Study Projects Steep Price Increases if Seed Oils Were to be Banned
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been critical of seed oils, alleging that they are harmful to human health and that consumers have been “unknowingly poisoned.” (See Twitter Post). This view is not shared by most of the scientific community. Indeed, FDA has approved qualified health claims for canola, corn, and soybean oils (all types of seed oils) and reduction in the risk of coronary heart disease. See Qualified Health Claims: Letters of Enforcement Discretion | FDA. However, this has not stopped Sweetgreen from announcing a seed-oil free menu earlier this year.
Although no seed oils bans have been proposed, a recent study conducted by the World Agricultural Economic and Environmental Association found that any such ban would significantly increase consumer vegetable oil prices and would have deleterious effects on the U.S. farm industry (non-seed oils like olive, palm, and peanut oil are largely imported).
Specifically, the study found that per capita spending on vegetable oils and fats would be 42.8% higher per year if overall vegetable oil consumption remained the same (non-seed vegetable oils substituted completely for seed oils). A second scenario assumed that the oils are not fully substitutable, resulting in a 21.1 pound per capita drop in vegetable oil consumption and an 8% greater per capita spending on vegetable oils per year.
The study characterizes the simulated effects as having an unprecedented shock on the oilseed market.
