On November 2nd, Boulder, Colorado, became the second city in the nation to pass a ballot measure calling for an amendment to the US Constitution that would state that corporations are not people and establish that money is not free speech. The measure won with more than 70 percent of voters in support. Boulder’s campaign is the latest grassroots effort by Move to Amend, a national coalition working to abolish corporate personhood.
FDA Requests Proposals for Anti-Smoking Campaigns
The Food and Drug Administration has issued two requests for proposals for an integrated anti-smoking campaign targeting teens, reports Ad Age. With a total budget of up to $600 million over five years, the new campaigns will be overseen by the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products and Tobacco Control Act, which “grants the FDA the authority to regulate the manufacture, distribution and marketing of tobacco product.”
What to do after Food Day? Join the Occupy movement
Cross-posted from Appetite for Profit.
[October 24th was] 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.)
But when all of [Food Day]’s positive energy dies down, many of us will continue to do the hard to work to make systemic changes to our very broken food system. And it’s getting harder all the time, with massive push back from a very powerful industry that has endless resources. But now there is more hope than ever before, coming in the form of the Occupy movement.
On Saturday, I marched with hundreds of my neighbors in Occupy Oakland, right past my local farmers market, which seemed entirely appropriate: a symbol of an alternative universe where local, fresh food made by caring individuals triumphs over chemical-laden concoctions churned out in far-away factories. I was in tears as marchers called out to on-lookers at the market to “join us, join us.” (The entire march was much more moving and inspiring than writing blog posts about the evils of food industry marketing.)
Everyone working to change the food system should find a way to hook up with Occupy. The connection should be obvious. The Occupy movement at its core is about corporate power. Indeed, every one of the six Food Day principles connects to the corporate takeover of our food supply:
1. Reduce diet-related disease by promoting safe, healthy foods
2. Support sustainable farms and limit subsidies to big agribusiness
3. Expand access to food and alleviate hunger
4. Protect the environment and animals by reforming factory farms
5. Promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids
6. Support fair conditions for food and farm workers.
Still not convinced? Read my smart colleagues’ calls to action:
– Mark Bittman, New York Times: Finally Making Sense on Wall Street
– Slow Food USA: Occupy Wall Street: What’s food got to do with it?
– Siena Chrisman, Why Hunger: Why the Food Movement Should Occupy Wall Street
– Tom Philpott, Mother Jones: Foodies, Get Thee to Occupy Wall Street
– Ben Lillitson, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy:
What does the occupation of Wall Street have to do with agriculture?
So enjoy Food Day. And tomorrow go join Occupy, it may be our best hope yet.
Multiracial Coalition Supports Higher California Cigarette Tax
At a briefing in California last week a group of multiracial activists assembled in support of the passage of the California Cancer Research Act (CCRA), writes Olu Alemoru of the Los Angeles Wave. The CCRA would add $1 to each pack of cigarettes sold in California and generate over $855 million in its first year which could be used for cancer research as well as California’s tobacco control and prevention program. Speakers cited research showing that African-Americans lose more years of life than all other groups from smoking-related causes, and that tobacco outlets and advertising are disproportionately concentrated in the African-American community. They also noted that three thousand Hispanics die every year from smoking-related illnesses.
West Virginia Court Tries Altria and Reynolds American
Bloomberg News reports tobacco companies including Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris unit and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. are on trial for more that 600 smoking-related personal- injury cases. The trial is to determine whether cigarettes are defective products, whether the companies failed to warn about the dangers of smoking, broke express warranties and fraudently concealed information from smokers. Kenneth McClain, a lawyer for the smokers, said last week, “This case is about the corporations’ responsibility. They were actively keeping from the public the information that they had.” Courts are hearing similar cases in Florida and Missouri.
New York Alcohol Policy Summit: Expanding Public Health Protection
In the United States today, much of the focus on alcohol problems is limited to the issues of underage drinking and drunk driving, with both narrowly defined in terms of the problem and the acceptable solutions. To expand this frame, several organizations including the New York Alcohol Policy Alliance (NYAPA), the New York State Public Health Association (NYSPHA), and the Council on Addiction of New York State (CANYS) met at the New York Alcohol Policy Summit in Syracuse October 6.
