Dear Editor,
The March article, “Industry Trailblazers and the Fight for Health Freedom,” was interesting, but sad in that it fails to mention the health-freedom groups that fought to get DSHEA passed. Perhaps in later articles?

Scott Tips
Editor, Health Freedom News
President and Legal Counsel for
National Health Federation

Editor’s Note:
Indeed, several health-freedom groups were very active in the fight for health freedom. As mentioned in the March report, Citizens for Health (established by retailer Joe Bassett) was very active in the fight for health freedom. The group deserves a lot of credit for rallying consumers to fight for the passage of DSHEA.

Another group that was equally active was the National Health Federation (NHF). Both firms did a lot to publicize Orrin Hatch’s original Health Freedom Act of 1992, which later became DSHEA. Comparatively, the original bill would have secured some additional freedoms that DSHEA ended up moving forward without. NHF and Citizens for Health did a lot of petitioning for the Health Freedom Act (and DSHEA), and NHF created the NHF/DC fund, which went toward getting Suzanne Harris (of the Law Loft) and Patrick Von Mauk (NHF’s chairman of the board at the time) to do seminars and lobbying in Washington, D.C.

In the end, industry manufacturers may have been more open to compromise on certain aspects of the bill, believing it was imperative to get DSHEA passed right at that time. Some citizens’ groups believed if they held out a little longer, the new Congress would have been favorable toward a DSHEA that didn’t have as many compromises and possibly would have been more pro-industry and consumer friendly. But, these groups still urged passage of DSHEA  and were integral in getting consumers to support it.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, June 2014