IMHO what money controls most are the questions that get asked. If there's a potential profit to be made, an organization will do the research or an industry group (like the National Dairy Council) will fund the research. If cases of a "market failure," the government or private foundations step in. But someone has to fund the research. That in itself skews things.
BTW, the work I did that was funded by the National Diary Council looked at the effects of individual fatty acids on serum cholesterol levels. (Cholesterol was a big research topic back in 1980.) Since butterfat is 29% palmitic acid, 27% oleic acid, and 11% myristic acid, the dairy industry would have LOVED it if any or all of those were shown to have a beneficial effect on cholesterol levels; that would have allowed them to tout the health benefits of butter, which was then considered bad, bad, bad. I had to quit the project because I had a baby, so I don't know a lot about the results, but I believe the work was inconclusive. Too bad. It would've been great to be part of a team that showed butter was good for you. All those years of ingesting trans fats in the name of health could have been avoided.
