Committee on Consumer Protection in the Progressive Era

About the Committee:

Welcome to the CPP! This will be a Specialized committee, and it will focus on different consumer protection acts in the early 1900s and how those impacted the food and drug industries. We believe that this will be valuable to delegates given the recent questions about consumer protection in regards to social media platforms. In addition, the links between historical snake oil salesmen attempts to skirt regulation and current conversation about the pharmaceutical industry should also be valuable avenues for debate.

A LETTER FROM THE DaiS:

Hello Delegates,

My name is August Mashburn and I am excited to work with you as your director for the Formation of the FDA! I am a Senior in the school of LSA majoring in Psychology with a minor in writing. As well as being in MUNUM I also work in the design lab in the library and am a student leader in the Lloyd Scholars for Writing. I enjoy all things art be it writing, drawing, or music. I also have a deep love for the horror genre and spend a lot of time interacting with various kinds of horror media. I have done Model UN in some capacity since my Junior year of highschool, when I started doing MUN because a friend of mine needed a ride to school, and I have loved it since then. I am really looking forward to working with all of you to examine this period in US history. On top of that I am excited to see how you handle the different problems you are presented with during debate.

Hi everyone! My name is Samantha Malcolm (she/her), and I am so excited to be your assistant director for the Formation of the FDA committee! I am a second year student at UMich, applying to the public policy major at the Ford School. Along with my involvement in MUNUM, I am a member of the Kappa Alpha Pi Pre-Law Fraternity, the VP of Operations for the Environmental Consulting Organization, and a member of the Prison Birth Project at UM. I am also an avid reader, especially of the historical fiction genre. I love being able to explore new time periods, geographical settings, and conflicts/events that are based in historical truth but are told through a creative fictional lens with captivating storytelling. I also love being outside in nature; back home, I live on a ranch with a herd of cows! This will be my second year participating in Model United Nations, and I am very much looking forward to seeing you all work together to create solutions to the challenges you will face!

Welcome to the FDA! This will be a Specialized committee, and it will focus on different consumer protection acts that were passed during the early 1900s of the Progressive Era, specifically during the Theodore Roosevelt Administration, and how these acts impacted the food, drug, and meat industries. We believe that this topic of debate will be valuable to delegates given the recent questions about consumer protection in regards to social media platforms. In addition, the links between the historic attempts of ‘snake oil salesmen’ to skirt regulations and current conversations surrounding the pharmaceutical industry might also be valuable avenues for debate. We are looking forward to hearing all of the ideas presented by you as delegates and to your insightful and spirited debate throughout the course of the conference. If you have any questions about the committee or about MUNUM this year in general, please feel free to reach out to us at bema@umich.edu or smgoblue@umich.edu!

Best,

August and Samantha