Archive for 2013
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 | View/Add Comments (0) |
Posted on Monday, May 6th, 2013 by Michele Simon
Last week, Monster Beverage filed an unusual lawsuit against the San Francisco City Attorney’s office to stop an attempt to place restrictions on the company’s highly caffeinated and potentially harmful products aimed at youth. This aggressive move is a form of backlash against using the legal system to hold the food and beverage industry’s accountable for deceptive marketing practices.
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Posted in Big Food, Child Nutrition, Industry Tactics, Marketing to Kids | Tagged: advertising regulation, child nutrition, Chobani, Coca-Cola, ConAgra, deceptive health claims, FDA, Frito-Lay, General Mills, GMOs, Happy Meals, law, litigation, marketing to children, natural, PepsiCo, targeted marketing, vitaminwater, Whole Foods | View/Add Comments (6) |
Posted on Monday, May 6th, 2013 by Michele Simon
By Michele Simon and John Stewart
This week, when tobacco giant Philip Morris International hosts it annual shareholders’ meeting in New York, the company will honor outgoing CEO Louis Camilleri for his years of service. But a look back at Camilleri’s tenure shows a trail and death and destruction unworthy of celebration.
In 2008, parent company Altria Group spun off the international division of Philip Morris to focus more on “emerging markets,” the euphemism corporations use to describe the exploitation of Global South nations. For decades, as the regulatory environment and public sentiment has turned against smoking in the U.S., tobacco corporations have set their sights overseas. As a result, Philip Morris International now derives more revenue from Asia than from the European Union, and nearly 80 percent of tobacco-related deaths occur in the Global South.
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Posted in Industry Tactics, Public Health | Tagged: Corporate Accountability International, law, tobacco | View/Add Comments (0) |
Posted on Thursday, April 11th, 2013 by Michele Simon
Come see me present my new talk, Force Fed: Deconstructing Food Industry Lies, next Wednesday, 4pm, at the University of California, Wheeler Auditorium. For more details about the course, which features weekly lectures by guest speakers, see this article in the Daily Californian. Admission is free.
Posted in Big Food, Industry Tactics, Public Health, Uncategorized | | View/Add Comments (0) |
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 Kids | Tagged: Center for Food Safety, school food policy, targeted marketing | View/Add Comments (3) |
Posted on Thursday, April 4th, 2013 by Michele Simon
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 Uncategorized | | 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 Policy, Industry Tactics | Tagged: agriculture policy, GMOs, law, Obama, USDA | View/Add Comments (6) |
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 Kids, Public Health, Uncategorized | Tagged: deceptive health claims, law, targeted marketing | View/Add Comments (0) |
Posted on Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 by Michele Simon
It’s fair to say that the vegetarian world gave me my start. In 1996, I began volunteering with various groups to promote plant-based eating. I soon discovered Marion Nestle’s work on the politics of the meat and dairy industries and I was hooked. In the early years of doing this work I made numerous friends in the San Francisco area who I still remain close to today. Something about a shared bond over food choices and values that makes for lasting friendships. So it’s with a heavy heart that I write this unusual post, to expose an injustice being done to one of those dear friends: Colleen Holland.
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Posted in Industry Tactics, Public Health, Uncategorized | Tagged: law, public relations | View/Add Comments (4) |
