Task: The Politics of Nutrition Advice
Choose a country outside of the U.S. and discuss the politics behind the
nutrition advice
that a government gives to its citizens. In doing so, follow the guidelines
and
organization laid out below. Single-spaced, 12 point font, and maximum
5 pages.
Template for the Task A: Keep the roman numerals and the
organization.
I. Summary of the Government’s Nutrition Advice (1-2 page)
This section should summarize a given government’s nutrition advice
and cover the
following information:
General Institutional Set-ups
Which government agencies or political actors give nutrition advice that
is widely
circulated among citizens? What is the main mission of this government
agency (you can check out the agency’s website and find the mission
statement). Is there a conflict of interests in this government agency’s
missions, such as the USDA?
The Nutrition Advice
Summarize the nutrition advice. If it’s helpful, you can use one visual
image that the government used in its nutrition guideline (e.g., food
pyramid, serving amount, etc). This visual image or figure should not
take more than 0.5 page space and you have to cite source at the bottom.
Which year was this nutrition advice given? Who was the targeted
population (general citizens, school-age children, pregnant women)?,
What was the major motive behind the government’s nutrition advice
then?
No need to give an overview of historical development of nutrition
advice—you can focus on a particular time period of your choice
(specify in the memo; e.g., 1975 or 2010 etc) or the most recent episode.
The nutrition guideline summarized here can concern all citizens, or a
specific targeted
population (e.g., school-age children, pregnant women, older population
etc).
Possible sources (these are suggestions; feel free to use different
sources):
(1)“Food-based dietary guidelines” prepared by Food and Agricultural
Organization
(FAO) of the United Nations
http://www.fao.org/nutrition/nutrition-education/food-dietaryguidelines/en/
(2) “International Nutrition Resources” put together by the USDA:
https://www.nal.usda.gov/human-nutrition-and-foodsafety/international-nutrition
(3) Google scholar
(4) Factiva (subscription through UCSD library; establish VPN to access
from off campus sites)
II. Compare this nutrition advice to the U.S. government’s around the
same time period by using Marion Nestle’s book chapters (on Canvas).
Discuss the similarities and differences between the two countries
regarding (1) the type of governments’ agencies that give nutrition
advice, (2) the contents of the advice, and (3) major concerns that
triggered the nutrition advice by the governments. (1-2-page).
Source: Nestle (2003) and your research summarized in section I. Make
sure to cite
Nestle or other sources.
III. Winners and Losers (1-2 pages)
First summarize your guess (before doing research) regarding which
interest groups (farmers, producer of particular type of food, processed
food industries, consumer organizations etc.) benefit or lose from the
nutrition advice summarized in section I and why (if relevant, cite some
readings that help you guess the winners and losers). Your guess can
diverge from the outcome of your research.
Then find out whether your guess was correct or not by researching who
voiced support vs. opposition to the nutrition advice summarized in
Section I. You might be able to find how the government revised its
nutrition guidelines, responding to these pressures (Nestle’s reporting of
this process is superb). This part of the research is the most challenging.
It’s okay if you cannot find the definitive answer –then, you should
report the process of your research accurately (i.e., what sources you
used, what key word combination for the on-line search) and report that
you cannot find the definitive answer (which won’t affect your grade for
this section).
Possible sources (feel free to use different sources, but these are the
best): (1) reports prepared by a given government’s agency that is
responsible for nutrition advice, (2) transcripts of comments made by
organized interests (e.g., farmers, food industries, processed food
companies, consumer organizations) at Congressional/Parliamentary
hearings or bureaucratic agencies’ hearing sessions, (3) Factiva, (4)
google scholar.
IV. Bibliography (this section does not count toward 5-page limit). See
the guidelines for this section at the end.
