Well, first there was the agenda of food companies to put as much crap can increase their profits (e.g. by making food more addictive, sweeter, longer lasting, etc) in there as legally (and often beyond legally) possible.
Here is something I think we are close to agreement on. Companies have made food more addictive, cheaper, more shelf stable in a variety of ways, to the detriment of nutritious food and consumer health in general. But unless we put the focus on the real issues with modern food, I don't think we will see much if any progress. In fact, I suspect that food companies and food scientists are up to the challenge of making food that is just about as cheap and addictive and shelf stable as the current stuff is without using any "artificial" chemicals. I mean, when "nitrate free" bacon can be sold that is, in fact, chock full of nitrates, the possibilities are endless.
