The Secret History of the FDA
The whole of government-led public health is captured to the point that we don’t know what is real and what is fake, what is safe and what is harmful.
BY BROWNSTONE INSTITUTE
Our lead story this week reveals the origin of the Food and Drug Administration. From the outset, it was an industry-controlled agency designed to shore up public confidence in two failing industries: biologics and meatpacking. Its mandate only expanded from there.
This is why reform has been so difficult. It is tasked with rooting out the very products it was built to protect from market forces.
This story is part of a larger problem, which is much larger than people suppose. The whole of government-led public health is captured to the point that we don’t know what is real and what is fake, what is safe and what is harmful, what is a legitimate product and what is a racket. The FDA gets in the way of market forces that would otherwise reveal all.
The point is not that improvements are impossible, only that they cannot get to the root of the issue.
Last week, a major scientist at an Ivy League university was tossed out of his position as head of a cancer research institute. The apparent reason: he coauthored a paper drawing an association between cancer and the Covid shots. The website was hit with a month of DDOS attacks and taken down. Brownstone Institute stepped in and distributed it. Then the professional attacks began.
You see what is happening here? The purge is ongoing. This makes our work more important than ever. Brownstone truly needs your support right now if we are to step up and deal with these new pressures. We invite your support. The cause of freedom needs your commitment today.
The Brownstone Show is going well. Tune in to these episodes, including the latest one this week with Stephan Kinsella. BROWNSTONE SHOW.
These are the sorts of topics we talk about at Brownstone Supper Clubs, now coast to coast. Pick one and go!
Midwest: On Monday, April 13th, the Midwest Supper Club welcomes Dave Rollo. Get tickets.
Manhattan: On Tuesday, April 14th, the Manhattan Supper Club welcomes John Gilmore. Get tickets.
Puget Sound: On Tuesday, April 21st, the Puget Sound Supper Club welcomes Corey DeAngelis. Get tickets.
Pittsboro, NC: On Tuesday, April 21st, the Pittsboro, NC Supper Club welcomes Drs. Patricia Robitaille and Coleen Rickabaugh. Get tickets.
Charlotte, NC: On Tuesday, April 21st, the Charlotte, NC Supper Club welcomes Andrew Byrd. Get tickets.
West Hartford, CT: On Wednesday, April 22nd, the West Hartford, CT Supper Club welcomes Walter Kirn. Get tickets.
Austin, TX: On Wednesday, April 22nd, the Austin Supper Club welcomes Jenna McCarthy. Get tickets.
Pittsburgh, PA: On Wednesday, April 22nd, the Pittsburgh Supper Club welcomes Mike Costarell. Get tickets.
Chattanooga, TN: On Tuesday, May 5th, the Chattanooga Supper Club welcomes Michele Reneau. Get tickets.
Greater Boston, MA: On Tuesday, May 5th, the Greater Boston Supper Club welcomes Professor Thomas Seyfried. Get tickets.
Chicago, IL: On Thursday, May 7th, the Chicago Supper Club welcomes Tom Sosnoff. Get tickets.
Polyface Farm: On Friday and Saturday, August 28th and 29th, Brownstone will host our annual Polyface Retreat at Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. REGISTER NOW. NOTE: Tickets for the VIP dinner August 28 are now available. TICKETS.
Chattanooga: On Friday and Saturday, November 6th and 7th, Brownstone will host our 6th Annual Conference and Gala. Save the dates.
If you are interested in being a supper club host in your area, please visit our Supper Club information page here.
Here is some content since our last email.
What If the FDA Were Eliminated? By Jeffrey Tucker. Reform efforts have been met with frustration. The entire machinery is set up to resist the influence of a politically hostile takeover. For example, Moderna has been given the green light to further develop the technology for a flu shot.
Jury Trials Are Vital to the Constitutional Order By David Thunder. The Labour-led British government is attempting to hollow out an ancient pillar of English constitutionalism, trial by jury. Under their reforms, trial by jury would survive in England and Wales for certain types of crimes, but its use would be curtailed.
When War Teaches Medicine By Joseph Varon. War is likely to persist. Medicine, however, must remain steadfast, anchored in principles that transcend conflict, ideology, and time. It should not become a weapon but must remain a profession dedicated to the care of each individual, regardless of circumstance.
