The Washington Post has a story today about the US Chamber’s work to block new nutritional guidelines for food marketed to kids. The Chamber is teaming up with fast food outlets, the nations biggest food makers, and media companies (that benefit from kid-oriented advertising) to prevent the government from putting into place some common sense protections for our children.
“We allow companies into our homes to manipulate children to want food that will make them sick,” Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest told the Washington Post.
Rather than the government having any say in consumer protections, the US Chamber would prefer that industry itself get to write the rules. They say the food industry has a good track record for regulating itself.
A good record? Over one in three kids in the United States are now either obese or overweight. While food marketers can’t be blamed entirely for the trend, the constant bombardment of advertising for fatty and sugary snacks is certainly a factor.
From the climate to our kids, it appears the US Chamber will stop at nothing to push the agenda of the wealthy corporate special interests that set their policies.
