Opinion
If you wanted to ensure a report gets buried, a good time to release it would be the Friday before a holiday week. That the Federal Trade Commission released its latest report on marketing to children on that day speaks volumes about how seriously the Obama administration is taking this intractable problem. The mind-numbing 356-page document is billed as… Continue Reading
Over the next three years, the Walt Disney Company will phase junk food advertising out of its TV and radio programming targeted at kids. Under the new plan – announced Tuesday – all foods marketed on Disney’s channels will have to meet the company’s nutrition guidelines, created in 2006 and recently updated to align with… Continue Reading
Opinion
It’s hard not to get depressed over the politics of food these days, given the massive power of the food industry to influence everything from the farm bill to childhood obesity. So a new report, Slowing Down Fast Food: A policy guide for healthier kids and families, on how we can fight back couldn’t come… Continue Reading
Last week, the nation’s top public health experts gathered at a much-trumpeted obesity conference hosted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called Weight of the Nation. (A quick glance at the agenda reveals nothing that would even begin to challenge the food industry.) Released at this bland event was an equally uninspired… Continue Reading
Last month, when Congress declared pizza a vegetable, it was hard to believe things could get much worse. But never underestimate politicians’ ability to put corporate interests ahead of children’s health. In the massive budget bill just passed, Congress stuck in language to require the Federal Trade Commission to conduct a cost/benefit analysis before finalizing… Continue Reading
While most media outlets dubbed it the “Happy Meal toy ban,” the ordinance passed in San Francisco last year didn’t ban anything. The law just placed a few reasonable nutrition guidelines (a maximum of 600 calories per meal and limits on fat and salt, for example) for restaurants using free toy incentives to lure kids… Continue Reading
An effort to get American children to eat more fruits and vegetables should, even in hyper-polarized Washington, be a no-brainer. Congress recently declared pizza sauce to be a vegetable in school lunches. Now, major food manufacturers are escalating their attacks against healthy food calling proposed food marketing guidelines “job killers” that will devastate the American… Continue Reading
PepsiCo has long been my poster child for food corporations whose actions speak louder than words when to comes to responsible marketing. CEO Indra Nooyi loves to tout the company’s “Performance with Purpose” and show off the company’s “good-for-you” foods that it gets to define. Most don’t realize that PepsiCo is the nation’s largest food… Continue Reading
Academic experts from across the nation are calling on President Obama to ensure that his administration establishes guidelines on marketing food to children. In a letter to the President Tuesday, more than 75 researchers in the fields of nutrition, marketing, medicine and public health asked that the Obama administration finalize its proposed guidelines on nutritional… Continue Reading
Four government agencies, led by the Federal Trade Commission, have announced long-awaited guidelines for food and beverage advertising targeted at children. Under the proposals released Thursday, the food industry would have five years to phase in the rules if it chooses to abide by them — the FTC says it wants food and advertising companies to voluntarily accept… Continue Reading
When it comes to food, everybody’s got an opinion. Same goes for parenting. Mix the two together and you’ve got the makings of a culture war. Witness the recent scuffle between Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama over the White House’s rather tame Let’s Move campaign aimed at ending childhood obesity. So last month, when the… Continue Reading