About 200 participants – including faith leaders, police officers, pediatric nurse practitioners, prevention educators, research scientists, coalition members, public health practitioners, policy analysts, university faculty, registered nurses, and suicide prevention advocates met to consider the health and social consequences of excessive alcohol consumption and to propose new policy approaches to reduce the adverse consequences of alcohol use in New York State.
Alcohol Harms
The starting point for the Summit was the many serious health problems associated with current patterns of alcohol use. These include:
Suicide. Alcohol has been found to “increase the lethality of suicide attempts in individuals with mood disorders,”[1] with a CDC analysis of suicide victims finding one-third testing positive for alcohol in their systems.[2] Furthermore, age of drinking onset among young people has been linked to risk of lifetime suicide attempt (i.e., the earlier the age of drinking onset, the greater chance for a suicide attempt later in life).[3]
Cancer. Alcohol is a recognized carcinogen, which has been connected to cancers of the head and neck, liver, female breast, & colon/rectum.[4] [5] It is estimated that alcohol is responsible for 5% of the preventable cancer cases worldwide.[6]
HIV/AIDS. Excessive alcohol consumption has been shown to worsen the severity and progression of HIV through impacts on the immune system and adherence to medication.[7]
Fire Safety. Research has found that from 15-40% of decedents of residential fires are alcohol impaired.[8] Several mechanisms have been cited for this relationship, including impaired judgment, reduced ability for detection, reduced ability to escape, compromised caretakers, burn severity, and suppressed cough reflex. [8]
Gun Violence. Alcohol has been shown to be significant factor in violence in general, but particularly related to gun violence through off-premise alcohol outlet density.[9]
And the economic consequences are just as staggering, with the CDC just releasing a study reporting that excessive alcohol consumption costs the US $224 billion a year, or approximately $1.90 per drink. [10]
Making Alcohol Policy Health Policy
With this in mind, it is apparent that those engaged in alcohol policy – and the broader public health community – need to recognize the multiple pathways of alcohol-related harm, and the parallel need to implement effective policies to stem those harms. This will require proactive media advocacy, dynamic professional education, and strategic countering of alcohol industry attempts to frame the problem – the goals of the October 6 Summit.
The plenary sessions of the Summit focused on the big picture, including the larger socioeconomic context and the state-of-the-science in alcohol policy, while the panels and workshops drilled down to the specific effects of alcohol consumption on particular health and social issues and populations. The Summit sessions were designed to break through the artificial barriers which tend to marginalize alcohol policy concerns (in prevention, treatment, and recovery) from mainstream public health concerns.
Noted attorney and alcohol policy expert James Mosher, JD was the Summit keynote speaker. He appealed to Martin Luther King, Jr. and the broader socioeconomic climate to demonstrate the need for public health advocates to embrace the opportunity of alcohol policy advocacy and work to place people ahead of profits.
Other Summit plenary speakers and their topics included:
Stacy Carruth, MPH (Regional Center for Healthy Communities, Cambridge, MA) spoke on the efforts in Massachusetts to remove alcohol advertising from the public transportation system, and the need for regional cooperation and collaboration among New York and the New England states.
Michele Simon, JD, MPH (President, Eat Drink Politics; Author, “Appetite For Profit”) described the disturbing (and sometimes amusing) parallels between the deceptive marketing practices of the food and alcohol industries;
Donald W. Zeigler, PhD (Director of Prevention & Healthy Lifestyle, American Medical Association) discussed the work of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services and the necessity of prevention advocates in engaging with medical professionals; and
Robert Lindsey (MEd, CEAP) (President/CEO, National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence) described the challenge of engaging individuals in recovery in policy efforts, in light of the paradox between the personal, emotional nature of recovery and the public health population-level paradigm.
