[House Hearing, 112 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
FOOD MARKETING: CAN ``VOLUNTARY'' GOVERNMENT RESTRICTIONS IMPROVE
CHILDREN'S HEALTH?
=======================================================================
JOINT HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, MANUFACTURING, AND TRADE
AND THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTH
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
----------
OCTOBER 12, 2011
----------
Serial No. 112-94
Printed for the use of the Committee on Energy and Commerce
energycommerce.house.gov
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COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
FRED UPTON, Michigan
Chairman
JOE BARTON, Texas HENRY A. WAXMAN, California
Chairman Emeritus Ranking Member
CLIFF STEARNS, Florida JOHN D. DINGELL, Michigan
ED WHITFIELD, Kentucky Chairman Emeritus
JOHN SHIMKUS, Illinois EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts
JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York
MARY BONO MACK, California FRANK PALLONE, Jr., New Jersey
GREG WALDEN, Oregon BOBBY L. RUSH, Illinois
LEE TERRY, Nebraska ANNA G. ESHOO, California
MIKE ROGERS, Michigan ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
SUE WILKINS MYRICK, North Carolina GENE GREEN, Texas
Vice Chairman DIANA DeGETTE, Colorado
JOHN SULLIVAN, Oklahoma LOIS CAPPS, California
TIM MURPHY, Pennsylvania MICHAEL F. DOYLE, Pennsylvania
MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas
BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California JAY INSLEE, Washington
CHARLES F. BASS, New Hampshire TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
PHIL GINGREY, Georgia MIKE ROSS, Arkansas
STEVE SCALISE, Louisiana ANTHONY D. WEINER, New York
ROBERT E. LATTA, Ohio JIM MATHESON, Utah
CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS, Washington G.K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina
GREGG HARPER, Mississippi JOHN BARROW, Georgia
LEONARD LANCE, New Jersey DORIS O. MATSUI, California
BILL CASSIDY, Louisiana DONNA M. CHRISTENSEN, Virgin
BRETT GUTHRIE, Kentucky Islands
PETE OLSON, Texas KATHY CASTOR, Florida
DAVID B. McKINLEY, West Virginia
CORY GARDNER, Colorado
MIKE POMPEO, Kansas
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois
H. MORGAN GRIFFITH, Virginia
(ii)
Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade
MARY BONO MACK, California
Chairman
MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee G.K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina
Vice Chairman Ranking Member
CLIFF STEARNS, Florida CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas
CHARLES F. BASS, New Hampshire JIM MATHESON, Utah
GREGG HARPER, Mississippi JOHN D. DINGELL, Michigan
LEONARD LANCE, New Jersey EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York
BILL CASSIDY, Louisiana BOBBY L. RUSH, Illinois
BRETT GUTHRIE, Kentucky JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
PETE OLSON, Texas MIKE ROSS, Arkansas
DAVID B. McKINLEY, West Virginia HENRY A. WAXMAN, California (ex
MIKE POMPEO, Kansas officio)
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois
JOE BARTON, Texas
FRED UPTON, Michigan (ex officio)
------
Subcommittee on Health
JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania
Chairman
MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas FRANK PALLONE, Jr., New Jersey
Vice Chairman Ranking Member
ED WHITFIELD, Kentucky JOHN D. DINGELL, Michigan
JOHN SHIMKUS, Illinois EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York
MIKE ROGERS, Michigan ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
SUE WILKINS MYRICK, North Carolina LOIS CAPPS, California
TIM MURPHY, Pennsylvania JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas
PHIL GINGREY, Georgia TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
ROBERT E. LATTA, Ohio MIKE ROSS, Arkansas
CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS, Washington JIM MATHESON, Utah
LEONARD LANCE, New Jersey HENRY A. WAXMAN, California (ex
BILL CASSIDY, Louisiana officio)
BRETT GUTHRIE, Kentucky
JOE BARTON, Texas
FRED UPTON, Michigan (ex officio)
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hon. Joseph R. Pitts, a Representative in Congress from the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, opening statement................ 1
Prepared statement........................................... 3
Hon. Fred Upton, a Representative in Congress from the State of
Michigan, opening statement.................................... 4
Prepared statement........................................... 6
Hon. Frank Pallone, Jr., a Representative in Congress from the
State of New Jersey, opening statement......................... 8
Hon. Janice D. Schakowsky, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Illinois, opening statement........................... 9
Hon. Mary Bono Mack, a Representative in Congress from the State
of California, opening statement............................... 9
Prepared statement........................................... 11
Hon. Marsha Blackburn, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Tennessee, opening statement.......................... 13
Hon. G.K. Butterfield, a Representative in Congress from the
State of North Carolina, opening statement..................... 13
Hon. Joe Barton, a Representative in Congress from the State of
Texas, opening statement....................................... 15
Prepared statement........................................... 17
Hon. Pete Olson, a Representative in Congress from the State of
Texas, opening statement....................................... 19
Hon. Adam Kinzinger, a Representative in Congress from the State
of Illinois, opening statement................................. 19
Hon. Henry A. Waxman, a Representative in Congress from the State
of California, opening statement............................... 20
Hon. Lee Terry, a Representative in Congress from the State of
Nebraska, prepared statement................................... 122
Witnesses
William H. Dietz, Director, Division of Nutrition, Physical
Activity, and Obesity, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services............ 21
Prepared statement........................................... 24
Answers to submitted questions \1\...........................
