Industry Tactics
Posted on Friday, February 14th, 2014 by Michele Simon
By focusing on marketing, Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign won’t save our children’s health
Michelle Obama is probably the most popular first lady in recent memory, with approval ratings embarrassingly higher than her husband’s, at least in 2012. She is the picture of health, speaks openly about the challenges of raising two daughters and feeding them right and uses her platform to call attention to the country’s childhood obesity crisis through her Let’s Move program. And yet, with all this going for her, even she cannot make a serious dent in the problem of how food and media corporations are targeting children with junk-food advertising. Read rest at Al Jazeera America ….
Posted in Big Food, Child Nutrition, Food Policy, Industry Tactics, Marketing to Children | Tagged: Big Food, child nutrition, childhood obesity, fast food, junk food, Let's Move, McDonald's, Obama, voluntary self-regulation | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (0) |
Posted on Thursday, February 13th, 2014 by Michele Simon
By Michele Simon and Saru Jayaraman
Food movement leaders tend to stick to their specific issues, whether it’s advocating for healthy food, fighting for workers’ rights or curbing marketing to children. For each of these issues, there are numerous food corporations that need to change. But there is one organization that conveniently provides us with one giant target for all of them: the National Restaurant Association.
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Posted in Big Food, Food Policy, Food Safety, Industry Tactics, Labor, Marketing to Children, Public Health | Tagged: animal rights, Big Food, Corporate Accountability International, Darden, food safety, junk food, labor, McDonald's, nutrition labeling, Rick Berman, workers, workers rights | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (3) |
Posted on Monday, January 20th, 2014 by Michele Simon
The Grocery Manufacturers Association may soon be coming to your state capital. Take note of their rap sheet before you let them in the door.
In secret documents that I uncovered in November, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (aka food industry lobbyists) laid out its five-point plan for opposing the labeling of foods containing genetically-modified organisms or GMOs. First on the list: “To oppose all state efforts that would impose mandatory labels” including state legislation. With more than 20 states having introduced state bills to require GMO labeling, the junk food lobby has its work cut out for it. But they’ve wasted no time as the 2014 legislative session gets underway, starting with targeting the New Hampshire capital.
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Posted in Big Food, Food Policy, Food Safety, Industry Tactics | Tagged: Big Food, California Prop 37, FDA, GMO labeling, GMOs, Grocery Manufacturers Association, I-522, junk food | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (1) |
Posted on Friday, January 17th, 2014 by Michele Simon
The food lobby wants a voluntary federal approach to GMO labeling, but we should let the states have their way, for now.
Those advocating for improvements to our broken food system have, of late, had little to crow about. However, in recent years, a growing movement to label foods made with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has begun showing real promise. While the food industry continues to make unsubstantiated and deceptive claims that GMO labels would be confusing or increase food costs, polls show that more than 90 percent of Americans favor GMO labeling. And the states are listening. At least 20 states have proposed legislation requiring that genetically engineered foods be labeled. Read rest at Al Jazeera America ….
Posted in Big Food, Food Policy, Food Safety, Industry Tactics | Tagged: Big Food, California Prop 37, FDA, GMO labeling, GMOs, Grocery Manufacturers Association, I-522, Monsanto, PepsiCo, trade groups, voluntary self-regulation | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (0) |
Posted on Friday, January 10th, 2014 by Michele Simon
When I was asked yesterday by POLITICO to comment on a press release from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation celebrating the food industry’s alleged reduction in calories, I thought, Oh, that data we’ve been waiting for is finally is published. But I was wrong. As I reported last June, a collection of food companies calling themselves the “Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation” jumped the gun with a self-congratulatory release claiming to have made good on its 2010 “pledge” with the first lady’s Let’s Move campaign to reduce the number of calories in the food supply by 1.5 trillion.
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Posted in Big Food, Industry Tactics, Media, Public Health | Tagged: first lady, Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, Let's Move, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Sam Kass | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (0) |
Posted on Monday, December 16th, 2013 by Michele Simon
by Michele Simon and Cara Wilking
Looking back at 2013, while the food movement made progress in certain areas (such as school food and GMO labeling), when it comes to exploitative food marketing to children meaningful change remains elusive. Let’s Move director and White House chef Sam Kass recently acknowledged the obvious when he said this issue was “really tough” given how much money is at stake for industry.
