The China Study by Thomas Campbell

GOVERNMENT: IS IT FOR THE PEOPLE? 313

interest. These associations should not be something we have to go to

court to discover.

SEnlNG US BACK FOR YEARS

Lest you think that this Food and Nutrition Board report is merely a

five-second news bite that then gets filed into a dusty old cabinet some-

where in Washington, let me assure you that tens of millions of people

are directly affected by this panel's findings. According to the summary

of the report itself,13 the recommended levels of nutrient consumption

that are set by this panel are

the basis for nutrition labeling of foods, for the Food Guide Pyra-

mid and for other nutrition education programs ... [They are]

used to determine the types and amounts of food:

• provided in the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) Supple-
  mental Feeding Program and the Child Nutrition Programs
  such as School Lunch,


• served in hospitals and nursing homes for Medicare reim-
  bursement,


• found in the food supply that should be fortified with specific
  nutrients,


• used in a host of other important federal and state programs
  and activities [such as establishing reference values used in
  food labeling] 13

The School Lunch Program feeds 28 million children every day. With
officially recommended consumption patterns like these, we are at liberty
to put any agricultural commodity we want into the hungry mouths of
children already suffering from unprecedented levels of obeSity and dia-
betes. By the way, the 2002 FNB report does make one special exception
for children: it says that they can consume up to 40% of calories as fat, up
from 35% for the rest of us, while minimizing the risk of chronic disease.
The Women, Infants and Children Program affects the diets of another 7
million Americans, and the Medicare hospital programs feed millions of
people every year. It is safe to say that the food provided by these govern-
ment programs directly feeds at least 35 million Americans a month.
For people who are not directly fed by the government, this nutri-
ent information still has Significant consequences. From September
2002 onwards, nutrition education programs around the country