Fixing Food
“Extra! Extra! Read All About It.”
Fixing Food: An FDA Insider Unravels the Myths and the Solutions arrives today. In the book, I tell stories of actual events that occurred while I was at FDA, like an early encounter with a senior manager who tells me we must make sure that all canned pear halves are the same size so that dinner parties run smoothly. In addition to stories, you will find out why one day foods, like eggs, are considered toxic and the next they are considered a superfood (hint, it’s about nutrition science). Or why, using FDA’s way of thinking about food safety, you would consider drinking more than a glass of water a day unsafe. Finally, you will find out why FDA is taking years trying to decide if Almond Milk should be allowed to be called milk.
Every time there is a government shutdown, we hear “If FDA is shutdown, no one will be keeping our food safe.” Let’s call that Myth Number One. Actually, FDA inspects food plants about once every six years. Food firms, on the other hand, are petrified of having a recall – it’s really expensive and can put a firm out of business (it’s private inspections that keep them safe).
There are plenty of other myths surrounding food:
You should eat natural foods.
Pesticides are dangerous.
“Clean labels” are safest.
Speaking of labeling, the FDA’s food label is held up as a model to the world for educating and informing consumers how to eat healthier. In reality, it doesn’t help much at all. As one consumer put it, “Trying to figure out what to eat is harder than doing your own taxes.”
FDA is our oldest public health agency at 115 years old and it is beginning to show its age. Trying to regulate every single thing that food manufacturers do is not working, as one out of every six of us gets food poisoning every year. Trying to educate consumers on how to use the food label is not working as obesity is increasing at an alarming rate, and fully one half of us will be obese by the end of the decade leading to more chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.
Just as one economist notes that “every market failure is also a market opportunity,” the same thing is true of a government failure. That is where the solutions are going to come from and, if we are able to reorient the FDA, they can be part of the solution.
What if we could grow food in clean giant indoor farms that could be in the desert or in the middle of a city?
What if we could make any food – meat, poultry, seafood, plant or, for that matter, anything we could dream of - in a sterile environment that would be healthy and safe?
What if we had food packaging that told us when food was going bad or, when food did spoil, we could find out where it came from in seconds?
What if we had a science fiction-like device (e.g., Star Wars food replicator) that could make any food we wanted in our kitchen)?
What if we had a Fitbit-like watch or phone app that could give us a diet specifically designed for individuals that only told us to eat foods we liked?
They are either here or on the horizon. FDA will either help get them to market by quickly and inexpensively ensuring that they are safe; or they will be obstacles. One way to be an obstacle is to keep passing useless regulations that distract us from real solutions.
You can buy it at my website, richardawilliams.com in hardcover, Kindle or Audiobook. It is also on Amazon or at your local bookstore.