Robert Post, Deputy Director, Center for Nutrition Policy and
Promotion, Department of Agriculture........................... 33
Prepared statement........................................... 35
Answers to submitted questions \1\...........................
David C. Vladeck, Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection,
Federal Trade Commission....................................... 43
Prepared statement........................................... 45
Attachments to submitted questions........................... 357
Answers to submitted questions............................... 367
Jim Baughman, Senior Marketing Counsel, Campbell Soup Company.... 138
Prepared statement........................................... 141
Daniel L. Jaffe, Executive Vice President, Government Relations,
Association of National Advertisers............................ 171
Prepared statement........................................... 173
Elaine D. Kolish, Vice President and Director, Children's Food
and Beverage Advertising Initiative, Council of Better Business
Bureaus........................................................ 209
Prepared statement........................................... 211
Beth Johnson, Principal, Food Directions LLC, on behalf of the
Grocery Manufacturers Association.............................. 237
Prepared statement........................................... 239
Margo G. Wootan, Director, Nutrition Policy, Center for Science
in the Public Interest......................................... 289
Prepared statement........................................... 291
Dale Kunkel, Professor of Communication, Department of
Communication, University of Arizona........................... 317
Prepared statement........................................... 320
John S. Irons, Research and Policy Director, Economic Policy
Institute...................................................... 331
Prepared statement........................................... 333
Submitted Material
Statement, dated October 12, 2011, of Brad Figel, Vice President,
North America Public Affairs, Mars Incorporated, submitted by
Mrs. Capps..................................................... 74
Letter, dated October 11, 2011, from the Hon. Eric Paulsen, et
al., to Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary, Health and Human
Services, et al., submitted by Mr. Pitts....................... 78
Statement, dated October 12, 2011, of the American Bakers
Association, submitted by Mr. Pitts............................ 83
Testimony, dated October 12, 2011, of Kraig R. Naasz, President
and Chief Executive Officer, American Frozen Food Institute,
submitted by Mr. Pitts......................................... 98
Letter, dated July 14, 2011, from John T. Allan III, Director of
Regulatory and International Affairs, American Frozen Food
Institute, to Office of the Secretary, Federal Trade
Commission, submitted by Mr. Pitts............................. 100
Memo, dated July 15, 2010, from Michelle Rusk and Carol Jennings,
attorneys, Division of Advertising Practices, Federal Trade
Commission, to David Vladeck, Director, Bureau of Consumer
Protection, submitted by Mr. Olson............................. 117
Open letter, dated September 6, 2011, from Gary D. Allison, Vice
Dean and Professor Law, University of Tulsa College of Law, et
al., to Jon Leibowitz, Chairman, Federal Trade Commission, et
al., submitted by Mr. Pallone.................................. 132
----------
\1\ Mr. Dietz and Mr. Post did not answer submitted questions for
the record.
FOOD MARKETING: CAN ``VOLUNTARY'' GOVERNMENT RESTRICTIONS IMPROVE
CHILDREN'S HEALTH?
----------
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2011
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade,
Joint with
Subcommittee on Health,
Committee on Energy and Commerce,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittees met, pursuant to call, at 10:30 a.m., in
room 2123, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Joseph R. Pitts
(chairman of the Subcommittee on Health) presiding.
Members present: Representatives Pitts, Bono Mack, Barton,
Shimkus, Terry, Murphy, Burgess, Blackburn, Bass, Gingrey,
Latta, Harper, Lance, Cassidy, Guthrie, Olson, McKinley,
Pompeo, Kinzinger, Upton (ex officio), Dingell, Towns, Pallone,
Engel, Capps, Schakowsky, Gonzalez, Butterfield, and Waxman (ex
officio).
Staff present: Clay Alspach, Counsel, Health; Charlotte
Baker, Press Secretary; Jim Barnette, General Counsel; Debbee
Keller, Press Secretary; Ryan Long, Chief Counsel, Health;
Brian McCullough, Senior Professional Staff Member, CMT; Carly
McWilliams, Legislative Clerk; Jeff Mortier, Professional Staff
Member; Gib Mullan, Chief Counsel, CMT; Monica Popp,
Professional Staff Member, Health; Chris Sarley, Policy
Coordinator, Environment and Economy; Heidi Stirrup, Health
Policy Coordinator; Stephen Cha, Minority Senior Professional
Staff Member; Alli Corr, Minority Policy Analyst; Eric Flamm,
Minority FDA Detailee; Karen Lightfoot, Minority Communications
Director and Senior Policy Advisor; Felipe Mendoza, Minority
Counsel; and Will Wallace, Minority Policy Analyst.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOSEPH R. PITTS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Mr. Pitts. The subcommittees will come to order.
