Over the years much has been said about the close relationship between the American Dietetic Association and the food industry, but not too much has been done about it.
Perhaps that's changing.
Thanks to Canadian RD Cara Rosenbloom for pointing me to a grass roots initiative that took the ADA's "EatRight.org" website and created their own version, "ReallyEatRight.org".
Now the site itself is alarmist, woo-y, kinda anti-science, and a bit over the top, but their campaign to have the ADA sever their ties with food industry funding is one I fully support.
And why wouldn't they do so?
What a tremendous public relations ride they could take on such a move, and it'd be a move that at least superficially, sounds like an easy thing to do as Colby Vorland once calculated, if the ADA wanted to raise as much money annually from their members as they currently do from the food industry they'd only need to charge each member $41 more per year.
I doubt they'd lose members if that $41/year was rolled out with a clear explanation of what it was for. In fact I bet they could roll out a $50/year increase and help fund a new initiative that combats food industry spin. I'd bet further that many RDs who may have left the ADA in disgust, would in fact rejoin, increasing their coffers further.
Heck, if they did that, and if they let me, I'd join.
Posts
Even on a grad-student budget, I'd be happy to pay an additional $50 to sever ADA's ties to corporate food biz.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'm not a fan of this particular group's comingling of issues, and I think it's going to make it more difficult to get "mainstream" RDs on board. The Alliance For Natural Health is piggybacking their effort to reduce/remove U.S. state licensure requirements for RDs, in order to open the market to non-licensed nutrition experts. Leaving aside my own opinions on that (briefly: I don't want a self-taught "expert" writing TPN orders, but general wellness nutrition should be open to anyone), RDs are going to balk at joining the cause of an organization seeking to undermine their authority & job security.
Only the segment of RDs that feels passionately about food politics will hold their nose about ANH's other (primary?) agenda. I'm not sure there are enough RDs in that segment to form an influential majority.
Miss Rosenbloom, according to the bio on the website you linked to, worked for Unilever - does that make her questionable by default?
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that one should have a critical eye on industry relations scientists and organisations have, but to disallow them entirely may cause problems as well.
Individuals and organizations are not comparable entities.
ReplyDeleteBefore replying, if you're actually interested in my views herein, have a peek at the public private partnership debate that I was involved with this past October. There I make the case for the individual's right to choose, and an organization's need to back away.