Washington Insider--Wednesday

By DTN's Washington Insider

Here's a quick monitor of Washington farm and trade policy issues from DTN's well-placed observer.

Federal Judge Criticizes EPA's Failure to Comply with Freedom of Information Requests

The Environmental Protection Agency is in hot water with a federal district judge for the way it has handled, or in some cases not handled, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Judge Royce Lamberth this week said EPA should take greater responsibility for ensuring that all FOIA requests — "regardless of the political affiliation of the requester — are treated with equal respect and conscientiousness."

At issue is an FOIA request submitted in August 2012 by Landmark Legal Foundation which describes itself as America's oldest conservative, nonprofit, public interest law firm. The foundation was seeking documents that would show whether EPA intentionally delayed certain controversial regulations until after the 2012 federal elections. The agency did finally provide information to Landmark, but did so only after former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson's agency phone had been reset and after she erased e-mails from her personal account.

Judge Lamberth said EPA's "continued disregard" of its FOIA obligations leaves "far too much room for a reasonable observer to suspect misconduct."

EPA, already the focus of intense scrutiny and criticism from congressional Republicans, should expect to be asked to explain all this at yet-to-be announced hearings later this year.

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GAO Says FDA Failing to Meet Goals for Inspecting Foreign Food Facilities

The Food and Drug Administration is not inspecting foreign food facilities at the pace mandated by a 2010 food safety law because of budget shortfalls, the Government Accountability Office reported this week. GAO says FDA's eight foreign offices conducted 1,322 inspections of human food facilities and seven of animal food operations in fiscal 2014, but should have inspected 4,800, according to a provision in the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

When asked by GAO about the shortfall, FDA officials responded that the agency has no plans to meet the FSMA requirement because of costs and questioned whether that many inspections were useful. In addition, FDA says the average foreign food inspection costs more than $23,000, compared to $15,500 for a domestic inspection.

FDA and USDA are funded by the same appropriations legislation, and Congress currently is holding hearings to set budgets for the two for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. This week's GAO report is likely to be used as reference material as those hearings go forward, but whether it will result in a boost in FDA's FY 2016 budget appears unlikely.

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Washington Insider: Are Government Diet Guidelines Out of Touch?

The USDA-Health and Human Services diet guideline advisory group has prepared recommendations for the agencies to consider in developing new recommendations and the prevailing opinion is that there is much to dislike in the new report. However, most reviewers have focused on ideas they don't like.

Cheryl Achterberg, professor of nutrition and dean of the College of Education and Human Ecology at Ohio State University, served on the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. She says the whole system is broken, sort of, and that the advisory group is now far out of step with reality because it simply does not recognize how modern American families actually buy and eat.

In an OpEd piece in the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Achterberg notes that to fulfill its task and complete its 571-page report, the committee "developed a conceptual model based on socio-ecological frameworks to guide its work." In other words, it identified healthy foods and good eating habits. Not surprisingly, the committee issued a long list of foods Americans should either substantially limit or stop eating — "culinary enemies" deemed unacceptably high in calories, saturated fats, sodium and added sugars.

She thinks the guidelines could improve the health of many but notes evidence that indicates that other diets might be better, especially those with low-carbohydrate, higher-fat profiles. And, she notes that research results indicate that only 3 to 4 percent of Americans follow the guidelines, and even after 35 years, their influence on eating habits has been negligible.

Her main point is that while the committee's dietary guidance may be well intended, it ignores how U.S. citizens really eat and what is achievable for working families under immense economic and time pressure.

Her "charitable explanation" is that the public has been bombarded by multiple, often conflicting, voices and messages. "In the 1980s people were encouraged to make bread, cereal, rice and pasta the foundation of their diets — until told not to. In the 1990s fat was the enemy — until it wasn't. Drink coffee; don't drink coffee, and drink coffee again. And now cholesterol isn't so bad after all."

Now, Achterberg is presenting her "less kindly view" that federal dietary guidance has simply failed to resonate. She accuses the agencies of promoting the strategy of simply repeating the same messages — only louder and with more chastising. Thus in 2015 the government's dietary advisers seek to limit public access to "bad" foods in hopes of pressing us all to eat "good" foods instead.

This strategy will backfire, too, she thinks. She notes her own research and scores of similar studies conducted by colleagues, indicates that the better approach emphasizes incentives, not penalties. If policymakers expect to influence Americans' eating habits, three things must change.

First, government guidelines should stop defining "good" and "bad" foods because consumers know that "demonized" products, when consumed in moderation, cause no harm. That policy has eroded credibility, she says.

Second, dietary guidelines must reflect the experience of how people really eat and what they can change versus how experts wish they would eat. Advice should focus on balance, variety and moderation and the experts "must also collaborate with the food industry to help produce and market healthy food and beverage choices."

Finally, she thinks that trying to "reform other people's habits" is pretty futile, and that steps to make food combinations healthier would work better. "Instead of telling Americans not to eat a roast-beef sandwich, why not teach them how to build a better sandwich by adding a slice of tomato, some leafy green or other vegetable — or reduce portion sizes?," she asks.

She concludes that the government's dietary guidelines can direct policy changes that affect the millions fed by federal nutrition assistance and other programs every day. And, she says, "when policymakers adapt to this reality and partner with American consumers rather than preach at them, the nation's eating habits will improve."

Well, maybe. The advice about stopping demonizing foods seems especially useful, for both public and private advocates, along with the suggestions about balance. And it also seems clear that the recent advisory committee report far exceeded its charter and may so antagonize the food industry that it ends the dietary guidelines' overall effect.

How that came to happen, and how it can be prevented from happening again in the future are important questions which demand clear answers. Perhaps it is time to mute the voices of the advocates and insist that the guidelines offer practical, useful advice rather than the abrasive, ill-founded scoldings we have come to expect, Washington Insider believes.

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