Food Industry Rebuffs Voluntary Guidelines

[marmar]

from Civil Eats:




Food Industry Rebuffs Voluntary Guidelines

July 28th, 2011
By Kristin Wartman


Food corporations enjoy carte blanche on what they can say about their foods, how and to whom they advertise, and even (to a large degree) the ingredients they choose to put in their foods. But when the Obama administration recently proposed voluntary guidelines (PDF) for the types of food advertised to children, industry giants decided to preempt these guidelines and create their own.

Since the government released its new guidelines, two powerful industry groups have reared up. One is the Sensible Food Policy Coalition, headed by former Obama press secretary Anita Dunn, and led by PepsiCo, Viacom, Kellogg’s, General Mills, Time Warner, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, and the Association of National Advertisers. This group was quickly created in response to the government’s new guidelines and its sole purpose is to prevent them from going into effect.

The second industry group formed is the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), led by ConAgra, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills, and Kellogg’s. The members of CFBAI sell thousands of food and beverage products around the world and thus share joint interests when it comes to advertising policies.

The government’s guidelines evolved as part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign and are intended to protect children from the onslaught of advertising for highly processed, nutritionally void foods. The guidelines propose that by 2016, all food products most heavily marketed to children and adolescents ages two to 17 must meet the following two nutrition principles, “provide a meaningful contribution to a healthful diet,” and “should minimize the content of nutrients that could have a negative impact on health or weight.” ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://civileats.com/2011/07/28/food-industry-rebuffs-voluntary-guidelines/#more-12740

[SpiralHawk]

1. "All your guidelines are belong to us. Sneer." - RepubliCrap, Inc. (R)

[ixion]

2. ah yes, lobbying like mad so that they can continue to sell garbage and poison as food

Lovely.

[qb]

3. Corporations are amoral money machines. They are incapable of doing "the right thing"

unless it turns a profit.

[fasttense]

4. Trust me, cat shit is a vegetable. Know your farmer, buy local. n/t