Politics. Rusty Butz is long forgotten.
Yes, that was his name.
He was Secretary of Agriculture under President Richard Nixon, the last president to face the near existential political threat of food inflation. Secretary Butz is remembered for two things, industrial-scale farming and corn.
It was just the kind of luck President Nixon was known for that he got to the White House after the fiscal stimulus of President Lyndon Johnson’ Great Society programs and a ramp in the Vietnam War, not before.
Fighting some other president’s inflation was not President Nixon’s ideal domestic initiative and, fearing the wrath of Wall Street (which he hated in the most un-Quaker-like way), he moved to limit a monetary policy response.
He was then all ears when Secretary Butz offered policies that drove efficiencies and offered the cheap substitution of corn to drive down real prices.
Like too many federal programs, Secretary Butz’s work was monetized by the agriculture industry and embedded in nutrition policy, giving us many of the ultra-processed foods found in the center aisles of the grocery store today.
Secretary Butz might marvel today at a bag of Doritos, which does the most unnatural things to the SecAg’s favorite crop, but he probably would not like the price.
The White House certainly doesn’t.
Policy. Not for nothing, the incidence of obesity has risen dramatically since 1970. So has the prevalence of Type-2 Diabetes.
Naturally, American industry being what it has become, the response has been the GLP-1 agonist class of drugs like Ozembic and Wegovy. Members of Congress have seized on the cost of these drugs but one, Senator Bernie Sanders, is asking other questions.
In a letter to the Food and Drug Administrator, Dr. Robert Califf, Sen. Sanders asks how the Agency will approach front-of-package labeling it plans to propose in the spring.
This letter follows recent appearances by Dr. Califf and SecHHS Xavier Becerra with Sen. Sanders to discuss a “more holistic approach” to obesity than GLP-1 prescriptions.
If these policy makers are serious, the battle they propose is an epic one. Between health advocates, who themselves are not necessarily in agreement that obesity is “bad,” and the drug industry and agribusiness there is a whole lot of skin in the game.
For agencies in need of reputation restoration, taking on a major behavioral change akin to smoking cessation is not a bad idea. But it is hard.
Power. At least immediately, the White House seems inclined to take a few shots at Big Food. In his Super Bowl Sunday commercial, President Joe Biden, seated beside a neat display of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish and Cool Ranch Doritos, claimed the problem for Americans was the “shrinkflation” of greedy multi-national corporations.
It is an expedient position but at odds with policymakers “holistic” approach. In this excellent paper recently shared with me by Tom Tobin, the authors argue that the low cost of food production – Secretary Butz’s goal – and preparation has contributed to obesity.
In other words, putting two potatoes worth of french-fries beside your hamburger is, until recently, cheaper and easier to do than when President Nixon was in the White House. In the quiet competition between processed food and whole foods, "shrinkflation" has become the rational choice.
Ironically, what President Biden is complaining about is precisely what Sen. Sanders and others seek, even if they are not prepared to admit it.
Have a great rest of your weekend.
Emily Evans
Managing Director – Health Policy
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