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 into a lifetime of bad eating habits. In a rare victory for children’s health, the bill passed despite heavy lobbying by McDonald’s. Read rest at Grist…
Archive for 2011
Don’t like the message? Shoot the messenger
As a writer who’s been exposing food industry deception and other underhanded tactics for many years, I’ve had my fair share of hate mail and other personal attacks. But on Monday, when I published my article, Dairy Industry Making a Killing, by Killing Cows? at Food Safety News, the comments threw me for a loop.
Dairy Industry Making a Killing, by Killing Cows?
If you think you’re paying too much for a gallon of milk these days, it could be the result of an elaborate price-fixing scheme, according to a recent class action that charges the dairy industry with federal antitrust violations, among other claims. The case was instigated by the animal advocacy organization Compassion Over Killing whose research revealed that, between 2003 and 2010, more than 500,000 young cows were slaughtered under a “dairy herd retirement” program, in an effort to reduce the supply of milk and inflate prices. The group also alleges that the program “bought out smaller farmers and instructed them to kill their entire dairy herds, unfairly increasing the profits of agribusiness giants.” Read rest at Food Safety News…
School food politics: What’s missing from the pizza-as-vegetable reporting
Over the last couple of days, news outlets have been having a field day with a proposal from Congress that pizza sauce be considered a vegetable to qualify for the National School Lunch program. Headlines like this one were typical: “Is Pizza Sauce a Vegetable? Congress says Yes.” (The blogs were a tad more childish; for example LA Weekly: Congress to USDA: Pizza is So a Vegetable, Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah.)
November Speaking Events and Media Appearances
On Friday November 4, I am giving a keynote address at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California. The day-long symposium is called: Food Fight! The Legal Debate Over The Obesity Epidemic, Food Labeling, And The Government’s Involvement In What You Eat and will be webcast live.
On Monday, November 7, I am giving two talks at the 15th annual conference of the Community Food Security Coalition, in Oakland, California. I will participate in a panel on “Walmart and Corporate Social Responsibility: An Inherent Contradiction?” But even if you’re not attending the conference, you can come to a free workshop I am leading with Paula Arnquist of Corporate Accountability International on “Fighting back: Corporate Lobbying and Interference in Food Policy.” And who knows, maybe we will take the workshop over to Occupy Oakland.
On Thursday, November 10, I am giving a guest lecture at University of California, Berkeley on the politics of food. Also, on November 10 at 9pm I will appear in a documentary on CNBC called, “Pepsi’s Challenge.” You can watch a preview clip of my interview here.
What to do after Food Day? Join the Occupy movement
Today is Food Day, a national grassroots campaign for healthy, affordable food produced in a humane, sustainable, and just way. Created by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and modeled after Earth Day, the idea appears to be a huge success, with over 2,000 events scheduled around the nation. Even the food industry is taking notice by putting out their own silly messages about how “every day is Food Day for the food and beverage industry.” (Exactly, that’s why we need our own day.)
Pesticides Are Good for You
For years now, I have been hearing about the food industry’s influence on the annual conference of the American Dietetic Association — the nation’s largest gathering of nutrition professionals–with some 7,000 registered dietitians in attendance. Last month, I witnessed it for myself and discovered the corporate takeover by Big Food was worse than I even imagined. Read rest at Food Safety News…
PepsiCo wants to “scare the crap” out of your kids
The “chainsaw-wielding maniac” from Frito-Lay’s online game.
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 company, with five divisions spanning from soda to salty snacks to breakfast cereals. With annual revenues of $60 billion and 285,000 employees, PepsiCo is an multinational corporate behemoth.
Now the company’s true colors are revealed in all their twisted marketing glory. A legal complaint filed today with the Federal Trade Commission by the Center for Digital Democracy and several other groups called upon the agency to investigate PepsiCo and its subsidiary Frito-Lay for “engaging in deceptive and unfair digital marketing practices” in violation of federal law.
Why is the Federal Government Giving its Stamp of Approval to Ronald McDonald?
This statement was released today by Corporate Accountability International in response to the hearing held this morning in Congress on food marketing to children. See my previous article for more context.
Why is the Federal Government Giving its Stamp of Approval to Ronald McDonald?
By Sara Deon, Value [the] Meal campaign director, Corporate Accountability International
Bowing to industry pressure, the Federal Trade Commission announced today that its final proposed voluntary guidelines to protect children from predatory marketing would not require food corporations to remove “brand equity characters from food products that don’t meet nutrition guidelines.”
October Speaking Appearances
Fall seems to be the season for conferences so I am busy flying around the country to spread cheerful stories of corporate propaganda. If you live anywhere near these event venues, hope you can attend.
National Conference on Innovation
October 2 in Dayton, Ohio. Keynote address on food politics.
New York Alcohol Policy Summit
October 6 in Syracuse, New York. Plenary talk on intersection between food and alcohol politics.
Food Day at University of California, Berkeley
October 24, at U.C. Berkeley campus, welcome remarks.
National Conference to End Factory Farming
October 28 in Washington, DC. Farm bill panel.
American Public Health Association Annual Meeting
October 31 in Washington, DC. Case study on removing alcoholic energy drinks from the market.
Hot Topics
Big Food
Public Health
Food Policy
Industry Tactics
Child Nutrition
Marketing to Children
USDA
Food Safety
PepsiCo
FDA
McDonald's
junk food
targeted marketing
GMO labeling
food safety
Food Law
GMOs
California Prop 37
childhood obesity
Obama
Let's Move
child nutrition
Coca-Cola
lobbying
fast food
Monsanto
Corporate Accountability International
Uncategorized
Ask a Food Lawyer
Alcohol Policy
Media
Labor
Follow me
