Decades of Navigating the Perverse Economy of Food

Marion Nestle has a new book that reflects decades of insights gleaned from navigating the perverse economy of food. It is well worth your time. Not because we agree with every word. But precisely because we do not and you may not either – yet her words reflect careful thought and consideration of how our food systems work. It would be foolish not to heed them.

On Fresh Air, Nestle expressed her well-developed philosophy of activism for better food and nutrition:

“I tell people that they can’t do it on their own, that even the act of going into a grocery store and trying to make healthy choices means that you, as an individual, are up against an entire food system that is aimed at getting you to eat the most profitable foods possible, regardless of their effects on health and the environment. So you have to join organizations. You have to join with other people who are interested in the same issues and concerned about the same problems and get together with them to set some goals for what you’d like to do and then work towards those goals. Because if you don’t do it, who will?”

The Influence of Food Marketing and Industry

She has a dim view of the influence of the food industry on our health. Their influence, however, comes in the context of a much larger context of consumer behavior and dysfunctional regulation that arms the industry with tools to sell their products while telling us they will make us healthier – which they do not. Those tools are the health claims that we find everywhere in food marketing.

Nestle tell us wisely:

“Health claims are about marketing. They are not about health. Foods are foods, not drugs.”

Meanwhile, FDA keeps working on ways for industry to make more health claims.

Can We Shift?

By calling us all to act for better systems delivering better nutrition, Nestle gets at something that is essential for change. The food industry will keep selling us food that undermines our health so long as we eagerly consume it.

To change this requires a fundamental shift in the perverse economy of food and the ways in which we navigate it. In her new book, Nestle gives us some pretty good clues for doing this.

Click here for more about her new book, here, here, and here for a bounty of insights from recent interviews.

Marion Nestle, photograph by Kara Angèle, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

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November 17, 2025