TOP POLICY GOALS
1. Flip the Food Pyramid
The USDA food guidelines are based on outdated science at best, nefarious special interests at worst. Most top nutritionists, doctors and naturopaths will tell you carbs, including grains and processed foods which typically contain a high amount of carbohydrates, should occupy that smallest portion of your plate. HIgh quality clean proteins and fats, should comprise more of your macronutrients. The food pyramid was replaced in 2011 with the “My Plate” model, but most still remember the pyramid and recall it as the standard.
2. Bring Back Phys Ed and Nutrition to Schools
Perhaps the most disheartening statistic is the obesity rate in children. As of 2024, approximately 1 in 5 U.S. children and adolescents are obese or approximately 19%. Kids are meant to be active and millions of children don’t move enough during the day. Furthermore, they don’t understand or have an appreciation of where their food comes from or why good health is important. This needs to change as the habits kids learn early on will be what they practice throughout their lives.
3. End Government Subsidies
Large government subsidies for crops such as corn, wheat, and soy were introduced in the early 1900s to boost agricultural prices to relieve the national economy after devastating economic collapse from the Great Depression. President Nixon declared a “war on hunger” in 1973, and the Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz adopted a strategy to produce cheap corn through the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973. Nixon and Butz thought they could feed the world with cheap corn and wheat products. The Act stopped paying farmers to plant their land according to supply and demand, and began subsidizing crops by the bushel to reward production. Butz encouraged farmers to plant crops “fence row to fence row” and “adapt or die.” Prices dropped, but the policies put in place by Butz also initiated a new era of manipulated and imbalanced supply and demand in agriculture. Production increased but so did Americans’ appetite for processed food made from the excess corn, wheat, soy, and dairy, as such products were now much cheaper than fruits and vegetables.