Food for Thought: Trust, Health and Policy
In this episode of TrustTalk, Professor Emerita at New York University, Marion Nestle, a prominent advocate in the field of food politics and public health, discusses her journey and insights into the food industry, trust in our food system, and the intersection of food, health, and sustainability. Growing up with a radical background, Nestle was influenced by values of fairness and equity, which she carried into her career, initially trained as a scientist before shifting focus to nutrition and food systems. She critiques the food industry’s prioritization of profit over public health and highlights the essential need for government intervention and public support to address the disparities in food access and the impact of food production on the environment.
Marion discusses the challenges of feeding a growing global population and the misalignment between food companies’ profit motives and the need for sustainable, healthy food access for all. She advocates for a more diverse and regulated food industry to ensure environmental sustainability and public health. Addressing the controversy surrounding GMOs, she criticizes the food industry for eroding public trust through a lack of transparency and misrepresentation of GMOs’ role in feeding the world.
Further, Marion underscores the importance of sustainability in the food system and the obstacles faced due to the industry’s resistance to practices that may reduce profit margins. She encourages governmental pressure on the food industry to adopt better practices for the greater good. Discussing food choices, Nestle emphasizes the simplicity of maintaining a healthy diet through sensible eating habits and advocates for government and societal efforts to combat obesity by transforming the food environment.
Finally, she addresses the need for focused research on making healthy foods accessible and sustainable, highlighting the importance of addressing climate change through food production. Her ongoing commitment to writing and research reflects her dedication to improving food systems and public health. The interview illuminates the complexities of trust, food politics, and sustainability, emphasizing the need for informed action and advocacy to foster a healthier, more equitable food system.
Food manufacturers, profit and access to healthy food
Food Politics
In the United States alone, the food industry generates more than a trillion dollars annually, and food companies are fighting for that. We in our country have twice as much food available as the population needs, so food companies are fighting each other for a share of that market. As I said, to expect that they are going to be concerned about making sure that the poor get fed and that people eat healthfully and will prevent chronic disease, oh, and let’s throw climate change into this as well, because the big three public health problems that involve the food supply are not having enough food, having too much of the wrong kinds of food, and the effects of agricultural production and food consumption on the environment. And these are enormous problems that require, I think they require regulation and government intervention, and a lot of public support for efforts that will make sure that people are fed adequately and healthfully, and that we have a food system that doesn’t increase greenhouse gas emissions.
About GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms)
In the United States, the major GMO crops are corn and soybeans. And if you just look at corn, nearly half of the corn supply is used to feed animals. The other half is used to make ethanol for automobiles. So in the United States, GMO crops have nothing to do with feeding people. Or almost nothing to do with feeding people, they’re not about feeding people, they’re about making money for corn producers and for the makers of the converters of corn to ethanol. So to talk about GMOs as feeding the world, it has nothing to do with what they’re actually doing. And I think the major companies that produce genetically modified foods ruined the world for what they’re doing by lying, by not saying what they were really doing, by not working on creating foods that would really be good for people, that’s not what they’re about. They’re about feeding animals and okay, that’s an indirect way of feeding people, but in a world in which we’re concerned about climate change, the emphasis should be on growing fruits, vegetables and grains that people eat. It shouldn’t be on feeding animals, because we all should be eating less meat because of the enormous impact on meat production on climate change. Not no meat, but less than we’re currently eating. So I think the industry is responsible for the distrust in the industry because, again, I can only speak for the United States<. When the first products came out, I was on an FDA committee where we argued or some of us on that committee argued as forcefully as we could that the genetically modified food should be labelled as genetically modified, and the industry did everything it could to prevent that and the Food and Drug Administration agreed with the industry, because we have a government that’s captured by corporations and because it wasn’t labelled, nobody trusted it. I could have told them that from the beginning. If you want to be trustworthy, you have to behave in a trustworthy manner if you want people to trust you. You can’t expect people to trust you if you’re not being transparent and if you’re lying to the public.
Books Marion Nestle