In addition, Arlene González-Sánchez, Commissioner of the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services and Pamela J. Westlake, Director of Enforcement for the New York State Liquor Authority, offered an overview of the problem of underage drinking in New York State and the ongoing efforts of their agencies to combat that problem.
Summit workshops addressed the issues of suicide, gun violence, child maltreatment, cancer, HIV/AIDS, fire safety, gambling, eating disorders, and on alcohol policy impacts on special populations, including rural communities, Native Americans, seniors, and the military (active duty and veterans).
The Summit also tackled two issues which are explicitly alcohol-related but which are rarely addressed in the context of alcohol policy: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) and Treatment & Recovery. FASD sometimes tends to be defined, with limited goals of educating individual women to refrain from drinking during their pregnancy. While those educational efforts are necessary, they are not sufficient, considering that states with higher rates of binge drinking among women of childbearing age have higher rates of alcohol-exposed pregnancies. This points to a need to bring drinking rates down among all women of child-bearing age, and to push back against alcohol industry attempts to target women as a growth market.
In the longer term, Summit organizers hope to catalyze action in these specific areas of alcohol policy, rather than function as one-and-done educational event. In addition, the Summit and its aftermath may suggest directions for other advocates for more health-oriented alcohol policy for how best to expand policy advocacy from local and national arenas to a statewide focus.
References
[1] Sher, L., Oquendo, M. A., Richardson-Vejlgaard, R., Makhija, N. M., Posner, K., Mann, J. J., & Stanley, B. H. Effect of acute alcohol use on the lethality of suicide attempts in patients with mood disorders. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 2009; 43(10), 901-05 .doi:10.1016/ j.jpsychires. 2009.01.005[2] MMWR. Toxicology testing and results for suicide victims -13 states, 2004. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 2006; 55(46), 1245-1248.
[3] Bossarte, R. M., & Swahn, M. H. The associations between early alcohol use and suicide attempts among adolescents with a history of major depression. Addictive Behaviors,2011; 36(5), 532-535. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2010.12.031
[4] Allen, N.E., Beral, V., Casabonne, D., Kan, S.W., Reeves, G.K., Brown, A., et al.. Moderate alcohol intake and cancer incidence in women. Journal of the National Cancer Institute,2009; 101(5),296-305.[5] Boffetta, P., Hashibe, M., La Vecchia, C., Zatonski, W., & Rehm, J. The burden of cancer attributable to alcohol drinking. International Journal of Cancer,2006; 119(4), 884-887.[6] Danaei, G., Vander Hoorn, S., Lopez, A.D., Murray, C.J.L., Ezzati, M., et al. Causes of cancer in the world: Comparative risk assessment of nine behavioural and environmental risk factors. Lancet, 2005; 366, 1784–1793.[7] Shuper, P. A., Neuman, M., Kanteres, F., Baliunas, D., Joharchi, N., & Rehm, J. Causal considerations on alcohol and HIV/AIDS–a systematic review. Alcohol and Alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire), 2010; 45(2), 159-166. doi:10.1093/alcalc/agp091.
[8] U.S. Federal Emergency Management Administration. Establishing a relationship between alcohol and casualties of fire. Report. National Fire Data Center, United States Fire Administration. Arlington, VA: TriData Corporation, 1999. Retrieved on June 12, 2011 from http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/Courses/arch465/arch465f06-firesafety/alcohol-fire.pdf
[9] Branas, C. C., Elliott, M. R., Richmond, T. S., Culhane, D. P., & Wiebe, D. J. Alcohol consumption, alcohol outlets, and the risk of being assaulted with a gun. Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research, 2009; 33(5), 906-915. doi:10.1111/j.1530-0277.2009.00912.x
[10] Bouchery EE, Harwood HJ, Sacks JJ, Simon CJ, Brewer RD. Economic Costs of Excessive Alcohol Consumption in the U.S., 2006. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2011; 41(5), A4. doi:10.1016/S0749-3797(11)00692-1]
Image Credits:
- Turtlemom4bacon via Flickr
- Cle0patra via Flickr
Use of Anti-Depressants Quadruples in 23 Years
A new report from the U.S. Center for Disease Control reports that use of antidepressant drugs has soared nearly 400 percent since 1988. Fewer than one-third of Americans taking one antidepressant and less than one-half of those taking multiple antidepressants have seen a mental-health professional in the past year, the report shows. Experts attribute the rise in part to direct-to-consumer advertising of antidepressants.
