Big Farma

Making people sick so drug companies can make more money

I was reading the latest from a fellow Grok contributor, John Klar, about food. He has a great Substack I both recommend and follow here. The question is whether the USDAs new food guidelines - they are revamping them again - are going to make us fatter and sicker or heathier.

Photo by meriç tuna on Unsplash

It has often been argued that past “food pyramids” were unethically influenced by industrial interests that touted high-carb (grain) diets as “healthy.” Americans were told butter was bad; margarine was “better” than Mother Nature; eggs and meats were unhealthy; and women and children were better served by the “convenience” of baby formulas and pre-packaged baby foods. In its recent nutritional iterations, is the USDA focused on the health of humans or corporate profits?

Health-conscious eyebrows are being raised at who is getting a seat at the USDA guidelines drafting table. The list includes many who have benefitted from consulting fees or other remuneration from companies including Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and the dubious World Health Organization, which advocates for a plant-based diet without cautions against the chemical residues commonly present in many modern plant crops. These include cancer-causing pesticides, endocrine disruptors that mimic estrogen, and processed fats that increase obesity. Could it be that such organizations (and the people they employ) suffer from conflicts of interest?

I find it interesting that the USDA chose now to retool the propaganda it will encourage or leverage schools and health professionals to share with the general public. Schools will, with few exceptions, be doe-eyed fantasists pimping the latest polygon and whatever choices are arrayed. How about David Lee Roth’s five food groups: caffeine, nicotine, salt, grease, and carbon?

I’ve lived on that, but I was young and always active. Very active. No internet or smart devices back then. The phone was on the wall and the people were out in the world. Don’t get me wrong; I love my devices and the internet. I can see my stove on my list of network devices. No worries, I’m not connecting it to the “network,” nor is anything else wired “wirelessly” to the rest of the world in my house. Just mobile phones and computers because I get enough suggested content based on whispers overheard by Big Brother.

If the government knew what was in my fridge or how often I run the dishwasher, what might it send me?

I talk to it—the mystical force that throws garage door lube ads at me after overhearing me mention how mine could use some maintenance. They are not always useful and often almost creepy. On that note, don’t forget to talk to your friends and family members’ smartphones if they leave them near you to use the bathroom or restroom. Whisper things to it about hair loss, erectile dysfunction, or looking for single seniors in your area.

I’ve also been known to look up as if talking to God to remind the NSA that whatever was just said was a joke.

Like the USDA guidelines, I’ve never been a fan. Colorful infographics on the inside walls of institutional-looking brick buildings or neutral-shade doctor’s office walls—next to the generic landscape artwork. I blame my transformation from someone who paid no attention to what the government does to one who perhaps pays too much (kidding, there’s no such thing). Covid policy killed any trust I had for public health and, as ground zero for that grows more distant, medical “professionals” who cling to the false ideas propagated as a result.

The CDC and NIH are damaged goods. So, too, are the FDA and USDA. These agencies are not tools of government to protect people's interests. They are lobbyists cashing checks from big food and industrial farming—Big Farma.

I looked, and no one with any reach appears to have coined the term, though I suspect someone else has somewhere in a country bar under neon lights, boots covered in red dust, a bucket of iced beers, and a shot of whisky close at hand.

People who grow real food, not Big Farma.

It is phonetically identical to its more well-known conjoined twin, but this just makes it make more sense. Big Food is Big Farma.

That gives us Big Pharma and Big Farma.

And the USDA is like a conjoined triplet. Another agency captured by the industry it is meant to oversee. So, the odds are good that the next iteration of “nutritional guidelines” will be more like David Lee Roth's joke than anything good for the people. But as noted above - interesting timing. Robert F. Kennedy Jr once confirmed - if confirmed - will have oversight and he’s not going to care too much about the existing arrangements. At least that’s what we hope.

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