Soda soldier

Call her a soda soldier, a Pepsi patriot, or stoked for Coke; Susan Neely President and CEO American Beverage Association, gets paid the big bucks to defend the beverage industry. She was earning her money on March 6, when she gave testimony to the Senate Agriculture Committee on Child Nutrition and the School Setting.
Here is an excerpt:

In May of 2006 the American Beverage Association, Cadbury Schweppes, The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo teamed up with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation (a joint initiative of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association) to develop new School Beverage Guidelines that limit calories and increase nutritious beverages in schools.

Later....


We hope the Committee appreciates the extraordinary steps our companies are taking with these guidelines. Our companies are removing full-calorie soft drinks from elementary, middle and high schools throughout America – an unprecedented move by a member of the broader food and beverage industry. They’re also reducing the portion sizes of many beverages and capping the calories of products offered in schools. This does not come without real cost and risk to the industry.

....

When asked to choose between the School Beverage Guidelines and a policy that provided bottled water, 100 percent juice, and low fat milk for K-12, parents supported our guidelines by a margin of 56% to 42%. And when asked if they preferred our guidelines or a complete vending ban in schools, they chose the guidelines by a margin of 82% to 14%.


Not all think the School Beverage Guidelines are the cat's meow. Here is some of what Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, said later in the day.

The Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act would require the USDA to update nutritional standards for foods sold outside of school lunch meals. This aim is to create a better set of defaults and hence make progress in improving children’s diets and preventing childhood obesity.

It is common to hear dramatic claims from industry that schools will suffer dearly from nutrition changes, that poorer public schools will be especially hard hit, that freedom is usurped by mandates, and that the food companies just want to offer children choices. These industry positions defend the status quo and defend the very conditions that have created a public health disaster for our children. An example is how the beverage industry, represented by the American Beverage Association (formerly the National Soft Drink Association), has addressed the issue of soft drinks in schools.

Abundant science definitively affirms that soft drinks contribute to poor diet and risk for key diseases such as diabetes and obesity. There is serious reason to question whether industry’s calls for and attempts at self-regulation have any substance. Parallels in other arenas such as tobacco reveal industry actions that benefit industry and help sell more products, not less.


TK: The beverage industry is on the defensive in Congress, and that's saying something for an industry with sales of $100 billion a year. Unlike fresh produce, soft drink makers aren't asking for strong federal oversight, however.