The American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources will hold a teleconference on July 31, 2012, titled “California’s Proposed GM Food Labeling Law: Pros, Cons, and Legal Issues.” A panel of speakers, including the Center for Food Safety’s George Kimbrell and the Global Environmental Ethics Counsel’s Thomas Redick, will consider the latest information on this ballot proposal, the current status of genetically modified (GM) food labeling laws elsewhere and information about pending federal initiatives relating to the labeling of biotech food products. See The U.S. Agricultural & Food Law & Policy Blog, July 12, 2012.
Category Archives Other Developments
According to news sources, human-services authorities in Victoria have sought protection for extremely obese children on at least two occasions in 2012, arguing to children’s court magistrates that they would be unable to lose weight in their parents’ care. One case reportedly involved a preteen boy who weighed more than 240 pounds and a teenage girl with a 66½-inch waist that was greater than her height; she had apparently gained 66 pounds over 18 months. The public is divided about whether weight management is an appropriate reason for removing children from their homes, and at least one obesity expert, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute Associate Professor John Dixon, suggested that more cases like this can be expected. Dixon said that removal can be the best option in some cases, although he acknowledged that obesity “can be the result of a whole range of environmental issues, the food, the lack of…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has sent a July 18, 2012, letter to the chief executive officer of DreamWorks Animation SKG, criticizing the studio’s decision to license its popular film characters to food companies. Focusing on the recent film Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, the consumer group cited tie-ins “with multiple companies and retailers” that allegedly market food products to children, but singled out DreamWorks’ partnership with Snyder’s-Lance, Inc. as particularly problematic because the snack manufacturer is not currently a member of the Council of Better Business Bureaus’ Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI). “DreamWorks characters from Madagascar 3 are depicted on the packages of Nekot Cookies and Sandwich Crackers, which are of poor nutritional value,” alleges CSPI, which has also called on Snyder’s-Lance to apply nutrition standards “to 100% of the company’s marketing, not only via television, print, radio, Internet, and mobile devices, but…
Suggesting that soft drinks are associated with “addictive mechanisms,” a coalition of nearly 100 federal, state and local public health organizations and individuals have added their voices to the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network’s, urging the U.S. Surgeon General to “prepare a Report on the health effects of sugary drinks and to issue a Call to Action so spur national efforts to reduce sugary drink consumption.” Further details on the Network’s letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius appear in Issue 446 of this Update. Citing risks to young people’s health and national security interests, the latest correspondence claims that sugary drinks “have become a routine, daily beverage for tens of millions of Americans” and they are “aggressively marketed, especially to young consumers and minorities, in both traditional and digital media, and in event sponsorships.” The July 19, 2012, letter suggests that a Surgeon…
The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) has sent a July 3, 2012, letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, asking the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office to issue a report “that examines how the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages impacts the health of Americans.” Noting that the 2012 Cancer Prevention Guidelines stress the importance of a healthy diet and weight in reducing “one’s lifetime risk of developing or dying from cancer,” ACS CAN has called for an “articulate, science-based and comprehensive national plan of action” to combat rising obesity rates. “We know there is a direct link between excessive consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and obesity, and the adverse health effect can be profound in children as they grow into adults and throughout their lives,” states the letter. “As was the case in 1964, when the Surgeon General first revealed to the broad American public…
The United Kingdom’s (UK’s) Children’s Food Campaign (CFC) has reportedly urged the Ministry of Health to prohibit use of the chemical 4-Methylimidazole (4-MEI), a byproduct of fermentation often found in soy sauce, roasted coffee and the caramel coloring added to colas and beer. In January 2012, California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment adopted a no significant risk level for 4 MEI, with Proposition 65 cancer warnings unnecessary for exposures at or below 29 micrograms per day. The development was covered in Issue 424 of this Update. According to news sources, CFC’s effort was prompted by test results indicating that colas sold in Britain contain 135 micrograms of 4-MEI per can. Malcolm Clark, CFC campaign coordinator, asserts that only caramel colorings “free of known cancer-causing chemicals” should be used worldwide. See Daily Mail, June 25, 2012.
Cornell Law School Professor Michael Dorf has observed in his blog that each of the three main opinions in the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the “Affordable Care Act” “discussed the consumption of vegetables.” In his opinion upholding much of the law as a valid exercise of congressional authority, Chief Justice John Roberts stated “[M]any American do not eat a balanced diet. That group makes up a larger percentage of the total population than those without health insurance. The failure of that group to have a healthy diet increases health care costs, to a greater extent than the failure of the uninsured to purchase insurance. . . . Congress addressed the insurance problem by ordering everyone to buy insurance. Under the Government’s theory, Congress could address the diet problem by ordering everyone to buy vegetables.” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg apparently responded in her dissenting and concurring opinion that the concept…
The World Trade Organization (WTO) recently agreed to a convene a dispute settlement panel to investigate India’s restrictions on the importation of U.S. poultry, eggs and other agriculture products purportedly due to concerns over avian influenza. The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) apparently requested the panel after failing to resolve the dispute during an April 16-17, 2012, consultation with the Indian government, which has restricted the importation of various agricultural products from “those countries reporting Notifiable Avian Influenza (both Highly Pathogenic Notifiable Avian Influenza and Low Pathogenic Notifiable Avian Influenza).” According to USTR, however, these restrictions violate several provisions of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement as well as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994, in part “because India’s avian influenza measures are not applied only to the extent necessary to protect human or animal life or health, are not based upon scientific principles, and are maintained without sufficient…
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has issued a report claiming that cereal companies “have improved the nutritional quality of most cereals marketed directly to children, but they have also increased advertising to children for many of their least nutritious products.” Titled Cereal F.A.C.T.S. Food Advertising to Children and Teens Score, the report analyzes the nutritional quality of more than 100 brands and nearly 300 individual varieties of cereal marketed to children, families and adults while examining industry advertising on TV, the Internet and social media sites. According to the report, while nutritional quality improved for 22 cereal brands advertised to children in both 2008 and 2011, total media spending to promote child-targeted cereals increased by 34 percent during that same time period. Among its findings, the report concludes that (i) “Children viewed fewer TV ads for 7 of 14 child-targeted brands, including Corn Pops and Honeycomb”; (ii)…
A group of national pizza chains has reportedly formed a new coalition to combat proposed menu labeling regulations that would require companies with 20 or more food outlets to post calorie information on menus and menu boards. Mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, the Food and Drug Administration’s April 2011 draft rules call on restaurants to display calories ranges for all customizable menu options as well as the overall calorie count for each item. The American Pizza Community (TAPC), however, has opposed the measure as unfair to those enterprises with highly variable offerings that are unlikely to be consumed by one person. “A light bulb goes on when people hear about all the combinations for pizza,” said TAPC Chair Lynn Liddle. “They start to realize how difficult it would be to make a one-size-fits-all approach.” TAPC members have also argued that not only are 90…
