Bush in Bed with the Global Obesity Lobby

Commercial Alert, January 26, 2004

Following is an article from Alternet.
http://www.alternet.org/print.html?StoryID=17649

Tough Love for the Obesity Lobby
by Jonathan Rowe and Gary Ruskin

The Bush Administration has a problem with personal responsibility. They
make a big deal about it for nearly everyone -- except themselves and the
corporate big shots who finance their campaigns.

A case in point is the recent World Health Organization's proposal to combat
the spread of obesity, diabetes and related illnesses throughout the world.
The WHO proposal -- called officially the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical
Activity and Health -- would encourage governments to adopt a number of
common-sense steps, from better food labeling and limits on junk food
advertising to the promotion of healthful diets with more fruits and
vegetables, and less sugar. It also urges governments to make sure that
schools promote such diets, not junk food and soda pop.

Hardly radical stuff, and long overdue. WHO's own studies show that
unhealthful diets and physical inactivity have become the leading causes of
cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer throughout
the world.

One would think the U.S. would be eager to sign on. We know this problem
first-hand: some two-thirds of us are overweight, plus, the President
himself is a fitness buff. And let's face it. Much of the crescendo in
global lard comes from the junk food diet that U.S. companies such as
Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, McDonald's and Kraft have exported.

On top of all this, two years ago, President Bush called for a new ethos
that says "we're responsible for our decisions." So you'd think he'd be the
first to take some responsibility for the consequences of the actions of the
country he leads. Fat chance. Instead, the Bush Administration has blocked
the WHO anti-obesity plan, and re-opened it for weakening amendments. The
Administration has hauled out its focus-group-tested slogans to pass the
buck -- and ensure lots of them for its friends in the junk food industry.

First, "science." Whenever the Administration wants to muddy the waters it
invokes the experts in the white coats. So here, William R. Steiger, a top
aide at the Department of Health and Human Services (and George Bush Sr.'s
godson), wrote to WHO that there are "numerous instances" where its food
policies "are not supported with sufficient scientific evidence." Come on.
Maybe the scientists employed by the junk food industry can't figure this
one out, but our grandmothers did and their grandmothers before them. Dr.
Walter Tsou, president-elect of the American Public Health Association,
observed "Any mother with any common sense knows that you don't feed your
kids cookies and ice cream every day unless you want to see them gain
weight."

Is that really so hard? Is it really so hard to figure out that a Big Mac
and a large shake, with 1600 calories combined, might cause some problems on
the obesity front?

As it happens there is no shortage of science that confirms this common
sense. Take fast food. One study published in the International Journal of
Obesity found that boys and girls who ate fast food three times in the
previous week had far higher calorie intakes: 40 and 37 percent,
respectively - than did those who did not eat fast food. Another study,
published in this month's issue of Pediatrics, estimates that the
consumption of fast food could account for an additional six pounds of
weight gain per child per year. But this research is not paid for by the
junk food industry. So in the interesting logic of the Administration, that
apparently makes it "junk science." Kaare R. Norum, the Norwegian professor
who chaired the scientific panel that advised WHO, notes that the attacks on
the WHO's scientific evidence "have not come from scientists. They have come
only from industry."

Next the administration invokes "personal responsibility." Steiger, the top
HHS aide, wrote to WHO that the Administration "supports personal
responsibility to choose a diet conducive to individual energy balance,
weight control and health." Steiger similarly told the Washington Post that
"what's lacking" in the WHO approach "is the notion of personal
responsibility as opposed to what the government can do." This echoes the
spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers of America, who said: "There is no
mention [in the WHO strategy] of what we consider to be the fundamentally
important issue of individual responsibility."

The echo is not coincidental. Note that the Bush Administration is not
demanding some personal responsibility from junk food bigwigs such as sugar
magnate Jose "Pepe" Fanjul, Safeway CEO Steven Burd, and Richard F. Hohlt, a
lobbyist for Altria (formerly Philip Morris), which is majority owner of
Kraft. It is not asking them to take responsibility for the billions of
dollars they and other junk food marketers spend seducing our kids with
saturation ads, nor for the obvious and predictable consequences of these
actions - i.e. the diseases associated with the consumption of junk food.

