The ditch digger is doing a practical job for the reason at hand, as is the garbage man. I wouldn't call their work "enriching" but rather preventative--of disease and infrastructure degradation, among other things. Academic research focused on say, health and nutrition, should be funded and supported by government. Based on what your link says, I think it's safe to say that when an industry says its conducted research that shows its products are safe and nutritional, that evidence should be scrutinized by an apolitical board of government overseers to be sure everything is in order. As the article states, non-industry studies often don't find the effect sizes that industry ones do. This is just, again, a strong case for regulation and oversight of the private sector in all things. You can't trust private companies to do anything for simply the good of the people. All grant money should come strictly from government, with the agenda of the study reviewed by government for obvious biases but NOT set by government. And research that finds no effect should be broadcast just as loud and clear that research does find effects. If researchers find that drinking 60 oz a day of water has absolutely no health benefits compared to just drinking when thirsty, I want to know that! Thoughts? (FYI: I am not denigrating our noble blue collar workers in this country, who are doing jobs I certainly wouldn't want to do. I am merely pointing out that university research is (supposed to be) advancing human knowledge and is therefore important to society in a different way than laborers.