Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Phyllis K. Fong
Inspector General
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Room 117-W Jamie Whitten Bldg
1400 Independence Avenue SW
Washington, DC 20250
Dear Ms. Fong:
Based on the following information and other records, Angela Tagtow MS, Executive Director of the USDAs Center for Nutrition Policy,
participated in an effort to remove author/journalist Nina Teicholz from a panel at a national conference last month of which Ms.
Tagtow was a member, apparently because she and other panelists disagreed with Ms. Teicholzs opinions.
This is to request that you review and determine if Ms. Tagtows actions were in compliance with your agencys guidelines, and that you
provide me with your findings.
Please find attached nine pages of e-mails I obtained from your agency in response to a March 26, 2016 Freedom of Information Act
request. The e-mails (which I re-formatted for clarity) were the basis for a May 2, 2016 item I blogged, Ultimatum by US Dietary
Guidelines chair Barbara Millen led to author/journalist Nina Teicholz being kicked off National Food Policy Conference panel:
Thomas Gremillion is executive director of the Consumer Federation of America, an organization that presents the National Food Policy
conference in Washington, DC. Ms. Tagtow was one of four members of an April 6, 2016 panel at the Capital Hilton Hotel, Turning
Nutrition Science into Policy.
A month before the conference, in a March 9, 2016 e-mail, Mr. Gremillion informed Ms. Tagtow and two other panelists, Barbara Millen
PhD (chair of the 2015 US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Group) and Margo Wooten (director of nutrition policy at the nonprofit Center
for Science in the Public Interest), that Ms. Teicholz had been confirmed as the fourth panelist.
According to a next-day e-mail from Mr. Gremillion to Ms. Tagtow, Dr. Millen, and Ms. Wooten (emphasis added):
In light of the feedback I have received from all of the panelists expressing concern about the change in the tenor of the
discussion that would result from adding Ms. Teicholz, we are going to go with a different fourth panelist (or possibly only the
three panelists).
I will let you know when/if we confirm someone.
Thank you all for reaching out to me with your feedback.
All of the panelists and thank you all for reaching out to me clearly includes Ms. Tagtow.
Based on March 9, 2016 e-mails exchanged by Ms. Tagtow and Dr. Millen, it appears they colluded to pressure Mr. Gremillion to
remove Ms. Teicholz from the panel.
Further, via a March 29, 2016 e-mail to Ms. Tagtow, Ms. Teicholz wrote, Thomas Gremillion told me that you, along with the two other
panel members, refused to participate if I were included.
Finally, in a March 30, 2016 e-mail to Ms. Teicholz, Ms. Tagtow appears to have provided false information regarding her role in the
matter.
Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Peter M. Heimlich
3630 River Hollow Run
Peachtree Corners, GA 30096
ph: (208)474-7283
e-mail: Peter.Heimlich@gmail.com
website: http://medfraud.info
blog: http://the-sidebar.com
content you would like to address so we are all aware of each others comments so we can have a robust discussion.
Schedules are likely to be challenging so it may be difficult to find a time that will work for all of us. If thats the case, Ill connect
with you each separately and then update the group.
Ive copied my colleague, Annie Buckley, on this email to help us schedule 30-45 minutes for a call in the next two week.
Thanks for your participation and I look forward to working with you! Best regards,
Sue
Susan Pitman, MA, RD Partner
spitman@foodminds.com
202.684.6058 x201
202.431.5285 mobile
FoodMinds, LLC
1001 Connecticut Ave, NW Suite 1225
Washington, DC 20036
From: Annie Buckley [mailto:abuckley@foodminds.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2016 10:21 AM
To: Susan Pitman; Maureen Storey; Tagtow, Angela - CNPP; Barbara Millen; Margo Wootan
Subject: RE: Food Policy Conference Turning Nutrition Science into Policy panel prep call
Good Morning Barbara, Angela, Maureen and Margo,
Please let me know if you have any availability in the below windows of time for a 30-45 minute call: Thursday,
March 31, 10:30 am 12:30 pm ET
Thursday, March 31, 3:30 pm 5:00 pm ET
Friday, April 1, 1:00 pm 4:00 pm ET
Sue will be attending EB in San Diego April 2-4. If you are planning to attend and would like to meet in person, please let me
know and we can try to schedule a meeting.
