By Josh Schubert
September 7, 2024
With RFK Jr's candidacy and his 𝕏 recent decision to endorse President Donald Trump for 2024, RFK Jr has brought the growing rates of chronic disease into the front and center of American politics.
I believe his intention is genuinely noble, and I have much to agree with him on in terms of what is causing American's decrease in health as evidenced by declining testosterone levels in men, lower average temperature, as well as increasing rates of autism, cancer, diabetes and many other chronic diseases. Additionally, in the wake of Covid tyranny many Americans are navigating questions that they had previously thought answered, such as the efficacy of vaccines.
Additionally I would grant that if RFK Jr were at the helm of America's public health, his policies would lead to great improvement over the status quo. But I would argue that by his own stated ends (let alone constitutional, libertarian, and political considerations) the arms of the regulatory state including the FDA, USDA, CDC, and NIH as well as their regulations must not just be reformed, but abolished. But for sake of discussion let us set that aside and consider this one case of harmful regulation.
One strategy for improving the food supply of Americans is to ban harmful chemical fillers used in food. Polysorbate 80 is one such chemical that is included as a filler with vitamin A and D supplements added to dairy. Fillers on the added vitamin are not required to be labeled on the end product sold to consumers. Right now the USDA mandates that lowfat dairy's have added vitamin A to make up for the lost vitamin content from the removal of extra fat.
Historically, when harmful chemicals are banned, such as Bysphenol A (BPA), industry just switches to the next most similar chemical, such as Bysphenol B, which will also have the same endocrine disrupting effects. If banning were the approach, then a regulatory administration could move to banning the whole class of Bysphenol chemicals in kitchen products due to their expected endocrine disrupting effects.
Similar would apply with the polysorbates. There is polysorbate-20, polysorbate-40, -60, and -80, and so on. All distinct chemicals but with likely similar effects, but each is only evaluated on an individual chemical basis.
One approach that happens to effect this issue is the the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act supported by my Pennsylvania Representative Glenn Thompson (R) passed in the house as well as a similar bill co-sponsored in the senate by Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman (D) to get whole fat dairy as an option in public school lunches. While this is not a libertarian approach, it is an improvement within the frame of the regulatory landscape as it currently stands. One benefit is that children at public schools would be able to get natural vitamin A from the whole fat milk rather than as a supplement in low-fat milk with toxic additives.
For removing the polysorbates, I propose a different (and libertarian) approach. If the regulation requiring added vitamin A to low-fat milks were removed, this is a win-win for dairy farmers and distributors as well as dairy customers. Dairies can save money by removing low-quality vitamins with unnecessary fillers, and customers can enjoy improved health as well as the freedom to enjoy both unadulterated low-fat and full-fat milks.
It is not a matter of perfecting the right kind of regulation but of removing government regulation altogether that improves American's food security and consumer health. If there is a real issue with vitamin A deficiency, families can choose to eat vitamin A rich foods such as beef liver or eggs, or supplement vitamin A directly.
Barring a Trump presidency with RFK Jr heading up the reform of American food security and consumer health (and even in that case) as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, we have no option but to work with the world as it currently stands. The President Trump I want to see is one that abolishes entire branches of the Federal government, but I will settle for the best relevant alternative compared to a Harris presidency, whose father is a Marxist economist and mother is owned by the estrogen industry.