MICHELE SIMON'S APPETITE FOR PROFIT BLOG UPDATES
February 22, 2007

IN THE NEWS

Food Giants’ Endless Appetite for Profit Many thanks to my wonderful ex-editor Matthew Wheeland at AlterNet for interviewing me about my book. Here’s how he sets things up: “Appetite for Profit helps illuminate the many ways that food companies — from General Mills to McDonald’s — market the unhealthiest foods to boost their profit margin and fight any attempts to reverse this trend. Read interview.

Coke Thwarts Health Messages in New Orleans When New Orleans decided to educate its residents about the importance of eating healthfully, experts decided to include both positive messages as well as a stronger “anti-junk campaign.” But after the folks from Steps to a Healthier New Orleans placed four billboards around town, they were asked by the city health department to take them down. Apparently, a representative from Coca-Cola complained loudly to both the New Orleans city council president and the city health director, both of whom caved to the pressure. Read story.

PepsiCo Buys Another Health Expert In recent years, soda and snack food giant PepsiCo has been placing some of the nation’s top health experts on its “advisory board.” Now they’ve cut to the chase and hired Derek Yach as the company’s “director of global health policy.” Why should you care? Read story.

Disney’s Pink Breakfast Meets its Guidelines In case you were worried that when Disney announced last October a new nutrition policy for company-branded foods, there would be no more fun in the cereal aisle, rest assured. Just as I predicted in my article on AlterNet, the Disney marketing machine endures with three new breakfast cereals: Princess Fairytale Flakes, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Berry Crunch, and Little Einstein Fruity Stars. Despite the names, the sugary cereals contain no actual fruit. Read story.


RESOURCES

Voting Beyond Our Forks My good friend and colleague, Christopher Cook (author of the excellent book, Diet for a Dead Planet) has written a wonderful article for Common Ground magazine that describes the limitations of “consumer-based” food activism, which seems to be all the rage these days. As Chris eloquently explains: “We can’t simply shop our way out of this mess. We need a compelling, coherent alternative that channels today’s excitement about good food far beyond the grocery checkout line, to cast votes for public policies and investments that restructure how food is made, marketed and consumed.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. Read article.

What Color is Your Meat? In case you needed one more reason to avoid meat, watch this clever and funny video from one of my favorite muckrakers, Jim Hightower, about how the Food and Drug Administration allows industry to artificially color meat with carbon monoxide to make it appear fresh, no matter how old. So if you think pink means fresh, think again. Watch video.


Upcoming Book Talks

Saturday March 3, 9am – 4 pm (opening speaker and workshop)
Cultivating Food Justice, City College San Diego
See flyer. Register: San Diego Food Not Lawns

Wednesday, March 14, 4-5pm
Stanford University Prevention Research Center
Farquhar Conference Room, N400, Hoover Pavilion, 211 Quarry Road

Saturday, April 14
San Francisco Vegetarian Society

Friday, April 27, 7pm
Lake Tahoe Community College

Friday and Saturday, May 11-12
Kids Being Healthy Expo, Baltimore Convention Center
 

Host a Book Talk
Contact author Michele Simon at: Michele@informedeating.org or (510) 465-0322 to schedule a speaking event in your community.

For more information about Appetite for Profit, visit the website.


The Fine Print

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