Big Food Badguys

This list comes from Appetite for Profit – How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back, by Michele Simon. Nation Books, 2006.

Appendix 2 – Guide to Industry Groups and Spin Doctoring

Industry trade associations

• American Beverage Association
• Food Products Association
• Grocery Mnufacturers Association
• National Automatic Merchandising Association
• National Restaurant Association
• Snack Food Association

Industry Trade Associations – Advertising

• Alliance for American Advertising
• American Advertising Federation
• American Association of Advertising Agencies
• Association of National Advertisers
• Children’s Advertising Review Unit

Industry Trade Associations – Legal

• American Legislative Exchange Council
• American Tort Reform Association
• Washington Legal Foundation

Industry Front Groups

• American Council on Fitness ad Nutrition
• American Council on Science and Health
• Center for Consumer Freedom (restaurant industry)
  
• Council for Corporate and School Partnerships (Coke)
  
• International Food Infomation Council
• Whole Grains Council

Industry Science Institutes and Advisory Boards

• The Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition (General Mills)
• The Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness (Coke)
• Blue Ribbon Advisory Board (Pepsi)
• Campbell’s Center for Nutrition and Wellness (Campbell)
• Gatorade Sports Science Institute (Pepsi)
• Global Advisory Council on Balanced Lifestyles (McDonald’s)
• Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition (Hershey)
• International Life Sciences Institution (member corporations)
• Worldwide Health and Wellness Advisory Council (Kraft)

Corporate Educational Wellness Programs

• Balance First (Pepsi)
• Balanced for Life (Vending machines)
• Brand New You (General Mills)
• Get Active Stay Active (Pepsi)
• Girls on the Run (Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes and New Balance Shoes)
• Get Fit Challenge (Kellogg)
• Kidnetic.com (various corporations and industry groups)
• Live-It!, Step With It, and Fit It In (Coke)
• Passport to Play (McDonald’s)
• S.M.A.R.T. Living (Pepsi)
• Salsa, Sabor y Salud (Kraft)
• Weekly Reader MyPyramid (Grocery Manufacturers Association)

Public-Private Partnerships

• America on the Move (Pepsi and Cargill)
• Champions for Healthy Kids (General Mills and American Dietetic Association)
• Coalition for a Healthy and Active America (Coke)
• Coalition for Healthy Children (Ad Council and others)
• Get Kids in Action (Pepsi and UNC Chapel Hill)
• President’s Challenge (General Mills)
• Shaping America’s Youth (Cadbury Schweppes, Campbells, Splenda)

Industry Newsletters

• The Food Institute Daily Update
• Smart Brief

From Appetite for Profit

“The idea is for healthy eating to be the default instead of constantly being the more challenging way to live.” p.43

“Today’s generation of children may be the first to have shorter lives than their parents. According to one prediction, nearly half the children in North and South America will be overweight by 2010. Especially troubling are the rising obestity trends in developing countries as Western foods are increasingly marketed overseas.” p.xiv

“Center for Consumer Freedom. Despite its populist name, this organization does not represent consumers at all. Rather, it’s a lobbying front for the restaurant, food, beverage, and alcohol industries. Employing attack dog-style tactics, CCF consistently portrays nutrition-policy advocates as ‘food cops’ and radicals.” p.xxi

“Big Food is facing a public relations nightmare. The United States is in the midst of a growing epidemic of diet-related health problems, including obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Experts have written extensively about our ‘toxic food evironment,’ caused in large part by overzealous corporate marketing strategies.” p.1

“Over the last century, the human diet has been radically altered. The foods we eat now bear little resemblance to those that sustained our ancestors for millennia. In their ceaseless pursuit of profits and new markets, a small number of multinational corporations are running roughshod across the globe in flagrant disregard for public health, the environment, and the welfare of workers and farm animals. We have to stop dancing around the issue and admit this simple truth. In recent years, the privatization of water has spurred global activists to mount passionate and inspiring campaigns againts the takeover of another substane essential to human survival. Why aren’t those of us concerned with food raising similar demands? Like water (and unlike most other commodities, such as toys or electonics), food is indispensable and a basic human right. Why have we turned its production over to private interests? Shouldn’t at least some aspects of society remain off-limits to corporate control?” p.318

Quotes taken from Appetite for Profit – How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back, by Michele Simon. Nation Books, 2006