Posts Tagged ‘Let’s Move’
Posted on Friday, December 7th, 2012 by Michele Simon
Last week, the National League of Cities, which represents over 19,000 cities, villages and towns, hosted its annual meeting in Boston, with one of its three aims to “strengthen neighborhoods and families.” What better way to accomplish that goal than to challenge fast food’s influence in their communities? While a couple of conference sessions featured First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! program, missing from the agenda was the role fast food plays in communities. That’s why Corporate Accountability International released a report and action guide earlier this year called “Slowing down fast food: A policy guide for healthier kids and families” – to fill this void. Read rest at Corporate Accountability International…
Posted in Big Food, Child Nutrition, Marketing to Kids, Public Health | Tagged: Corporate Accountability International, fast food, Let's Move, McDonald's, zoning restrictions | View/Add Comments (1) |
Posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2012 by Michele Simon
I recently gave several talks at the American Public Health Association conference, an annual gathering of some 12,000 enthusiastic public health professionals. In years past, not many presentations (other than my own) focused on the role of corporations to harm the public’s health. I am happy to report this is changing, as numerous panels struck such a theme. The following is a summary of my talk on the recent failed attempt by the federal government to rein in junk food marketing to children, and why it’s time to set a new and much bolder course to fix this problem.
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Posted in Big Food, Child Nutrition, Marketing to Kids, Uncategorized | Tagged: American Public Health Association, Congress, Federal Trade Commission, General Mills, Let's Move | View/Add Comments (13) |
Posted on Friday, July 13th, 2012 by Michele Simon
The United Fresh Produce Association Foundation says it’s “proud to be a Founding Partner of the Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools Initiative.” I thought the First Lady should know this trade group is responsible for killing a vital produce testing program that helps keep kids safe from infection.
Dear Mrs. Obama,
I am writing out of deep concern over Let’s Move’s partnerships with the United Fresh Produce Association and the Produce Marketing Association. These two groups have lobbied to kill a vital pathogen testing program. While the Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools program is to be applauded, its association with these trade groups is not.
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Posted in Big Food | Tagged: E.coli, FDA, foodborne illness, Let's Move, listeria, Microbiological Data Program, Obama, Salmonella, United Fresh Produce Association | View/Add Comments (3) |
Posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 by Michele Simon
The national hysteria over obesity has reached a crescendo this week, as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hosts the conference, “Weight of the Nation” in Washington, DC. If you couldn’t make it, no worries, more fear-mongering is on the way in a four-part mini-series on HBO to air next week. The show of the same name is produced in coordination with several federal government agencies. The trailer alone almost brought me to tears, seeing all the awful stereotypes of fat people.
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Posted in Child Nutrition, Public Health | Tagged: Let's Move, obesity, public health, Weight of the Nation | View/Add Comments (16) |
Posted on Thursday, December 15th, 2011 by Michele Simon
At a recent summit on childhood obesity, the first lady announced a shift in her well-known Let’s Move campaign — away from food reform and toward an increased focus on exercise. Instead of “forcing [children] to eat their vegetables,” she told her audience, “it’s getting them to go out there and have fun.” Yes, you heard that right. The first lady actually said that eating vegetables is a chore. And that playing is a preferable focus for her campaign because it’s easier. Read rest at Grist…
Posted in Child Nutrition, Public Health | Tagged: childhood obesity, Congress, Let's Move, Obama, school food regulations, USDA | View/Add Comments (1) |
Posted on Saturday, December 10th, 2011 by Michele Simon
Marion Nestle, the author of Food Politics, recently got a reminder that food is indeed political, right up to the nation’s highest office. On November 30, the first lady made a speech in which she announced that her Let’s Move campaign (on childhood obesity) would have a renewed focus on physical fitness, to combat “the crisis of inactivity that we see among our kids.”
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Posted in Child Nutrition, Public Health | Tagged: childhood obesity, Let's Move, Obama | View/Add Comments (5) |
Posted on Thursday, November 17th, 2011 by Michele Simon
Over the last couple of days, news outlets have been having a field day with a proposal from Congress that pizza sauce be considered a vegetable to qualify for the National School Lunch program. Headlines like this one were typical: “Is Pizza Sauce a Vegetable? Congress says Yes.” (The blogs were a tad more childish; for example LA Weekly: Congress to USDA: Pizza is So a Vegetable, Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah.)
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Posted in Big Food, Child Nutrition, Marketing to Kids | Tagged: child nutrition, Congress, Let's Move, Obama, USDA | View/Add Comments (30) |
Posted on Monday, January 24th, 2011 by Michele Simon
When Michelle Obama first announced her Let’s Move program to end childhood obesity “within a generation” last year, I tried to remain open-minded. Like many others, I was happy to have the First Lady bring attention to this important problem. And there’s no doubt that her leadership has helped, for example, to get Congress to make improvements to school meals. But I remained concerned that the White House was reluctant to take on the food industry in any meaningful way. It seems that things are worse than I thought.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: childhood obesity, Let's Move, Obama, Walmart | View/Add Comments (20) |
