Playing Politics with Our Food

While the Food and Drug Administration reforms labels, the Agriculture Department drags its feet, thanks to its cozy relations with the meat industry

"A Tower of Babel" is what Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Louis Sullivan calls the din surrounding U.S. food products. But if Americans are having trouble deciphering the language in food labels and advertising, just who or what is to blame? The food industry likes to point the finger at the Federal Government's regulatory swamp, while the government puts the onus on overzealous marketers. But in truth there is enough culpability for all. For years now, foodmakers and government regulators have been tangled up together in a web of sloppy practices and, above all, cozy politics. "Everything in nutrition is...

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