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Eating healthy is a joy transcending politics

Make America Healthy Again

What a wonderful thing that would be! And while we’re at it, let’s make every country healthy again. Food peddled by giant food corporations has caused far too much illness for far too long. Nutritionists, scientists, dietitians, concerned citizens, and alternative lifestylers have pushed the healthy food bandwagon uphill for decades. But to no avail.

Enter campaign MAHA (Make America Healthy Again), and everyone’s suddenly taking notice. What has changed? This clarion call comes from social media influencers and politicians.

A MAHA hearing was held recently by Sen. Ron Johnson (think, Atlas Network – far right). It was a platform for former presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr. and his health ideas, some valid in the mainstream, and some, like vaccines, controversial.

Commenting on the hearing, fitness expert Jillian Michaels enthused, “This is one of the best overviews I’ve ever witnessed on how the whole system has been rigged, in what is essentially a ‘bad health by design’ framework…” Many other participants were also bubbling with hope, feeling heard, and at last, thinking they could actually achieve something.

However, it seems that leading professional nutritionists and dieticians (including registered vegan dieticians) who would be helpful and should be consulted, one would think, were not involved. I smell a rat.

A political alliance

I should have guessed. The MAHA Alliance is a PAC (political action campaign) “… proud to announce its launch to unite RFK Jr. supporters in voting for Donald J. Trump.”[1.]

High-profile food activists are involved, like Vani Hari (a.k.a. the ‘Food Babe’), who recently posted on X (Twitter): “American food companies are making a fool out of us. They are knowingly poisoning us. It’s time for this to stop. Our movement is growing like I have never seen before. It’s going to be historic!”

Vani Hari isn’t vegan or plant-based. But she is about “offering real food without added chemicals, products without toxins, and labels without lies.” A healthy agenda. She seems to align with people like David Wolfe, Michael Pollen, and many others calling for clean, organic food for all. Sounds good, and she’s famous for making waves.

But politicians like making the biggest waves. And most are only too happy to use others’ successes at mobilising a passionate group of followers to get it. Fine.

But here’s what is hard to get: alliances between healthy-food activist influencers and far-right American politicians hoping to form the next government? Kennedy Jr. an environmental lawyer, aligning with people in power who are happy to destroy the environment? People who don’t give a hoot about organics or climate change? And, who are all for Big Oil, Big Ag, and Big Tobacco?  It’s the opposite of healthy! The word desperation comes to mind.

America has a 2-party system. Where do Independents and idealist campaigners like Kennedy Jr. fit in? With an admirable track record in protecting the environment, Kennedy evidently told his supporters that he made his decision with a heavy heart. I’m not surprised.

But hoping that in supporting Trump, he and the MAHA movement will gain enough power to radically change the food industry once and for all? Come again! Sharing power with would-be Dictator-Donald who ‘sits at the right hand of God’? Sigh. Trump’s ‘drill baby drill’ menu will be healthier profits for Big Business, Big Ag included. [2.] Beef & cheeseburgers and a fried environment for all.

Political realignment

“There is a political realignment happening here”, writes a curious Marion Nestle, a world authority on food politics. Worried at the lack of bi-partisan and professional input, she adds, “Many of the concerns discussed during this roundtable – lack of food chemical regulation, metabolic dysfunction, pesticide exposure, lack of focus on nutrition in medical school, etc. – were previously common policy fare on the left. That’s all been shaken up by Johnson’s office.”

Such concerns are still common policy on the left and in alternative health circles. And a shake-up is a great idea. But, seriously, can you believe for one minute that far-right players like Johnson, Charles Koch, and all their Atlas Network buddies who run on fossil fuel and ‘forever chemicals’ and who trumpet freedom (to exploit) are going to tackle conflicts of interests between big business and government?

Big Food, like Big Tobacco, will hang on in, holding political sway over the left and the right as they’ve done for decades. Big Tobacco is a good example. According to The Guardian, more than a fifth of Atlas Network affiliates worldwide had either opposed tobacco controls or taken tobacco donations.[3.]  Sound familiar? As George Monbiot writes, “The Atlas Network’s dark-money junk tanks are behind neoliberal policies around the world.” [4.] Atlas members here in New Zealand include the Taxpayers Union and the NZ Initiative (formerly the Business Round Table). The ideology of the ACT party is in perfect alignment.

I don’t like food being a political issue. But sadly, it is and has always been. This will continue. I hope whole-food activists and trustworthy health influencers everywhere ramp up their good work. But I fear that if they chum up with far-right politicians, the Big Players will just use them to gain votes. Then they’ll walk all over them, laughing all the way to the bank.

Meanwhile, for me and many others, gaining awareness and ‘eating healthy’ food is a joy transcending politics. Being personally empowered and feeling the benefits on all levels is what Whole Food Living is all about – healthy people, a healthy environment, and gratitude.

References

  1. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/maha-alliance-super-pac-announces-its-launch-to-unite-kennedy-supporters-to-re-elect-donald-j-trump-in-the-fight-for-americas-health-and-future-302269383.html (Oct. 7, 2024)
  2. https://civileats.com/2020/11/02/how-four-years-of-trump-reshaped-food-and-farming/
  3. https://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2019/jan/23/free-market-thinktanks-tobacco-industry
  4. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/06/rishi-sunak-javier-milei-donald-trump-atlas-network

Innes Hope
Innes Hope
Innes Hope works in the arts, crafting thoughts into words, verses, and recipes for a better world. She stopped eating animals in the early 1970's inspired by reading the book, Diet for a Small Planet. Innes remains concerned about food justice and the climate crisis, and for her, living a plant-wholefoods lifestyle is an obvious choice - an instantly effective, delicious, resilience-empowering, and deeply rewarding way to help heal the world. Still enjoying better health and energy since discovering whole food plant-based eating years ago. She encourages others to join her on the journey.
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