Is the fox guarding the henhouse? Who makes the rules in American nutrition policy?

摘要

In December 1999, a collection of individuals and public interest groups, headed by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), filed suit against Dan Glickman, Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Donna Shalala, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and Cutberto Garza, Chairman of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee for Year 2000 (Advisory Committee). In their complaint, plaintiffs alleged a failure on the part of these government agents to protect a variety of individual and public interests, including health, philosophical, environmental, and economic interests, and claimed that the agents favored instead the economic interests of powerful food lobbies in the meat, dairy, and egg industries. This claim reflects both the assumption that food industry interests conflict with a number of individual and public interests, and the perception that the government has chosen to "take sides" with industry at the expense of less powerful or less organized groups.