A temporary provision of House Bill 303 that will strengthen nutritional guidelines in New Mexico could garner the University $300,000 if passed.
Stephen Fox, who co-wrote the bill and corresponded with the United Nations to help create global nutritional standards, said the bill's effects would be extremely important on a statewide level.
Funding from the bill would go toward creating additional nutrition courses at UNM. It would also subsidize studies of food additives and pesticides. The Obstetrics, Neonatology and Pediatrics departments would study the medical effects of food additives on pregnant women, fetuses and children under 5 years old.
Another study would track the effects pesticides, herbicides and insecticides have on New Mexicans working or living near agricultural land.
"If enacted, UNM would be the first medical school in the U.S. to have nutrition courses," Fox said.
The main focus of the bill would provide a higher standard in the state for food and food processes than those of the federal government. It would also allow the Legislature to determine which foods are mislabeled by the New Mexico Food Act, the Meat Inspection Act and the New Mexico Dairy Product Act due to neurotoxins and carcinogens.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
George Schwartz, a former doctor at UNM Hospital and author of In Bad Taste: The MSG Syndrome, said he supports the bill and said New Mexican legislators are courageous for proposing it.
"It is an extraordinary chance for New Mexico to look at cutting-edge issues regarding food and nutrition," Schwartz said.
He added the ramifications of the bill in New Mexico, if passed, would be three-fold.
"First, it looks at the overall health issues in New Mexico," Schwartz said. "There's a whole range of people in New Mexico who are vitamin deficient. The second aspect looks at additives in our food. If the state were behind it, it would be a significant approach to the problem of food additives. Third, it would look into areas of potential litigation against corporations that use harmful additives."
Fox said the bill is gaining bipartisan support in the Roundhouse.
"The Committee on Committees determined (Thursday) that the bill was germane, which means it has fiscal impact, and it will proceed in the Legislature even though it wasn't part of the governor's package," Fox said. "This is good news. This shows the power of the legislative branch."