All we seem to hear from the major food corporations about marketing to children are self-serving promises and announcements of future changes. As public health lawyers, that got us wondering, who’s making sure even these minimal commitments are being kept? The question is worth exploring if we want to actually improve children’s diets—not just create positive PR buzz for Big Food. With reports of adults ever-deteriorating eating habits in 2013 coupled with appalling teen heart health, the health stakes are too high to just wait for the food industry to do the right thing.
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Posted in Big Food, Child Nutrition, Food Law, Food Policy, Industry Tactics, Marketing to Children, Public Health | Tagged: advertising regulation, Big Food, child nutrition, childhood obesity, fast food, junk food, Let's Move, targeted marketing | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (0) |
Posted on Wednesday, December 11th, 2013 by Michele Simon
Big Food Recycles its Lies and Dirty Tricks in California to Fool Washington State Voters into Rejecting Labeling Initiative
The final result from Washington State’s ballot initiative to label genetically-engineered foods was painfully close. A mere two percentage points (38,000 voters) made the difference between yes and no. Similarly, last year in California, the Yes side lost by a narrow margin. Also in both states, early polling showed a strong lead, which was then chipped away at by a barrage of ads from the No campaign. Lying underneath this same pattern is an ugly industry play book that explains how voters can change their mind so easily.
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Posted in Big Food, Food Law, Food Policy, Food Safety, Industry Tactics | Tagged: California Prop 37, FDA, GMO labeling, GMOs, I-522 | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (2) |
Posted on Wednesday, December 4th, 2013 by Michele Simon
When President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) into law in January 2011, it was considered a long-fought, but significant and bipartisan victory to update the Food and Drug Administration’s authority and oversight of the food supply. While much of the wrangling over the language of the law was made public, through media coverage of Congressional hearings for example, the ensuing industry influence over implementation of the law has been subject to far less public scrutiny (with the exception of FDA’s unlawful delay of FSMA’s critical implementing regulations, which Center for Food Safety has successfully sued over.
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Posted in Big Food, Food Policy, Food Safety, Industry Tactics | Tagged: Big Food, Center for Food Safety, FDA, food safety, lobbying, Obama, trade groups | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (1) |
Posted on Tuesday, November 26th, 2013 by Michele Simon
It seems both ironic and fitting that while most Americans are obsessed with food for the Thanksgiving holiday, this week also marks International Food Workers Week, organized by the Food Chain Workers Alliance.
While many large restaurant chains and other sectors of the food industry bear responsibility for mistreating their workers, recently, McDonald’s has engaged in a series of jaw-dropping and idiotic communications with its workforce. Each one is a painful reminder of how impossible it is to live on fast-food wages.
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Posted in Big Food, Industry Tactics, Public Health | Tagged: Big Food, Corporate Accountability International, food workers, labor, McDonald's, workers, workers rights | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (4) |
Posted on Thursday, November 7th, 2013 by Michele Simon
Internal documents from the Grocery Manufacturers Association reveal height of corporate chutzpah. Industry’s solution to GMO labeling is to: “Pursue statutory federal preemption which does not include a labeling requirement.”
With the disappointing results now in from I-522, the initiative in Washington State that would have required labeling of genetically-engineered food (aka GMOs), the looming question is, what’s next? At least for the junk food lobby, that answer in painfully clear: stop this state-level movement at any cost. In today’s New York Times, Stephanie Strom reports on the dirty details contained in industry documents that I obtained from the Washington State attorney general’s office in the wake of a lawsuit brought against the Grocery Manufacturers Association for illegally concealing donors to the No on 522 campaign.
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Posted in Big Food, Food Law, Food Policy, Food Safety, Industry Tactics | Tagged: Big Food, California Prop 37, FDA, food safety, GMO labeling, GMOs, I-522, Monsanto | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (38) |
