The 2,011th Meeting of the Society
April 2, 1993
The Recipe for FDA’s Food Policies
Frank E. McLaughlin
College of Business and Management, University of Maryland
About the Lecture
Twenty-four years ago, the press and public opinion pressured newly-elected President Nixon to uncover new policies for health and nutrition in the United States. President Nixon arranged a White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health that would make public plans for improving "the nutritional status of all Americans and (detailing) how the Government food programs could be improved." The conference presented the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with a "recipe" for its food regulatory policies. For the past quarter of a century, this "recipe" has dominated the relationship between the FDA and the food industry. Mr. McLaughlin, who participated in the work of the conference, will discuss the "recipe" and how it continues to affect, for good or ill, the health and pocketbooks of Americans today.
About the Speaker
Mr. McLaughlin received a B.S. from the University of New Mexico and a J.D. degree from American University. He stayed in Washington and went to work in the Office of the Commissioner, FDA. He was subsequently employed by the FTC, the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs (which he headed at one point), and in the White House offices under President's Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan. For the past ten years, Mr. McLaughlin has been acquainting business students at the University of Maryland's College Park Campus with the intricacies of the business-government relationship.