ve followed the National Organic Standards, the Terminator Technology and genetically modified organisms, nothing Nestle says in the sections on corporate “Undermining Dietary Advice” and “Working the System” will surprise you; however, she provides a larger context for these activities than most other websites or books.  Nestle’s section on “Exploiting Kids, Corrupting Schools” was the first comprehensive look in the general media at advertising to children and the exclusive soda contracts in public schools.  Her work here was instrumental in convincing school districts to either revoke existing contacts or not sign a new one.  The section on “Deregulating Dietary Supplements” explains how the supplement industry managed to pass the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) which allows supplement manufacturers to vary their ingredients without reflecting the change on their labels and to make health claims without proving that their product fulfills those claims. “Inventing Techno-Foods” gives a history of fortified foods in the American diet.  Nestle then finished off with a “Conclusion” section that summarizes the entire book, plus an appendix on “Issues in Nutrition and Nutrition Research” to explain to the layperson how nutrition researchers design their studies.
 
Although sustainable agriculture growers and consumers are considered small players (between 2 and 4% of all expenditures on food) in the food marketplace, they will never expand into the double digits unless the “small players” are fully aware of how the “big players” are controlling the game.  Food Politics will give you that knowledge so that you can either market or purchase foods with a clear eye on the competition.
 
Reviewed by Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator
St. John’s United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden
Phoenixville, PA
 


  • [Market-farming] Book Review: Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, Alliums, 12/08/2004

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