256 THE CHINA STUDYnew Public Nutrition Information Committee. Who were the leaders of
the new Public Nutrition Information Committee? Bob Olson, Alfred
Harper and Tom Jukes, a long-time industry scientist, each of whom
held a university faculty position. I was initially innocent of the group's
purpose, but by our first meeting in the spring of 1980, I had discovered
that, of the eighteen members on that committee, I was the only indi-
vidual who did not have ties to the commercial world of food and drug
companies and their coalitions.
This committee was a stacked deck; its members were entrenched in
the status quo. Their professional associations, their friends, the people
they fraternized with, were all pro-industry. They enjoyed the meaty
American diet themselves and were unwilling to consider the possibility
that their views were wrong. In addition, some of them enjoyed hand-
some benefits, including first-class travel expenses and nice consulting
fees, paid by animal foods companies. Although there was nothing il-
legal about any of these activities, it certainly laid bare a serious conflict
of interest that put most of the committee members at odds with the
public interest.
This is analogous to the situation, as it unfolded, surrounding ciga-
rettes and health. When scientific evidence first emerged to show that
cigarettes were dangerous, there were hordes of health professionals
who vigorously defended smoking. For example, the Journal of the
American Medical Association continued to advertise tobacco products,
and many others played their part to staunchly defend tobacco use. In
many cases, these scientists were motivated by understandable caution.
But there were quite a few others, particularly as the evidence against
tobacco mounted, whose motivations were clearly personal bias and
greed.
So there I was, on a committee that was to judge the merit of nutri-
tion information, a committee that was comprised of some of the most
powerful pro-industry scientists. I was the only one not hand-picked by
the industry cronies, as I was there at the behest of the director of the
FA5EB public affairs office. At that point in my career, I had not formed
any particularly strong views for or against the standard American diet.
More than anything, I was interested in promoting honest, open de-
bate-something that would immediately put me at odds with this new
organization.