Vermont AG Signals Interest in Food Marketing to Kids

Vermont Attorney General (AG) Bill Sorrell will reportedly join other state AGs
for a conference on “the current state of food industry marketing to kids,”
scheduled for May 2013 at Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and
Obesity.

After introducing a Dartmouth College pediatrics professor to the Vermont House Committee on Health Care to address youth marketing by the food industry, Sorrell noted that the state AGs will consider “labeling, advertisements and the like, and look at what, under existing authority, we might be able to do, and how we might be in a position to espouse change within our state legislatures.” Sorrell was able to insert a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages into legislation pending before the committee in March, fulfilling a recommendation in an obesity report issued by his office in 2010.

According to Sorrell, “The food industry marketing to kids these nonnutritious,
high-sugar and fat content fast-food meals is playing a part in the
obesity problems we face. And we’ve got to attend to that either through
existing laws and policies, or with new ones to come.” Assistant AG Wendy
Morgan reportedly acknowledged that the office has just begun to consider
youth marketing and said, “We do know there are serious First Amendment
concerns.” See Rutland Herald, April 11, 2013.