During the investigation and subsequent subsequent collapse of the Coca-Cola Global Energy Balance Network, the New York Times and Associated Press discovered that prominent university professors working on obesity issues had been funded by The Coca-Cola Company. This is not just a public health scandal. It is a journalistic one as well, writes Gary Ruskin on Alternet.
National Food Policy Scorecard
Food Policy Action
Food Policy Action was established in 2012 through a collaboration of national food policy leaders in order to hold legislators accountable on votes that have an effect on food and farming. Its goal is to change the national dialogue on food policy by educating the public on how elected officials are voting on these issues. Through education and the National Food Policy Scorecard, more people will be armed with the information they need to vote with their forks and elect more food policy leaders across the country.
Tobacco, alcohol and processed food industries – Why are they viewed so differently?
Katherine Smith November 18, 2015
Cross-posted from Policy and Politics Blog
One of the few indisputable truths in life is that we will all, eventually, die but what we will die of, and at what age, is changing across the world, with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) increasingly accounting for excessive morbidity and mortality burdens. The growing prevalence of NCDs is triggering substantial policy concern, evident, for example, in the 2011 UN high level meeting on NCDs. Yet, it is clear there are very different ways of thinking about this ‘epidemiological transition’: it has been framed, on the one hand, as a consequence of the choices that individuals make and, on the other, as a consequence of the strategies that corporations pursue.
This is how gullible General Mills thinks Americans are
The Washington Post writes that General Mills has a clever new trick, according to a lawsuit brought against the company this week by Center for Science in the Public Interest. The suit alleges that the cereal maker has been selling a new product called Cheerios Protein, which the company introduced last year, under false pretenses.
Look what is being sold to kids when they are in school
by Faith Boninger and Alex Molnar
Cross-posted from The Conversation
Students are greeted these days with a barrage of marketing and advertising as they enter the school year. And there is no let-up. The ads are all over.
The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) found ads in corridors, on scoreboards and vending machines, and inserted in the curricula through supplementary educational materials. They were on school equipment (eg, uniforms, cups, water coolers, beverage cases, food display racks) and on school buses. Ads were also put out through school newspapers, yearbooks and the school radio stations.
Continue reading Look what is being sold to kids when they are in school
The Happiness Stand
The Center for Science in the Public Interest posted a video showing its new Happiness Stand that offered pedestrians an appealing brew of 10 spoons of sugar, water and flavoring.
Corporate Portrayals and Perceptions in Public Health Debates
At the Eighth European Public Health Conference in Milan, Italy last week, public health researchers from the United States and the United Kingdom examined how portrayals of corporate practices that influenced health are portrayed in the media in the United States and Europe and how public health professionals and policy makers perceive the role of the alcohol, tobacco and food industries in shaping public policy. The session was sponsored by the University of Glasgow Social and Public Health Sciences Unit and the journal Policy &Politics. The presentations included:
Nicholas Freudenberg (USA). The Influence of Corporate Business and Political Practices on NCD Risk. Download his presentation.
Heide Weishaar (UK) and Katherine Smith (UK). Better the devil you (don’t) know? A comparison of the tobacco, alcohol and processed food industries’ perceived political legitimacy. Download their presentation.
Lori Dorfman (USA). US news coverage of corporate actors in food and beverage policy debates. Download her presentation.
Benjamin Hawkins (UK). also presented on Tensions and contractions in policy discourses and media coverage of the alcohol industry. You can read about his work here.
The session was chaired by Oliver Razum from Germany.
Media coverage of legal basis for sustainability in dietary guidelines
By Michele Simon, Cross-posted from Eat Drink Politics
As I posted last week, I conducted a legal analysis to counter the claim that considerations of environmental sustainability do not belong in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The same week, the USDA and HHS announced they would exclude sustainability from the final document not yet out, despite the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s recommendations that eating less meat and more plants is best, both for our own health and that of the planet.
Below is a media round-up of coverage of my analysis.
Continue reading Media coverage of legal basis for sustainability in dietary guidelines
The government’s new dietary guidelines ignite a huge food industry backlash
It’s expected that the agriculture and food industry keeps a close eye on the federal government’s dietary guidelines every five years. But the 2015 guidelines, which are currently in preparation by the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services for release by the end of the year, have triggered an especially ferocious backlash, writes Michael Hiltzig in the Los Angeles Times.
Health and Trade: what hope for SDG3?
Emma Woodford, Founder and Director, Health and Trade Network (HaT)
Cross posted from Health and Trade Network
“… the forces of power, particularly corporate power, are impatient with what is adequate for a coherent community. Because power gains so little from community in the short run, it does not hesitate to destroy community for the long run.” ― Wes Jackson, Becoming Native to This Place
In case you had been asleep for the last ten days, last week in New York the UN finally ratified the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aiming to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all.
Corporations and Health Watch 