Reality Check, Please: Blind cheerleading for the wrong solutions is dangerous

For many years, I was very much alone in saying the problem with the food system is political. I am happy to say that over time, many others have joined me in recognizing this. However, we are not deploying nearly the appropriate level of response, either in strategy or in the amount of dollars being spent. 

We know what the problems are. The question is, what are the best solutions? In my view, we are still just tinkering around the edges, placing band-aids on gaping wounds. 

With climate change now reaching critical levels, time is running out. Many advocates are rightly making the connection between conventional animal agriculture and climate change, so it’s important that when we do so, we identify the most effective solutions.

It’s vitally important to identify what is wrong with the current strategies and stop being distracted by them. It's too late to just try everything and anything and see what works. We must be strategic and use our limited resources wisely.

Some advocates think others should not comment on strategies we disagree with. 

It’s true that some people spend their days trolling the internet to complain while they do nothing to help. But others are thoughtful, experienced advocates who are driven to make the world a better place. I am frustrated by the failure of certain strategies by my fellow advocates in the food movement and think it’s important to identify their weaknesses.

I believe I have earned this viewpoint. Since 1996, I have been researching and writing about the food and beverage industries, including their underhanded lobbying, PR, and marketing tactics, while advocating for better policies to make healthy eating the norm. 

Because most non-profits in the late 1990s were engaged in ineffective strategies such as education and ignored policy altogether, I decided to blaze my own trail. I was inspired by the work of Marion Nestle to write about the politics of food, applying my public health and legal training to the issues. 

Along the way, I have been harassed by industry front groups, dismissed for my vegan diet, and sent threatening letters from the Center for Consumer Freedom demanding my IRS records. I have been gaslighted, called names, and subpoenaed by lawyers.

But I didn’t let that stop me. 

In 2006, I published a book called Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back. I called out McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Kraft, and many others for pretending to be “part of the solution” to the nation’s health crisis due to poor diet. 

I have lobbied and testified in Congress and state legislatures taking on the alcohol lobby, the biotech industry, and many other powerful interests. I have a huge body of work consisting of research reports and articles on the politics of food and beverages, many of which have been cited by media, academics, and many others.

In 2015, over a period of many months, I organized (uncompensated) the nation’s first and only plant-based foods industry association, to be a countervailing political force to the meat and dairy lobbies. I had the vision and persistence to launch the Plant Based Foods Association in 2016 without help from any other organization except a small grant ($30,000, which the five founding board members matched). In the 5+ years as the industry’s leader, I opposed the meat and dairy lobbies in various ways and won, in federal and state legislatures, with regulators, and in litigation. Multiple times. 

In other words, I have 25-year track record of working in various settings: non-profits, industry, government, and as a consultant. I am not just sitting around criticizing others. I have been in the trenches and have seen first-hand what we are up against and it’s not pretty. (See my complete bio with other examples of taking on corporate bullies here.)

We need effective solutions, not grandstanding or wishful thinking.

If we don’t get underneath the true causes of our broken food system, we won’t change anything. As I said before, in explaining why the market will not solve factory farming, it’s like having a house with a faulty foundation and putting on a fresh coat of paint and hoping for the best. 

Am I being “negative” to criticize? No, I am simply pointing out how and why the current popular strategies won’t work. We need to wake up and see the realities around us so that we can seek better solutions. 

And what are those solutions? I invite you to explore with me the failures of the current advocacy landscape, along with a discussion of more effective solutions. Stay tuned.

Michele Simon is a public health attorney, author, and founder and former executive director of the Plant Based Foods Association. This is part a collection of articles called “Reality Check, Please”. Got ideas to share? Michele@MicheleRSimon.com