The FDA's Food Labeling Shortcut

The FDA has jurisdiction over plenty of truly important food issues that could benefit from revised regulations—antibiotic use on feedlots, safety of food additives such as salt and carrageenan, safety practices of food processors, to name a few. Instead of asking whether it should define natural, the FDA should be asking what food is acceptable to eat. The agency should focus its limited resources on determining how to better exercise its regulatory authority to ensure that any consumer walking into the supermarket can buy anything without worrying about whether it is safe for her children or for the environment. It should embrace its responsibility as the federal food watchdog and hold food producers, processors, distributors, and marketers accountable for the health and environmental risks that they generate.