“In their critics’ eyes, producers of sugar-sweetened drinks are acting a lot like the tobacco industry of old: marketing heavily to children, claiming their products are healthy or at worst benign, and lobbying to prevent change,” begins New York Times columnist Mark Bittman in this article questioning whether aggressive public health initiatives, like those deployed to discourage smoking, could similarly curb soda consumption. Noting that Americans drink “roughly 50 gallons per person per year,” Bittman contests the value of industry claims that “in moderate quantities soda isn’t harmful, nor is it addictive.” His article goes on to summarize the arguments made by policy makers and advocates in favor of “a special tax on soda, similar to those on tobacco, gasoline and alcoholic beverages.” In particular, he cites the Rudd Center’s director, Kelly Brownell, who maintains that, “Unless food marketing changes, it’s hard to believe that anything else can work.” “In the…
Category Archives Issue
This article claims that recent efforts to monitor and regulate marketing to children has had “an interesting side effect,” that is, a shift away from traditional tactics to “games, contests and events where the advertiser has only a subtle presence— exactly the opposite of what some of the advocacy groups were aiming for.” According to New York Times journalist Stephanie Clifford, children’s publications have increasingly sought to integrate corporate sponsorships with contests and features that emphasize their content. “Instead of just a straight selling of product, it’s all about how we tell the message in the magazine and how we engage with the kids,” stated one spokesperson for National Geographic Kids, which reported a decline in ad revenue “largely because of the economy but in part because of heightened concern about food advertising.” “But these kinds of strategies, created in part to sidestep advocates’ criticisms, are upsetting them all the…
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has announced a March 9, 2010, webinar to discuss “the rationale, relevant science, and economic and policy considerations of soft drink taxes.” The conference will reportedly update participants about the latest developments in state and local policies since July 2009, when director Kelly Brownell presented the center’s first webinar on this topic. The Rudd Center has consistently supported taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages to “improve public health and generate considerable revenue for states, cities, and the nation,” according to its website.
Anne Landman, who once had the tobacco industry in her sights and now posts for Center for Media and Democracy’s PRWatch.org, has reported that Washington, D.C.-based industry lobbyist Rick Berman and his Center for Consumer Freedom have launched a website “to harass” the Humane Society of the United States. Landman states that Berman “sets up his front groups as 501(c)4 organizations and then carries out his attacks through these groups to avoid disclosing his donors, so we have no way of knowing which industries or companies are funding Berman’s attack on the Humane Society. We can probably get a good idea though. Just determine which businesses profit most from animal cruelty, and you’ll likely find the funders among them.” Further discussion about Berman and his appearance on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC program appears in issues 321 and 322 of this Update. See PRWatch.org, February 17, 2010.
“Children are being paid up to £25 a week to promote sugary soft drinks and other products through social networking sites and playground chat,” claims a February 15, 2010, report published in the Daily Mail. Titled “Child ‘Mini-Marketers’ Paid by Junk Food Firms to Secretly Push Products Among Their Friends,” the article focuses on an advertising website, Dubit Insider, that offers vouchers worth £25 and free samples to children who sign on to become “brand ambassadors.” The Daily Mail alleges that this website recruits children ages 7 to 24 to “promote brands, products and services” among their peer group, suggesting that Dubit members can use their experience to enhance their college applications. “Companies are not just stalking kids online,” one consumer advocate was quoted as saying. “Close on half a million young people in the UK alone have been enlisted by big youth brands, and that’s the figure from just one…
According to legal commentators interviewed for an article in Law 360, consumer perceptions about the safety of food-packaging chemical bisphenol A (BPA), as well as increasing attention to the chemical in state legislatures, could result in a morass of litigation for years to come. While a $1 billion lawsuit is already pending in multidistrict litigation court against companies producing products, such as baby bottles, containing BPA, some say that manufacturers rushing to reformulate their packaging or products could inadvertently replace the substance with questionable alternatives. The article explores the scientific uncertainties currently informing the debate before the courts and policy makers and suggests that if the Food and Drug Administration ultimately concluded that BPA poses risks to human health, consumer fears would only be exacerbated. See Law 360, February 16, 2010. In a related development, the 95-2 vote in Wisconsin’s Assembly on February 16 has moved a BPA ban closer…
A court in Carcassonne, France, has reportedly found French winemakers and traders guilty of deliberately and repeatedly mislabeling wine as a more expensive grape variety to get a better price from E. & J. Gallo under its Red Bicyclette® brand. French customs officials apparently discovered the swindle when they found that the amount of “pinot noir” sold to Gallo far exceeded what the region produced. According to a news source, the scam more than doubled the miscreants’ profits, which totaled some €7 million for 18 million bottles. The fines imposed ranged from US$2,050 to US$247,050, and the suspended jail sentences ranged from one to six months. The judge was quoted as saying, “The scale of the fraud caused severe damage for the wines of the Languedoc for which the United States is an important outlet.” A defense attorney reportedly said that no American customers complained about the fraud. See BBC News,…
A federal court in Washington has reportedly denied a feedlot company’s request to invalidate or delay implementation of the country-of-origin labeling (COOL) regulations adopted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2008. Easterday Ranches, Inc. v. USDA, No. __ (E.D. Wash., decided February 5, 2010). According to news sources, the company argued that the COOL regulations, which do not allow beef imported from Canada or Mexico and slaughtered in the United States to be labeled as a U.S. product, conflicted with U.S. Treasury Department rules, would raise its recordkeeping and operational costs, and deter packers from paying fair prices for Canadian cattle. The Treasury rules apparently provide that beef is deemed a U.S. product if it undergoes “substantial transformation,” e.g., slaughter, within this country. The court refused to postpone USDA’s rules and further declined to order the agency to create an exception to COOL allowing cattle imported from Canada and…
In response to requests by chemical industry interests, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has extended the deadline for comments on its proposal to apply a 10-fold (10X) safety factor to its pesticide risk assessments in relation to the exposure of agricultural workers and their children in agricultural fields. CropLife America and the American Chemistry Council made the request, noting that the proposal is related to several others, such as new labeling rules to control drift, that have not yet been finalized. Comments must now be received by April 12, 2010. The industry groups also pointed to studies the agency does not appear to have considered in drafting its policy paper, “Revised Risk Assessment Methods for Workers, Children of Workers in Agricultural Fields, and Pesticides with No Food Uses,” and expressed concerns that some supporting materials have not been made public. They urge EPA to consider a National Academy of Sciences…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published a notice seeking public comments on its proposed collection of information on foods derived from new plant varieties including those created through biotechnology. Comments must be submitted by April 19, 2010. The types of information that developers of new plant varieties would be required to provide to the agency include (i) a description of the applications or uses of the bioengineered food, (ii) information about the sources, identities and functions of the introduced genetic material, (iii) information about any known or suspected allergenicity and toxicity, and (iv) information relevant to the safety and nutritional assessment of the bioengineered food. Commenters are asked to address whether the proposed collection “is necessary for the proper performance of FDA’s functions,” the accuracy of the agency’s estimate of the burden of the proposed information collection, ways to improve the quality of the information to be collected,…
