Food Policy
Posted on Tuesday, May 14th, 2013 by Michele Simon
Last month, the International Food Information Council Foundation released the third edition of its report: Food Biotechnology: A Communicator’s Guide to Improving Understanding. What sounds like a reasonable and helpful document is in fact the product of a well-oiled PR machine whose board of trustees includes executives from such food giants such as Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, and Mars. In response to such tactics, I have authored a new report for Center for Food Safety that exposes the well-funded organizations and highly-sophisticated public relations strategies increasingly deployed to defend the food industry. Read rest at Center for Food Safety…
Posted in Big Food, Food Policy, Industry Tactics, Public Health | Tagged: Coca-Cola, front groups, Kraft, lobbying, Nestle, public relations | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (1) |
Posted on Monday, April 8th, 2013 by Michele Simon
With the passage of the Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act of 2010, in addition to improving school meals, Congress required the U.S. Department of Agriculture to update nearly non-existent nutrition standards on so-called competitive foods. These are foods sold outside the school meal program, including fast food items sold alongside the reimbursable lunches, and soft drinks and junk food sold in vending machines, school stores, fundraisers, and the like.
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Posted in Big Food, Child Nutrition, Food Policy, Marketing to Children | Tagged: Center for Food Safety, school food policy, targeted marketing | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (8) |
Posted on Thursday, April 4th, 2013 by Michele Simon
UPDATE: This position has been filled. Thank you.
Location: San Francisco Bay Area preferred, pacific-time zone required, telecommute
Status: Part-time, contract, 15-20 hours/week, flexible
Compensation: $20-30 per hour, depending on experience
Post date: April 4, 2013, position open until filled
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Posted in Food Policy | | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (1) |
Posted on Monday, March 25th, 2013 by Michele Simon
Our founding fathers, white-maleness aside, did get a few things right. One of them was the concept of “separation of powers,” to ensure a system of checks and balances among the three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial. But a dangerous provision snuck into the budget bill passed last week in Congress upends that system. Continue reading →
Posted in Big Food, Food Law, Food Policy, Industry Tactics | Tagged: agriculture policy, GMOs, law, Obama, USDA | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (13) |
Posted on Friday, March 15th, 2013 by Michele Simon
Hope to see you at one of these venues. To have me speak in your area, contact me here.
New York City
March 20: CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College
• Force Fed: How Food Industry Disinformation Undermines Public Health
For details, see PDF flyer.
Boston
March 21-23
Consuming Kids Summit: Reclaiming Childhood from Corporate Marketers
• Is This Even Legal? Demystifying the Laws on Marketing to Children (panel)
• Slowing Down the Clown: Policy Tools to Protect Children from Fast Food in Your Area (workshop)
Southern California
April 9: Urban and Environmental Policy Institute, Occidental College, Los Angeles
• Force Fed: Deconstructing Food Industry Lies
Class begins at 1:30pm; Room: Lower Herrick.
June 18-20: 7th Biennial Childhood Obesity Conference, Long Beach
• Marketing healthy foods to children: Do the ends justify the means? (panel discussion)
Posted in Food Policy, Industry Tactics, Marketing to Children, Public Health | Tagged: deceptive health claims, law, targeted marketing | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (0) |
Posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2013 by Michele Simon
This week, food labor advocate Saru Jayaraman is releasing her new book, Behind the Kitchen Door, which relates heartbreaking stories of just some of the 10 million restaurant workers in the U.S. In a chapter called, Serving While Sick, she tells the disturbing tale of a fast-food worker who had no choice but to come to work with a bad cold since she couldn’t afford to go unpaid. When this worker tried to explain to her manager how perhaps handling food while coughing and sneezing was not such a good idea, she was laughed at. She later wondered how many customers she got sick that day because she couldn’t leave the counter every time she needed to wipe her nose.
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Posted in Big Food, Food Policy, Food Safety, Industry Tactics, Public Health | Tagged: food safety, labor, lobbying, Restaurant Opportunities Center, workers rights | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (5) |
Posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2013 by Michele Simon
Michelle Obama speaking to the National Restaurant Association in September 2010
As I explained yesterday, I am writing one post per day this week to being attention to the new book by food labor rights advocate Saru Jayaraman, Behind the Kitchen Door. The book brings much-needed attention to the 10 million restaurant workers who toil everyday over our meals, often for slave wages. The National Restaurant Association (the other NRA) is largely responsible for lobbying to keep the federal tipped minimum wage at a paltry $2.13 an hour. Unfortunately, the topic of worker rights never came up in the speech the first lady gave to the NRA in September of 2010.
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Posted in Big Food, Child Nutrition, Food Policy, Industry Tactics | Tagged: labor, Obama, school food policy, workers rights | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (0) |
Posted on Monday, February 11th, 2013 by Michele Simon
This week, Saru Jayaraman, an amazing advocate for food workers as co-founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and now director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley is releasing her new book, Behind the Kitchen Door.
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Posted in Big Food, Food Policy, Industry Tactics, Public Health | Tagged: Burger King, Kellogg, labor, lobbying, workers rights | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (1) |
Posted on Saturday, February 9th, 2013 by Michele Simon
In the first few days after my report on the conflicted corporate sponsorship of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the Academy’s response was to make vague accusations about “factual inaccuracies” contained in my report. After I complained about AND’s failure to be specific, they posted this list entitled, “Addressing Inaccuracies of the ‘And Now a Word from Our Sponsors’ Report.” It sure looks impressive, with 14 items I supposedly got wrong. However, upon closer inspection, it’s just more of the same public relations spin from a desperate organization.
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Posted in Big Food, Food Policy, Industry Tactics, Public Health | Tagged: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Kellogg, public relations, trade groups | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (1) |
