NRA: National Restaurant Association Stands Up for Restaurants, Fights Unworkable Marketing Guidelines

National Restaurant Association Stands Up for Restaurants, Fights Unworkable Marketing Guidelines

(Washington, D.C.) The National Restaurant Association issued the following statement today as the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade and the Subcommittee on Health held a joint hearing entitled, “Food Marketing: Can 'Voluntary' Government Restrictions Improve Children's Health?” The federal government’s Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children guidelines have come under scrutiny since proposed earlier this year.

“The National Restaurant Association appreciates the work of the House Energy and Commerce Committee members, particularly Chairman Upton, Chairwoman Bono Mack and Chairman Pitts,” said Joan McGlockton, Vice President of Industry Affairs and Food Policy for the National Restaurant Association. “The National Restaurant Association shares the Working Group’s desire to ensure children have healthful options when dining out. Restaurants have expanded the number of healthful menu options available to consumers. The Association and our members are committed to taking a leadership role in providing parents with menu choices and information to make informed decisions when dining out.

“We are pleased that Working Group members have considered stakeholders’ comments since first proposing these severe marketing restrictions. Nevertheless, we remain concerned that the Working Group’s nutrition guidelines contradict established nutrition principles and ban marketing of many healthful products. We believe IWG should withdraw the recommendations and conduct the study first required by Congress.”

CSPI: Congress Needn’t Rescue Junk-Food Marketers from Voluntary Government Nutrition Guidelines

Congress Needn’t Rescue Junk-Food Marketers from
Voluntary Government Nutrition Guidelines
Statement of CSPI Nutrition Policy Director Margo G. Wootan
What an unseemly spectacle it is to see panicked junk-food advertisers running to Congress for help fending off the innocuous, voluntary guidelines for food marketed to children proposed by the Interagency Working Group. I could understand how the industry might play the “national nanny” card if the government were proposing mandatory nutrition standards. But, in fact, the Administration is merely proposing non-binding, totally voluntary guidelines that, if adopted, would help make the industry’s own self-regulatory program more effective.
It is to the great discredit of the food, entertainment, and advertising industries that they have resorted to a misleading campaign of fear-mongering and phony facts to kill these voluntary nutrition standards. But I suppose if you’re in the business of convincing young children to want to eat Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisps, Kool-Aid, and fake “fruit” snacks, it makes perfect sense that you’d try to change the conversation away from nutrition and health.
I hope the House joins the Senate in support of the Interagency Working Group for Food Marketed to Children, made up of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s not junk food marketers who deserve special Congressional protection—it’s children and parents who do.

Food For The Poor Awarded USDA Program Funding for Nicaragua

Food For The Poor Awarded USDA Program Funding for Nicaragua
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (October 12, 2011) – The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded Food For The Poor 4,690 metric tons of food for children in Nicaragua over the next three years. The goal is to improve the education, nutrition, and health conditions of school-aged children in underserved communities in Nicaragua. During a three year period, approximately 275 containers of food will be distributed in the country’s most impoverished communities.
The World Food Program identifies Nicaragua as the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, behind only Haiti in terms of per capita income and the market value of all goods and services produced in the country. Low literacy rates, high dropout numbers, and poor academic performance are direct measurable consequences of widespread food insecurity, where low-income households often rely on children to increase the family’s income and in some cases, assist with subsistence farming.
“For some of the students who live in extreme poverty, this USDA program may give them the opportunity to taste milk for the first time,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “Malnutrition denies many children the opportunity to live life to their fullest potential. More than half of these families in rural areas live on less than $2 a day.”
Approximately 260 schools will participate in the USDA Food For Education program in Nicaragua. Plans call for 70,000 preschool to primary school-age children in northern and central Nicaragua to benefit from this feeding program. From 2011 to 2014, more than 37 million meals will be provided to students. The children will receive nutritional meals prepared from nonfat dried milk, red kidney beans, rice, textured soy protein, and vegetable oil.
The majority of beneficiaries are located in Estelí, Matagalpa, Jinotega, Nueva Segovia and Madriz. According to recent regional poverty assessments, nearly one-third of the population lives in extreme poverty. Chronic malnutrition and food deficits affect 50 percent of school-aged children and literacy levels fall below national averages – only three out of every 10 will finish high school.
Students will receive a morning snack and a hot meal for lunch each day. In addition, this program will fund the installation of 120 latrines, repairs to school kitchens, establish school gardens, and provide multi-disciplinary training for parents and teachers.
Food For The Poor has assisted Nicaragua since 1997. The American Nicaraguan Foundation has been a partner of Food For The Poor for 14 years, and during 2010 Food For The Poor shipped 343 containers of aid valued at more than $114.5 million to the country.
Food For The Poor was previously awarded a USDA Food For Education program in 2005 to benefit 65,000 school children in Nicaragua. Over the years, Food For The Poor has received additional funding from the USDA to support programs in Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Trinidad.
Food For The Poor, the third-largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor.
For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.

Cornucopia: Major Agribusinesses Competing with Organics on the Cheap

Major Agribusinesses Competing with Organics on the Cheap

"Natural" Food Products with Toxic Chemicals and GMOs Deceiving Consumers

http://www.cornucopia.org/2011/10/cerealcrimes-pressrelease/

CORNUCOPIA, WIS: A revelatory report released by The Cornucopia Institute, an organic industry watchdog, has stirred controversy in the natural foods marketing arena by highlighting abusive marketing practices by some of the nation's largest breakfast cereal manufacturers. In some cases, companies such as Kellogg's, Quaker Oats (PepsiCo), Barbara’s Bakery and Whole Foods Market are selling products contaminated with toxic agrichemicals and Monsanto's genetically engineered organisms while promoting them as "natural."

