Nearly everyone agrees that draining the swamp that is Washington DC is a good idea. Little that appears to be steps in that direction have been had from the top down. Maybe Nestlé is on to something.
In October, 2017, Nestlé, the food giant, withdrew from the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). The departure happens at the end of the year 2017. A giant like Nestlé would be cause for worry, but add to that list the likes of Campbell’s soup leaving at the end of the year and anyone paying attention should be worried.
Helena Bottemiller Evich and Catherine Boudreau write in the November 26, 2017 “Politico” article, “The Big Washington Food Fight” that “iconic brands are stagnating as millennials and moms seek healthier and more transparent products.” That reads to suggest the decades of less than clear ingredients lists, the renaming of foods to confuse and disguise are coming to and end. We can only hope so. Campbell Soup “announced it was leaving GMA, in part because the association fought bitterly against mandatory labeling for foods with genetically modified ingredients” (“Food Fight”).
Much is not as it once was. The proliferation of pocket computers and an increasingly sophisticated clientele keen on technology are using those tools to search the internet in the aisles to determine just what are those ingredients I can’t pronounce, can’t pick and are never out of season. I write this as one of those very people. Food apps, I use FoodUCate, have come a long way in aiding shoppers find foods which pass muster. One such app gives goods a grade. I use that with my kids and if the questionable food does not rate at least a B+, it goes back on the shelf.
Despite the massive sums of money involved, much of the issue with the food industry, and the chaos it seems to be feeling, might be the market at work, pardon the phrase.
Food producers seem to be struggling to catch up to consumers preferences. One might think they were comfortable making ads for their products and allowing Madison Avenue to create the demand. Not so the case any longer. Authors such as Michael Pollen have done a great service to conscientious consumers by letting them know they do have a choice and a voice. His books and articles fill the void of no or misinformation about ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup.
Despite the lobbying efforts to convince the public that HFCS is the same as table sugar, I remain unconvinced and I suspect so do others. And, we vote the best way we can: with our wallets. I could do a poor job of making sugar from sugar cane at my house, but I could never make HFCS. My rules are simple: if I can’t pick it or pronounce it then it stays in the store. That simple choice seems to be the very thing some in the GMA were concerned about.
The Nutritional Facts label was updated in 2014 to reflect the “new requirement to list ‘added sugars’ for the first time, plenty of food companies were furious, arguing that it wasn’t based on science and would confuse consumers. But others, including Nestlé and Mars, accepted the idea, concluding it was what consumers wanted or would be good for their business, or both” (Food Fight).
I am not here to advocate regulation. As food companies are seeing, given the choice, consumers prefer better ingredients and they can determine what is and is not acceptable. The market has already made the statement that what they offer is not wanted.
The struggle for GMA to maintain itself as the agency advocating for the industry is growing. With the likes of Nestlé and Campbell Soup leaving, other member companies look about and wonder, as Jeff Nedelman put it, “ ‘Companies that get it have said ‘Why are we paying GMA more than $1 million a year to lobby for things that our brands don’t support?’” (Food Fight). Nedelman is the founder of the public relations firm Strategic Communications, Inc.
While ingredient “naturalness” is an important issue to consumers, a variant of that theme, natural, is still one which has not yet been fully fought: Genetically Modified Organism, or GMO. GMA has much on the line with the member companies and in their lobbying labeling fight “sought the help of the agribusiness and biotechnology sector, which was worried that labeling would send a message to consumers that the genetically engineered corn, soybeans and sugar found in about 75 percent of processed foods [emphasis added] is unsafe to eat, despite the scientific consensus on safety.”
From a government over-reach stand point, making a single uniform bill and “passing legislation that preempted state laws and made GMO disclosure mandatory” (Food Fight) might seem a win. But, trampling state’s rights cannot be a win. An all powerful overlord in any venue or any area of the private lives of companies and people should be feared.
A solution is complex if even visible. Certainly granting the federal government more control is not the answer. The GMA has been fined by WA state for “violating state campaign finance laws.” There seems at least two issues: the laws against campaign finance are another topic. But, the apparent need to work to conceal what is in the food of the member companies is of importance and the questions seems to ask itself, if the food is so great, why hide the facts?
What does the future hold? Well, that’s always been the question. In food, John Foraker, former CEO of Annie’s (the macaroni and cheese company) commented, “as more millennials become parents, food companies will have to adapt and change even more . . . as the majority of shoppers will be looking for brands and companies and products aligned to their values.” “ ‘Just wait. The next decade is going to be insane,’ he said. ‘Nestlé and GMA—it’s just the chop in the water. It’s going to get worse.’” Maybe worse for them is better for us.
The Big Washington Food Fight
Unhealthy Fixation This is a Slate article. It is long and I found the last third to be well researched and informative. I offer it for you to read and make your own conclusions.
Edit December 15
To add fuel to the fire of an association already dying, Unilever and Tyson announce they are leaving GMA in 2018. What that means is anyone’s guess, but let’s hope it is for the best for consumers. Here is a link to an article I just opened in my email.
Read about and watch the movie Food Evolution here.
One of my daughters and I did quite a bit of research on GMO’s for her senior research project. She was taught at home through high school, so in order to evaluate her paper I had to study the subject. We both concluded that there is nothing inherently scary about GMO’s, except for government involvement.
I also find it kind of ironic that many of the people who are most worried about GMO’s eat a lot of highly processed and prepackaged foods. I don’t begrudge them wanting labels that list ingredients, I just think they could solve most of their concerns by preparing more food from scratch! It might take some practice, but it doesn’t have to be that difficult.
In the quick reading I did and have done on GMOs, the Salon article I linked to, particularly the last third, was some of the better information I’ve seen which supports your point. I agree that labeling and knowing what’s in our food is a good idea. But, isn’t it so often the case when government or bureaucracy gets involved, everything goes wrong?
If only more people understood that…