I’m giving the opening keynote address at this meeting at 4:15 p.m. It’s also online. For information, registration, and online access, click here.
My talk: “The Elements: Food, Nutrition, Health & Politics, 2025 Style.”
I’ve written many times about the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), an organization so locked into the interests of its food-company donors that you can count on it to vehemently oppose every consumer-friendly measure that gets proposed.
A couple of weeks ago, Politico’s Helena Bottemiller Evich and Catherine Boudreau wrote what they discovered about the unraveling of the GMA: the big Washington food fight.
The defectors so far:
Mars says:
At this time, we believe we can more effectively drive our business objectives and meaningful progress for our categories and consumers by working with other like-minded companies and through other sector-specific trade associations and collaborations.
What’s going on? Easy. GMA just isn’t keeping up with today’s marketplace.
Politico’s analysis (these are quotes):
My favorite quote comes from Jeff Nedelman, who was a VP of communications at GMA during the 1980s and ’90s: “To me, it looks like GMA is the dinosaur just waiting to die.”
May it rest in peace.