Corporate Influence on Nutrition Policy
Introduction:
When it comes to eating, we think of all our favorite foods; fruits, meats, vegetables, dairy, and everything else. Sometimes we think about the impact of making these foods, whether it’s taking acres of land to graze cows, or to grow in orchards full of apples that are just ripe enough to pick, but we often ignore the impact on the environment. When we are trying to figure out our diet for the day, we look up to things we know, like MyPlate. The USDA has created ‘MyPlate’ in order to help people figure out how to “eat healthy” and “have a balanced meal.” They have set the standard as to how much we need for each type of food. Half the plate would be filled with just fruits and vegetables, the other with grains and meats (including a cup for dairy products). This is meant for each meal; breakfast, lunch and dinner. However these standards are set because of certain groups who strive for nutrition to be of “top priority,” whether for the benefits of others, or themselves. It becomes kind of a gray area who exactly controls it when it comes from all sides, but these corporations do affect us all, especially because of the environmental impact. When it comes to meat, beef is the one of the most influential stakeholders in the industry.
Agriculture is America’s largest industry. It employees over 20 million people, which is more than any American car company or tech company. Americans eat more meat per capita than residents of any other country, and it is has risen over the last five decades. The per capita U.S. consumption of beef, pork, broiler, and turkey meat combined has risen from about 127 pounds in 1950 to more than 218 pounds in 2000.
How Industries Impact Nutrition Standards:
As most of us Americans were taught as small children that meat is where we should get most of our protein. For example on food pyramids and food plates meat is always such a big portion of the “healthy diet” but in all reality you don't need meat to obtain protein. Livestock corporations have a grasp on the government's recommendations to push meat into our diets.
One way that corporations have influence policy is through lobbying and donations to politicians. According to Open Secrets, agribusinesses spent a combined amount of $130,892,759 on lobbying in 2017. Wisconsin representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) was the second highest recipient of donations in 2017, having received $529,517.
How Industries Impact the Environment:
The government is in favor of the companies that process beef, while the general population tends to feel as though beef should be regulated either a lot closer or not close at all, and the population is split in this instance. People can’t decide on which side they really want to be on when they consider this, because they generally can’t see themselves without beef.
Beef companies have contributed a lot to the economy and oftentimes contribute to politicians campaigns. That leaves many politicians with no choice but to support beef industries, regardless of what it is doing to the environment. This has caused the latest nutrition standards to not take into account the effects on the environment. Had they done so, it probably would have been recommended that people lower their intake of beef. The production of which, has devastating impacts on the climate. There are many people against cow products because of the horrible effects on the environment. WWF is one of the leading corporations working to help make beef production more sustainable and reduce the environmental impacts. “25% of global land use, land-use change and forestry emissions are driven by beef production, including conversion of forests in the Brazilian Amazon” (WWF). Land usage, water pollution, industrial pollution, soil degradation, and climate change are the leading problems with the environment caused meat production.
Beef and dairy products not only destroy the environment, they are actually not as good for our health as we have been lead to believe.
FAO (2013). Current Worldwide Annual Meat Consumption per capita, Livestock and Fish Primary Equivalent. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation
(need to format) https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/lobbying.php?cycle=2018&ind=A
Rippon, jack. “Lobbying in Politics.” Agribuissness: Lobbying 2017, 7 July 2017, www.opensecrets.org/industries/lobbying.php?cycle=2018&ind=A.
Shanker, Deena. “Big Meat's Wildly Successful, 40-Year Crusade to Keep Its Hold on the American Diet.” Quartz, Quartz, 22 Oct. 2015
USDA. “My Plate.” Choosemyplate, 26 Jan. 2018, www.choosemyplate.gov/MyPlate.
WWF. “Beef.” WWF, World Wildlife Fund, www.worldwildlife.org/industries/beef.