More thoughts on the politics of food and public health

National Treasure Mark Bittman's weekly Opinionator post is up on the New York Times website, and this week he offers an incisive analysis of the USDA's new food guidelines.

The gist of his argument is that the guidelines are pretty anemic, and downplay their most potent recommendations (what to eat less of) in deference to the food industry. He feels the US Department of Agriculture is debilitated by a conflict of interest, in that it is responsible for promoting the health of the national populace, as well as promoting the economic interests of the national food industry. Given the current structure of food subsidies and manufacturing practices, public health takes a back seat to economics.

The comments responding to his post are thought-provoking. I think there are two significant questions of political and moral philosophy at stake: 1) What is and what should be the state's role in protecting and promoting public and individual health? 2) What is and what should be the state's role in protecting and promoting national industry?

These are two giant, thorny issues that tend to provoke violent emotions. There is a longer tradition in the political culture of the modern nation-state of designating the state government responsible for national prosperity. For some reason though, the people who take this to be self-evident don't think the same logic should apply to the health of the nation. Suddenly the individual (and his or her family, and community) is solely responsible for their health and eating habits, despite the aggregate effects on the national economy (health care costs etc.). There is equal indifference to the effects of broader social and economic conditions on the health of individuals and communities. Why the disconnect? I think it ties in with larger ideological debates in US political life about the relationship between the individual and the state, but it seems to me that food is a way to intervene in this ancient ideological battle and perhaps write a new script and envision a new kind of society and political culture.

My ideas on this subject are still embryonic, but I'd like to think there are as yet un-envisioned political and cultural possibilities.

I attended a fascinating workshop for a professor from my department yesterday, who has an interesting book out on food and medicine. The workshop prompted me to start asking myself some more challenging questions about some of my own taken-for-granted assumptions about the relationships among food, individual health, and public health. I'm going to try to pick up her book and read it in all my (not copious) spare time. Hopefully I'll have some more thoughts on this subject and can start thinking more systematically about this question of food policy as an intervention into political culture.