Food Politics

I just saw this article about the major beverage corporations teaming up on an ad campaign to remove their full calorie products from schools. http://adage.com/article?article_id=142714 Seems like a good thing but wondering whether they are touting it because soda tax legislation seems to be getting some traction.

I worked in the public school system for 7 years in a district that got rid of sodas in the vending machines. They replaced the sodas with sports drinks and fruit drinks (not juices, fruit drinks – 5% juice, 95% sugar). The soda companies are still making a profit, our youth are still getting fatter, it’s just on different poison.

I enjoyed reading the Conclusion in your JAMA article. May the “appropriate checks and balances” step up to the plate sooner than later.

Thanks for another great post. I wish they would hurry up and get cloning right, we could do with a Marion Nestle in every town and city accross the land.

For some reason this food fight is a real David and Goliath battle. But why is it?

These corporations are part of our communities. The people that work inside them who create policies, products, labels, marketing campaigns, affiliations and health claims have friends and families that are equally affected by poor health and obesity as any other Joe or Juliet in the street.

Don’t these people like their friends or families? Is the pursuit of profit such as powerful motivator that they would harm the people they look to for companionship and emotional bonding?

I think I’m going to start a couple of marketing campaigns of my own:

1. National isolation of anyone that works for a big food company or its lobbists.

2. Send monthly stats by email of adults and kids with cardiovascular diseases, heart attacks, preventable cancers, type 2 diabetes and storkes to everyone in the advertising and marketing industry. That should cloud their creativity and remind them of the realities of life.

These should be included in the health reform bill.

EdSanDiego,

It doesn’t stop with the employees of the industries you mention. The real bottom line is the shareholders who profit from and demand ever increasing profits from the food industry. These are largely wealthier, educated people who do not rely solely on the junk they profit from to feed themselves. Their lives are insulated from the communities that over rely on fast food and convenience store junk. Their children go to private or well-funded schools that do regulate or ban soda machines, and they educate their own children about eating habits. The other portion of investors are those who own tiny bits through mutual funds. Most never even think about their connection to the obesity epidemic and many use these “products” themselves.

Until we rid ourselves of the basic profit motive, these corporations will continue to perform their public duty to get the best possible returns for their shareholders. Personally, I hold no shares in any food, beverage, or food-related business.

————

Thanks, Marion, for the tip-off on Michelle Simon’s blog.

Although corporations are made up of ordinary people like us, they don’t think like individuals. If corporations were prosecuted for crimes the way individuals were, there wouldn’t be any corporations left.

Catch the documentary “The Corporation” to see how the atrocities they commit are just part of everyday business. If something increases the bottom line, it’s good. It doesn’t matter if they kill people or destroy livelihoods.

Thanks, professor. You’re absolutely poignant post is super important.
The bottom line does not care about your waste line. We can not fight against something by using its cause. Obesity thrives in this corporate socialist society and it seems clear to me that corporations co-opting positive humanist slants is still simple marketing and not an effort toward the systemic change we need.

I don’t know whether I’m more disturbed by marketing to junk food to kids or the way higher education is selling out to corporate $$$. Are people educated at PepsiCo U (er, um, … Yale) really going to the kind of critical thinkers a democracy needs, let alone the kind of folks who can navigate the grocery store aisles?

I wouldn’t be surprised if McDonald’s tried to partner with Weight Watchers here in the U.S. pretty soon.

Higher education isn’t designed to produce critical thinkers – it’s designed to produce obedient sheeple.

George Carlin sums it up here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGL8FEMc378

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It’s doesn’t take a dummy to figure out that if Weight Watchers is getting compensated by McDonalds to have Weight Watchers’ “approved” meals on their menus, Weight Watchers is unlikely to recommend to its dieters to stop eating fast food (which they should).

Additionally, if Pepsi is funding a fellowship at Yale for doctoral work in nutrition science, you can bet dollars to doorknobs that new “science” isn’t going to be critical of sugary soft drinks.

And, it is indeed disturbing that a big corporation like Disney can arm twist Harvard into evicting an organization that proved that its advertising was false.

