launched, then the FDA would get involved. When a
bunch of people get sick from eating a certain brand
of spinach, the FDA will get involved to see if it was
tainted with E. coli, etc. If a large number of people
contract salmonella from a brand of chicken, the FDA
works to get to the bottom of it.
Manufacturers are responsible for
their claims ‒ not the FDA
When the FDA was established in the late
1800s, it was intended to support the Department
of Agriculture by carrying out chemical analyses of
agricultural products.
The modern-day FDA as we know it, as a
regulatory agency, started with the Pure Food and
Drugs Act in 1906, which was created to catch
misbranded food and drugs. A man by the name of
Harvey Washington Wiley was the heart of the FDA
in those days. The Chief Chemist of the Department
of Agriculture’s Bureau of Chemistry, Wiley was
largely responsible for the enforcement of the FDA’s
rules and regulations, ensuring that consumers were
protected at the most basic level ‒ that the food
supply was safe.
The FDA started out as an
amazing entity with a noble vision,
but today things are different.
Today, the FDA is unbelievably underfunded. There
is simply not enough money to pay the amount of
employees it would take to monitor every single food
product that hits the marketplace in the United States.
So, the FDA puts a lot of responsibility on the
shoulders of manufacturers. Manufacturers and
producers are told that they are responsible for the
claims they make on their labels.
This is like when you’re in junior high and your
teacher asks you to correct your own test.
Are all of the students going to mark those tests
correctly when there’s nobody to answer to, even if
their answers aren’t correct? Chances are, no. Some
of the students have enough integrity to mark their
incorrect answers with an “x,” but you can bet that one
or more will fudge their grade.
Like those diet pills mentioned earlier, many
manufacturers privately fund studies to get the tiniest
fact that they can get away with printing on their
product label that will entice consumers to buy.
For example, let’s say a big Ag company (we’ll
call it “M-Foods”) decides to conduct a survey to
see if chemical RU is safe for humans. M-Foods
funds this study so they can use the information as
they wish. When the study is complete, M-Foods
hires someone to wash it of all of the negative data,
leaving behind only information leading the reader to
believe that GMOs are not harmful. These studies,
as you can imagine, are heavily skewed and really
don’t mean anything.
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The FDA didn’t initiate that study,
M-Foods did.
Because the FDA holds manufacturers responsible
for their own claims, M-Foods can legally conduct its
own studies and print its findings on its labels. Even
those disclaimer statements—those findings don’t
have to be approved by the FDA either. And here we
are, the public, believing what we read on packages
because we falsely believe a higher power is looking
out for us.
But, as we learned earlier, the only time the
manufacturer gets caught is if enough consumers
come forward with complaints and allegations that the
claims are false.
Each and every one of us needs to become more
educated about how our food supply works.
When you have more knowledge, you can make
better choices. The FDA might not be able to protect
you at the grocery store level, but you can help
yourself.
So what should you
do to protect yourself?
• Trust the certified organic label. Always look for
products that are labeled “certified organic.” That
label means the manufacturer has provided a layer
of transparency that not all manufacturers are
willing to do.
• Buy certified organic to feed your family with the
most wholesome food you possibly can.
• Buy certified organic to support the producers and
manufacturers for doing the right thing.
• Buy certified organic to vote against companies like
“M-Foods” and GMOs in your food supply.
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