Check out this Reuters article: "Food industry to Obama: we'll improve nutrition." I'll translate. They are saying "Don't regulate us." Want proof? Enlarged print at the top of the story:
The U.S. food industry is willing to let the White House take the lead on making foods healthier in schools, but said on Friday it could improve what is sold on store shelves without government intervention.
Recently, industry made a deal with public health groups that will give the government more say in what foods are sold in schools. They are clearly trying to stave off government regulation outside of the schools while simultaneously getting good press for themselves. See?
"They respect our ability to find ways to produce more products that offer consumers more choices including choices with less sodium, less sugar, less fat," said Faber [vice president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association].
The food industry group said its members improved the nutritional value of more than 10,000 products between 2002 and 2006 and plans in May to update that total to include changes through 2009.
A separate initiative called the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation -- which includes many GMA members -- will announce pledges to improve the health content of its products later this month.
But food manufacturers are businesses. Their goal is making money any way possible. In this case it serves them to make just enough changes to their products to maintain or even increase sales while keeping the government off their backs. And they aren't going to make truly healthy products. If that was a profitable thing to do, they would have done it already. What you can expect from this is more of the same - Whole Grain Chips Ahoy, Reduced Sodium Velveeta, etc.
Also, note the focus on weight (as opposed to health). The two are not synonymous. Industry wants to give us foods that can play into whatever diet fads are trendy (calorie counting, Atkins, South Beach, etc) without necessarily giving us foods that provide for good health. And, unfortunately, the methods our society often adopts to lose weight are not necessarily healthy and frequently don't even result in losing weight. In other words, packaged foods with 1/3 fewer calories or 20% less fat or whatever isn't going to help very much. The only thing it WILL accomplish, in fact, is to put off any government regulation of the food industry. And that's precisely industry's goal. |