The new report, Cereal Crimes: How “Natural” Claims Deceive Consumers and Undermine the Organic Label—A Look Down the Cereal and Granola Aisle (available at www.cornucopia.org) explores this growing trend of marketing conventional foods as “natural” to lure health-conscious and eco-conscious consumers and their shopping dollars.

Unlike the organic label, no government agency, certification group, or other independent entity defines the term “natural” on processed food packages or ensures that the claim has merit.

In contrast, breakfast cereals displaying the USDA's "certified organic" logo are produced under a strict set of verified standards prohibiting the use of petrochemical-based fertilizers, sewage sludge, synthetic toxic pesticides, genetically modified crops, and many other common conventional agricultural and manufacturing inputs.

Cereal Crimes details how prominent agribusinesses are increasingly using various strategies to create the illusion of equivalence between the “natural” and organic labels to mislead consumers.

“Some companies that started out organic, and built brand loyalty as organic brands, have switched to non-organic ingredients and “natural” labeling,” said Charlotte Vallaeys, Director of Farm and Food Policy at Cornucopia.

One such brand, Peace Cereal® is an example of what Cornucopia calls “bait-and-switch.” In 2008, the Peace Cereal® brand switched from organic to cheaper conventional ingredients, without lowering its prices. Today, the cereal is sold in natural food stores and mainstream grocers at prices above many of their certified organic competitors that are using more expensive organic ingredients.

Although the prices may be similar, in reality, there is a vast difference between organic and “natural” products from grain produced with the use of toxic pesticides. In some cases, companies charge high prices for “natural” products that even contain genetically engineered crops developed by St. Louis-based Monsanto.

Pesticides that are strictly prohibited in organics are commonly used to produce ingredients for “natural” products. For example, organophosphate pesticides were developed from World War II-era nerve gas and are designed to be toxic to the neurological systems of target organisms. They are deadly to insects but also have been proven damaging to humans—with fetusesi and children especially at risk.

Several recent studies have linked organophosphate pesticide exposure to a wide range of developmental disorders in children, including behavioral problems, poorer short-term memory and motor skills, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).ii, iii, iv, v While federal law prohibits organic farmers from using these toxic pesticides, no such restriction exists for “natural” products.

"This is exactly why parents are seeking out truly natural (organic) products for their children and are deceived by corporate agribusinesses and their Madison Avenue agencies," said Vallaeys.

USDA testing has found residues of organophosphate pesticides like chlorpyrifos and malathion on corn, soy, wheat flour, and oats, which are all common ingredients in breakfast cereals. In the case of wheat flour, residues were found in more than 60% of samples.

Given increasing consumer interest in avoiding genetically engineered (GE) ingredients, The Cornucopia Institute contracted with an independent, accredited laboratory to test many “natural” breakfast cereals for potential genetic contamination.

"Natural" cereals from brands including Kashi (Kellogg's), Mother’s (PepsiCo), Nutritious Living, Barbara’s Bakery (Weetabix), and 365 (Whole Foods Market) contained high levels of genetically engineered ingredients (between 25%, and 100%)—even though a number of these companies are represented as "non-GMO" to the public.

To help health-conscious consumers make informed grocery purchases, Cereal Crimes is accompanied by a scorecard rating various breakfast cereal and granola brands for the true support of healthy and environmentally sustainable practices. The scorecard can also be viewed on Cornucopia's website.

“Consumers probably find this marketplace subterfuge less surprising when they learn that many of the leading ‘natural’ cereal brands are really manufactured by giant agribusinesses like Kellogg's, hiding behind the façade of well-established niche brands,” said Harry Bennett, a marketing official with the Kansas Organic Producers Association, a cooperative marketing organic grain.

Despite finding that “natural” cereal products offer few, if any, advantages over conventional products, companies typically charge substantially higher prices for products with “natural” labeling claims.

Analysis by Cornucopia of wholesale and retail cereal and granola prices revealed that “natural” products often are priced higher than equivalent organic products. This suggests that some companies are profiting from consumer confusion.

For example, prices in the leading natural/organic food distributor’s wholesale catalog for multigrain flakes show that two of the least expensive products are actually certified organic, offered by industry leader Nature’s Path and Food for Life. Meanwhile, Kashi’s 7-grain cereal, made with cheaper non-organic grains by the multinational corporation Kellogg but disguised as an independent sounding “natural” brand, is priced higher than equivalent organic options.

Karen Zwicky of Minneapolis, MN said she just bought several boxes of Kashi cereal for her 2 year old daughter, who she's been feeding a "pretty" strict organic diet.

"Target was handing out samples of Kashi, and she loved the taste and I trusted the brand, even though it isn't labeled as organic," Zwicky explained. "I don't mind that the big brands buy out the smaller organic and more sustainable companies, what really is disturbing to me is that it seems that they are only doing so in order to buy consumer trust."

"Committed organic companies, rated highly in Cornucopia’s online scorecard, must compete against giant multinationals such as Kraft Foods (Back to Nature), Pepsico (Mother’s) and Kellogg’s (Bear Naked /Kashi) and misleading “natural” marketing claims,” stated Mark A. Kastel, Codirector at the Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute. "When marketers intentionally mislead consumers with their “natural” products, they are taking business away from the companies providing truly safe and healthy food and supporting certified organic farmers."