People, while going to the polls is extremely important (and you should vote every chance you get), its more important to consider how and were you spend your money. You vote with your money, and if big corporations don’t get yours, they can’t use it to undermine your efforts to keep yourself and your family at healthy weight.

i think that people who dont know how to watch there wieght should just crawl into a whole. You are obese because you dont know when it is time for you to close your mouth. Weight watchers getting with mcdonalds is a perfect way for both of them to make money and keep the customers coming. You feed the fat boy then tell the fat boy how to keep going to the place were he became a fat boy,Brilliant!! You want to lose wieght people get your 15to 30 minutes a day 6 small meals and water water water then go to bed and take that to the bank McDonalds

Interesting to note here that many colleges/universities have ‘nutrition’ programs in their Agricultural Science/Food Science departments… The same departments that take research grants from corporate sponsors and ag industry groups; and turn out both nutritionists and food industry professionals that go out into the work force/farce.

“By all reports” What, exactly, does that mean. Do you have evidence that Harvard caved to pressure from Disney? I’m a huge fan of yours, but this kind of language makes you sound like John Ashcroft.

[...] Jump to Comments This was on Marion Nestle’s Blog this morning, 03/11/2010: A discussion on corporate interest and nutrition. How will we ever change the way kids eat if corporations have the leverage to fight against [...]

I can corroborate Marion’s statement, “by all reports” regarding the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, but in full disclosure, I am on the group’s steering committee. To be perfectly clear, the Campaign’s parent organization was (until recently) the Judge Baker Children’s Center, which is affiliated with Harvard, as its website clearly indicates: http://www.jbcc.harvard.edu/

Pressure from Disney, possibly in the form of legal threats, was put on the board of directors of Judge Baker, which in turn decided to oust the Campaign. If you want more details feel free to ask me.

Thanks Marion, for helping to get the word out.

[...] This post first appeared on Food Politics. [...]

As a graduate student in Nutritional Science, I am outraged and embarrassed about how relationships like this belittle our profession.
If nutrition professionals & the institutions that mold & create said individuals give in to these corporations, what kind of message does that send to society? If we don’t uphold our own standards & beliefs and take a stand against obesity-promoting industries, who will? How can we expect people to follow the advice of mislead & unscrupulous leaders? Pepsi’s commitment to health is NOT it’s priority. It exists to make money, regardless of the health outcome.

[...] Nutrition and Big Corporations: Marion Nestle gives examples and talks about why they don’t mix. [Food Politics] [...]

Marion,

Nice follow-up on Disney. I have an unrelated question. I’m reading Deep Economy by Bill McKibben. He talks about a form of slavery in Brazil and how ConAgra bought meat from this farm on Pg. 59. Do you have any further info on this or other items related to ConAgra. I’m interested because CA has a packaging plant in my small town. They recently announced they are going to add the SlimJim operation to this plant. I would like to be a little more informed of their practices.

I recently picked up “What to Eat” from the library and am excited to read it.

Thanks again.

That is the reason why I left the US to fight for Mexico and all Latin American countries that still have resources despite all exploitation from cororations. Thanks Dr. Nestle we will continue this fight….

Indeed. I have been saying/thinking the same thing for a while, wrote about it in my last health column.
http://www.theeagleonline.com/scene/story/improve-cafeteria-food-for-healthier-kids

- Local Foodie Fight

There was an interesting article related to this topic in the Sun-Sentinel, South Florida’s newspaper, in February. It discusses the proposal to tax soda, but it also mentions some of the organizations, including physicians’ groups, that Coco-Cola has “partnered” with in their battle against the tax. Pretty disgraceful.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sc-dc-soda-tax-20100219,0,366864.story?page=1

[...] Food Politics: Does Fighting Obesity Also Mean Fighting Corporations? So it Seems. Corporate interest in money will always supersede corporate interest in well-being. The trick, I [...]

[...] Food Politics: Does Fighting Obesity Also Mean Fighting Corporations? So it Seems. Corporate interest in money will always supersede corporate interest in well-being. The trick, I [...]

[...] Food Politics: Does Fighting Obesity Also Mean Fighting Corporations? So it Seems. Corporate interest in money will always supersede corporate interest in well-being. The trick, I [...]

[...] Marion Nestle explores how the fight against childhood obesity may well involve fighting big corporations. [...]

[...] Marion Nestle explores how the fight against childhood obesity may well involve fighting big corporations. [...]

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