Each of these fat cats has purchased an indulgence in the form of bundled
$200,000 contributions to the 2004 Bush campaign. So the Administration
points the finger instead at parents and their children. The finger comes no
less from the Department of Health and Human Services, which probably should
be renamed the Department of Junk Food Marketing and Corporate Services.

The sugar industry has wanted to hobble WHO since the organization said that
free sugars should comprise less than 10% of total daily calories. Last
April, the Sugar Association actually threatened WHO that it would sic its
allies in Congress on the U.S.'s annual $406 million contributions.

Now, we agree that people do need to take more responsibility for the junk
they put into their mouths, and for their failure to get off their behinds.
But the global obesity lobby has to take some responsibility too, for its
nonstop propaganda campaign, especially when it is aimed at children. That
includes Henry Kravis, founding partner of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, which is
majority owner of Channel One, an in-school marketing service that bombards
schoolchildren with ads for soda pop and junk food. True, Mr. Kravis has
bundled $100,000 to the Bush 2004 campaign. But surely President Bush
understands that sometimes, we just have to say "No."

Executives such as Mr. Kravis seem to have a hard time grasping another
Administration nostrum - that parents are the proper guides to their
children's behavior. They persist in injecting themselves into the
relationship between parents and children. They seduce kids with ads crafted
by psychologists to turn the kids into relentless nags for junk food that
many parents do not want their kids to have. These executives have got to
take some responsibility for the way they disrupt the home. The President
should remind them of this.

And it's time for the U.S. government to take some responsibility itself,
and stop hindering parents' efforts to instill healthful eating habits in
their kids. Forgotten in the daily barrage of junk food ads is the way the
government actually encourages these very corporations. Under U.S. tax law,
for example, most corporate advertising is tax deductible. So next time your
kid throws a tantrum because you don't want to buy her another Big Mac, you
might recall that your tax dollars are helping to pay for the ads that
induced your child's snit.

The obesity lobby has developed a welfare mentality, and it's past time for
the Bush people to show some tough love. It should stop - right now -- the
tax break for advertising of junk food, and advertising to children
generally. No more taxpayer-subsidized meddling in the American family. No
more corporate welfare to goad kids to throw tantrums for Whoppers, Cokes,
M&Ms and the rest.

The President himself should take some personal responsibility for this
step. He should call Lanny Griffith and Rob Leebern, lobbyists for the
Grocery Manufacturers of America and Coke, into his office. He should tell
them that even though they each have bundled $100,000 to the Bush 2004
campaign, the time has come for them to decide whether they are going to be
part of the problem or part of the solution - and that the government isn't
going to help them anymore if they persist in the former.

Then the President should get on the phone to Director-General J.W. Lee of
WHO and apologize for the moral relativists at his Department of Health and
Human Services who lack the courage to stand up to the junk food lobby.

Eighteen months ago, President Bush himself said "when I talk about personal
responsibility in America, I expect there to be corporate responsibility as
well, and we will hold those to account who do not uphold those high
standards in America."

It's time for the President to walk his talk. He should hold junk food and
advertising executives accountable for their role in promoting obesity and
disease throughout the globe. Literally millions of lives are at stake
across the planet. The world needs a coalition of the willing in the cause
of global health and freedom from unchecked corporate influence on children.
Who better than America to lead?

<-----article ends here----->

BACKGROUND:
For more information about the Bush Administration's assault on the World
Health Organization's anti-obesity initiative, see:
http://www.commercialalert.org/index.php/category_id/5/subcategory_id/66/art
icle_id/213
See Michael Shaw's excellent cartoon about the Bush Administration and the
junk food industry at http://www.commercialalert.org.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:
1) Sign the petition to President Bush asking him to support the WHO
initiative, and to support public health over the interests of the junk food
lobby. Go to: http://www.commercialalert.org
2) Send a short email to William Steiger, author of the Bush Administration
letter. His email address is: William.Steiger@hhs.gov. Tell Mr. Steiger
that the Bush Administration should support the WHO Global Strategy on Diet,
Physical Activity and Health, and that public health is more important that
junk food industry profits.

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--
Gary Ruskin | Executive Director | Commercial Alert
gary@commercialalert.org | http://www.commercialalert.org/
Congressional Accountability Project | http://www.congressproject.org/
phone: 503.235.8012 | fax: 503.235.5073