Do Farm Subsidies Cause Obesity?
A new report by Food and Water Watch and the Public Health Institute challenges the belief that farm subsidies are an important cause of obesity. “It’s convenient to blame farmers for making Americans fatter, rather than putting the blame squarely on the corporations that lobbied for the deregulation that led to overproduction of cheap corn and soy,” said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. “Cutting subsidies without fixing commodity policies will do nothing to address the overabundance of heavily advertised junk food in our country or help more people access healthy foods, but it could have a devastating impact on the thousands of small to midsize family farmers who rely on subsidies to stay afloat.”
Why is the Federal Government Giving its Stamp of Approval to Ronald McDonald?
Bowing to industry pressure, the Federal Trade Commission announced 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.”
The FTC’s decision is extremely disappointing, and prioritizes the interests of corporations such as McDonald’s and PepsiCo over kids’ health.
More specifically, the federal government is sending the message that powerful child-friendly icons such as Ronald McDonald are A-OK, regardless of the lifelong health consequences of getting kids hooked on a steady diet of cheeseburgers, fries, and Coke.The FTC’s testimony was startling and disturbing. While the agency says such characters are “appealing to children,” they also appeal “to a broader audience and are inextricably linked to the food’s brand identity.”A “broader audience?” Who exactly are characters such as Toucan Sam, Tony the Tiger, and especially Ronald McDonald designed to appeal to other than children? The FTC is absolutely correct that such characters are inextricably linked to the brand’s identity, and that is exactly the point.
McDonald’s deploys its ubiquitous mascot in myriad ways—in schools, community events—wherever children congregate—for the sole purpose of building brand loyalty from a very young age. And often at these appearances, there’s not a Happy Meal in sight. Because McDonald’s knows the key to getting kids to nag their parents to visit McDonald’s is getting vulnerable children to fall in love with Ronald first, and Chicken McNuggets second.
If the federal government backs off setting some minimal guidelines for how these characters can be utilized, it would set a dangerous precedent, potentially even undermining state and local policy along with other legal actions to stop this predatory marketing practice.
Obviously the Obama Administration is under tremendous political pressure from the food industry, in addition to the powerful advertising industry lobby. But the entire process of the Interagency Working Group was compromised early on because government officials agreed with the food corporations that voluntary, self-regulation is a viable solution to junk food marketing to kids.
Decades of experience combined with ample scientific research, not to mention common sense, tells us that relying on the food industry to police itself is futile. Having federal agencies provide guidance to the food industry to improve their own voluntary standards was wishful thinking at best. In the process of trying to gain food industry cooperation, the Federal Trade Commission seems to have forgotten its own motto: “Protecting America’s Consumers.” You would hope that kids would be at the top of the list for FTC protection.
Federal officials should stop hiding behind free speech rhetoric, pretending that voluntary self-regulation will work, and instead roll up their sleeves and get to work drafting legally feasible safeguards against predatory junk food marketing to children. It’s the best solution we have.
Image Credit:
Kcolwell via Flickr
Why the Food Movement Should Occupy Wall Street
Writing for Civil Eats, Siena Chrisman notes, “food justice advocates are connecting with Occupy (Wall Street) sites all around the country to donate fresh, healthy, local food or to help find kitchen space. On a broader philosophical level, as Mark Bittman writes in the Times, ‘Whether we’re talking about food, politics, healthcare, housing, the environment, or banking, the big question remains the same: How do we bring about fundamental change?’ But there are also clear and specific reasons that all of us working for a just and fair food system, as the food movement should make the connection between our work and Occupy Wall Street explicit and strong.”
Corporations and Health Watch 