Thank you, Annie
Annie Buckley
abuckley@foodminds.com
202.684.6058 ext. 202 Office
202.430.0809 Mobile
202.449.8328 Fax
From: Tagtow, Angela - CNPP
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2016 7:28 AM
To: Margo Wootan
Cc: Barbara Millen
Subject: FW: Food Policy Conference Turning Nutrition Science into Policy panel prep call
Good Morning Margo,
Great to see you yesterday. Barbara and I visited yesterday about this session and division of roles. We are considering the
following:
Title: Turning Nutrition Science into Policy
1.
2.
Angie What are the 2015 DGAs, audience, purpose, application across Federal policies and programs, translation to
consumer resources and tools we thought it was important to start with the foundation of what the DGs are.
Barbara Confirmation of transfer of science from DGAC scientific report to the 2015 DGAs, innovation and
implementation of the DGAs across web and mobile platforms, emphasis on the many ways to achieve a healthy dietary
pattern. Barbara, if you mention SuperTracker, I will not in my remarks.
3.
4.
Margo You mentioned yesterday that you were considering addressing the heightened attack on
nutrition science using fat as the example do you have any other thoughts?
Maureen just to let you both know that APRE is a MyPlate National Strategic Partner, although I did not recommend
APRE to be part of this session
Thanks to you both, we should anticipate a lively Q&A for this session too.
--Angie
From: Nina Teicholz [mailto:teicholz@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2016 8:16 PM
To: Tagtow, Angela - CNPP
Subject: CFA Food Policy panel
Dear Angie,
I hope this finds you well.
I guess you know by now that a fan of mine started a petition to reinstate me to the food policy panel from which I was disinvited,
and there are now nearly 3,000 signers.
Although you and I may have differing views about how nutrition science has been translated into policy, I'm sure we agree that
good science (and thus, good policy) requires open debate. Given the continued rising tide of obesity and diabetes, shouldn't
there a frank discussion about different ideas about possible causes and solutions?
And if you believe I've made mistakes in my analysis, then isn't this something to raise in a panel discussion? Thomas
Gremillion told me that you, along with the two other panel members, refused to participate if I were included. If that is not
true, please let me know.
The question is now how to repair a situation where it appears the government is shutting down discussion. I don't know if you
would support inviting me back on the panel, but it seems that this would be the right thing to do. I look forward to hearing back
from you.
All best regards,
Nina Teicholz
From: Tagtow, Angela - CNPP [mailto:Angela.Tagtow@cnpp.usda.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 12:33 PM
To: Nina Teicholz <teicholz@gmail.com>
Cc: Thomas Gremillion <tgremillion@consumerfed.org>
Subject: RE: CFA Food Policy panel
Good Afternoon Nina,
Thank you for your email and for reaching out. As I hope youve experienced with us to date, CNPP is open to hearing all
points of view and believes its an important part of our process, especially as it relates to nutrition science.
I want to be clear, no one here at CNPP, or within USDA, contacted Thomas to decline participation in the panel after he sent an
update saying CFA had identified a fourth speaker you, at the time. Please feel free to confirm that with Thomas, ccd here.
That said, let me take this opportunity to correct misinformation you may have received. First, it was my understanding
from Thomas initial invitation and updates along the way was that in keeping with the discussion being about going from
science to policy to implementation my role was to address how USDA implements the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Second, it was my understanding that the fourth speaker was to be a member of the food industry with a perspective on
product reformulations related to the Dietary Guidelines (see below for reference). To that point, I had not received any
indication from Thomas that the focus of the session, or my role, had changed to include a debate about nutrition science.
Nina, I am simply an invited panelist. I would not make it my or CNPPs place to supersede the decisions of CFA on session
objectives or who the organization chooses for its panel speakers.
I hope this helps clarify any misunderstanding you may have on this panel session. Again, thank you for reaching out.
Best regards, Angie
On Wed, Mar 30, 2016 at 1:26 PM, Thomas Gremillion <tgremillion@consumerfed.org> wrote:
Good afternoon Nina and Angie,
Angie thank you for including me in this discussion. Everything you have said below is accurate. Nina, I apologize again for my
error in extending you an invitation to appear on this panel. As you can see on our website, we now have a full roster of speakers
for this panel and we do not intend to change the panel makeup.
Best wishes, Thomas