Reactive medical care and the food industry: a societal failure or a capitalist success?

Matthew Kearney

Professor John Horgan

Seminar in Science Writing: HST 401

September 24, 2024


Reactive medical care and the food industry: a societal failure or a capitalist success?


“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”, as pinged by Benjamin Franklin rings true in today's US medical care system. Lifestyles do not promote or align with principles of human wellness. We should grow more awareness of the reason for certain chronic illnesses when there is one, and what we can do to prevent their onset. A shift in the reactionary framework of healthcare, where we wait for someone to prove ill, into preventative medicine to alleviate the economic, physical, and mental burdens of the American class.

We shouldn’t need to rigorously define individual well-being to see that some aspects of the American lifestyle negatively affect health and development. Among notable contenders, our food system is not designed to promote the health of our nation and should be reevaluated to find ways we can better sustain our population. Food insecurity is greatly connected to race, socioeconomic status, geography, and other characteristic marginalizations.

Dr. Justin Kastner at Kansas State University says that one key difference between the US and the EU, for example, “is that historically the United States has been more insistent in focusing on the probability or likelihood of hazards or bad things occurring”, whereas the European Union’s approach gives attention to the very possibility of adverse effects, not just probabilities. Where the EU focuses on removing adverse effects, the US is more interested in mitigating them - maybe. The lax approach that the US has when shaping regulation on our food markets should be understood as a profitable complement to the US healthcare system. 

The US food industry, as in other parts of our country, is lobbied by the biggest players in US industry. This gives lobbyists and their corporate power the tool to promote policies and regulations that surround additives and food composition - in their favor. As with healthcare, our food system is attached to our capitalism, and I argue that some of the corporate predisposition to drive further profits instead of reevaluating what communities need is affecting our nation and its well-being deeply.

In late spring of 2024 the Kellog’s cereal brand CEO, Gary Pilnick, claimed that financially struggling parents should feed their children cereal for dinner-  boasting “the price of a bowl of cereal with milk and with fruit is less than a dollar”, which suits as a valid temperature check for assessing just how estranged corporate ownership seems to fare with the American reality of putting food on the table. 

Beyond this, looking at specific regions exacerbates the inequalities already present in the American demographic and gives a deeper picture of the ‘modern’ system that’s been developed and placed before us. We are at an unfulfilling crossroads between education as a means for food security and systematic barriers around healthy food. Can we be more realistic?

Food deserts are regions where healthy food is unavailable and are common in economically or socially disadvantaged areas, particularly in the US. The Canadian National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health shares that “Our long-term diet patterns are a determinant of health outcomes such as the development of nutrition-related chronic conditions, e.g., excess weight gain, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer”. Beyond this, depression and anxiety have also been linked to poor eating habits. 

This cycle of unhealthy food deepens the financial burdens of its victims, as it leads to an unsustainable increase in healthcare costs. An elementary idea is that the food we eat is the energy we use to sustain ourselves throughout our day, but widespread exposure to poor eating habits and influences day after day has forced individuals, families, and communities into eating unhealthy and unsatisfying food - aiding and abetting our modern health crisis. Can we make conditions for corporations to better meet consumer value or needs, and how so? Would this transition towards sustainability in our food system revitalize the health care system of the US?



Works Cited

“Food Deserts and Food Swamps: A Primer.” National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health (CA), ncceh.ca/sites/default/files/Food_Deserts_Food_Swamps_Primer_Oct_2017.pdf. Accessed 24 Sept. 2024.

“Kellogg’s CEO Says Cereal for Dinner Is 'on Trend Now’.” YouTube, Guardian News, youtu.be/GjKhyl3DzDo?si=6TJXdqdFkbYwPpyz. Accessed 24 Sept. 2024.

“Why Are Some Food Additives That Are Banned in Europe Still Used in the U.S.?” EverydayHealth.Com, www.everydayhealth.com/diet-nutrition/why-are-some-food-additives-that-are-banned-in-europe-still-used-in-the-us/. Accessed 24 Sept. 2024. 

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