Medicalization of Our Spiritual Life By Elisabeth Bennink. Human cultures across time have recognized that certain plants can facilitate contact with the spiritual world—serving as a kind of spiritual nourishment. And yet, more than what we eat, it is our spiritual life that shapes who we truly are.
Don’t Use Antidepressants During Pregnancy or for Children By Peter C. Gotzsche. Official statements that antidepressants are safe to take during pregnancy should be distrusted. No drug is safe. If drugs were safe, they would not be the leading cause of death, ahead of cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
The Story of the Victorian-Era Anti-Mandate Movement By Jeffrey Tucker. All rhetoric and seeming extremism aside, all these movements have ever wanted – from the 1790s to today – is for this product to be subject to normal market discipline of supply and demand, without any interventions designed to back the industry.
What Would Robert Louis Stevenson Say about Ozempic? By Ann Bauer. Today, we have a drug made of “salt forms of a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist,” being pushed by physicians and television campaigns and sports heroes and celebrities nationwide that allows people to silence the addict within.
The Lost Art of Medicine: What Maimonides Knew That We Forgot By Joseph Varon. Contemporary medicine is not failing for lack of knowledge. It is failing under the weight of complexity. Nearly every aspect of patient care can now be measured. Yet despite these advances, a fundamental element has been eroded. This erosion is philosophical.
Not Your Grandfather’s Stagflation By David Stockman. We are going to get a globe-shaking economic conflagration erupting from the void that was the Persian Gulf commodity fountain. That includes between 20% and 50% of all the basic commodities that drive global GDP.
What the IHRP Report Means for America, WHO, and the Future of Global Health By David Bell, Ramesh Thakur, and Roger Bate. The choice ahead is straightforward. Governments can treat the pandemic as an anomaly and return to familiar habits—or they can use the hard lessons of Covid-19 to demand institutions that are narrower, more transparent, and genuinely accountable.
The Behemoth of Global Corruption Is an Extension of Ourselves By David Bell. Once we cut the behemoth down to human size, we can see that nothing is new, and defeating it is not impossible. It will take perseverance, hope, and a reckoning with ourselves.
Ketanji Brown Jackson Remains “Puzzled” by Medical Freedom By Brownstone Institute. While Tuesday’s opinion was a victory for free speech and medical freedom, Justice Jackson’s opinion is not merely the ramblings of a radical ideologue. She is the mouthpiece for a powerful cohort that seeks to strip Americans of their autonomy.
Crunch Time for the WHO By David Bell and Ramesh Thakur. The polarised debate on the World Health Organization (WHO) has been based more on mud-slinging and all-or-nothing dogma than scientific evidence and empirical data. However, with trust plummeting in public health, change is needed.
As a veterinarian, I've long been involved with medicines that were mainstream prior to the establishment of the FDA in 1938 due to working with hundreds of clients in the USDA certified organic realm. Why do I use medicines such as botanicals? Due to the complete prohibition of antibiotics and synthetics under the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990. Between 1906 and 1938, botanical medicines were produced to be safe and to what the label said was on them. They are grand-fathered by FDA's own admission, but by administrative procedures they have been shut out of commerce ever since the pharmaceutical synthetic juggernaut beginning around 1940.
Agreed, industry often seeks regulation when there is confusion in the marketplace and they can shore up confidence. Same in the organic sector, and similar to meat packing, really large players have gotten involved.
How does this relate to your excellent insight into why FDA was formed and how it could reformed, at least to some accountable degree?
Just like Underwriters Labs and the BBB and now Yelp, there should be a 3rd party review system of proposed medicines by accredited reviewers. The Organic Materials Review Institute is the gold standard for what's allowed to be used in USDA certified organic crop, livestock and processing. Their reviews rake materials over the coals and are consistent with what the USDA National Organic Program has accepted by what has been petitioned for use through the open public process of the National Organic Standards Board (which I was on for 5 years). Their review process is long and tedious and ultimately fraught with bureaucracy, but ultimately fair to both consumer and manufacturer to make sure materials are in line with the statute.