I am pleased today to be holding a joint hearing with the
Health Subcommittee and the Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade
Subcommittee on such an important issue. The Chair recognizes
himself for 5 minutes for an opening statement.
The fiscal year 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act directed
the USDA, the FTC, CDC, and FTC to complete a study on food
marketing to children and report back to Congress. Instead,
what these 4 agencies, collectively known as the Interagency
Working Group on Food Marketed to Children, or IWG, delivered
was a sweeping set of voluntary principles for marketing foods
to kids. These principles are based on nutritional standards
that exceed and conflict with those of other government
programs, some administered by these same agencies, such as the
WIC program, the school lunch program, and the SNAP, the food
stamp program.
The guidelines are so restrictive that many healthy foods
like low-fat yogurts, whole-wheat bread, and 2 percent milk
could not be marketed to those 17 and under. Cereals, even non-
sweetened cereals would not meet the IWG guidelines, including
Cheerios. According to one analysis, 88 out of the 100 most
advertised foods and drinks would be in violation of these
standards.
Please don't misunderstand. I am very concerned about the
obesity epidemic in our Nation. I have 4 young grandchildren. I
want them to make good dietary and lifestyle choices and grow
up healthy. And the parents, not government bureaucrats, are in
the best position to see that that happens. Frankly, banning
peanut butter commercials during hours when they may be
watching TV is not going to accomplish that goal.
The IWG should completely withdraw these recommendations
and do what they were instructed to do by Congress in the
fiscal year 2009 omnibus, conduct a study and report the
findings of the study and their recommendations to Congress.
That report was due July 15, 2010.
I yield the remainder of my time to the chairman of the
full committee, Mr. Upton.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Pitts follows:]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 77930.001
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. FRED UPTON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MICHIGAN
Mr. Upton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate you going
out of order as I have another supercommittee meeting this
morning. So I need to be there. But I thank you and Chairman
Bono Mack for calling this hearing today.
You know, 2 \1/2\ years ago, Congress established an
Interagency Working Group, IWG, composed of the FDA, the Center
for Disease Control and Prevention, USDA, and FTC. The IWG was
created to conduct a study and develop recommendations for
standards in the marketing of food to children and teenagers.
The study results and recommendations were supposed to take the
form of a report to Congress, which we as the representative
branch of government can consider as we decide whether and how
to proceed.
But instead of conducting the study or providing
recommendations, the IWG unilaterally proposed guidelines that
were so extreme that they would prevent the marketing to
children of foods that most parents consider a win if their
kids eat, such as yogurt, cheese sticks, even soup.
Moreover, the IWG's definition of marketing was so broad
that it endangered the philanthropic funding that many
community sports programs and schools rely on to fund athletic
activities, the one thing proven to combat childhood obesity.
And while the initiative was portrayed as a helping hand to
parents to reduce children's exposure to advertising for foods
with limited nutritional value, to many of us and our
constituents that appeared to be the first step towards Uncle
Sam planning our family meals. The IWG's preliminary proposal
states flatly that foods would have to be reformulated and in
some cases may disappear altogether.
While the testimony suggests that the agencies are dealing
with some of the most extreme aspects of the proposal,
significant concerns still remain. These guidelines are labeled
as voluntary, which to me means they are largely aspirational.
But what happens when a litigious group sues a food
manufacturer because it showed a commercial advertising a new
kind of chocolate treat? Regardless of whether a child sees a
commercial for that treat, the ultimate purchasing decision
rests with the parent who purchases the groceries, and those
groceries carry nutritional labels that every parent can read.
I am also very concerned regarding the impact of the
guidelines on jobs. According to a study by IHS Consulting, the
guidelines would lead to a loss of as many as 74,000 in just 1
year and perhaps 378,000 jobs over 4 years.
The Senate report language called for a study and a report
to Congress. We have neither a study nor a report. Rather, we
have a quasi-regulatory maneuver that has drawn fire from a
broad range of organizations and Members of Congress.
I am concerned about both the IWG's recommendations and the
manner in which they were produced going beyond the scope of
that charge. I believe that this approach opens the door to
needless and expensive litigation, and ultimately I believe
there are much better approaches to improve the health of our
children.
I yield back.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Upton follows:]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 77930.002
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 77930.003
Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Health, Mr. Pallone,
for 5 minutes.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK PALLONE, JR., A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Chairman Pitts.
Childhood obesity is a tragic public health epidemic in
this country, and the statistics are alarming. One out of every
3 children is affected by obesity, and over the last 3 decades
rates have skyrocketed. According to data from the Center for
Disease Control and Prevention, rates of obesity have doubled
in children and tripled in teens. In addition, there are
millions more kids who are just at the cusp and are in endanger
of becoming obese.
As a result of this epidemic, health problems that were
rarely seen in children 30 years ago are now quite common. A
report conducted by the Trust for America's Health in 2009
highlighted that more and more children are being diagnosed
with Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, joint
problems, and depression, to name just a few. Shockingly, 1 in
3 children born in the year 2000 is expected to develop
diabetes during his or her lifetime; and 25 percent of children
between the ages of 5 and 10 years old have early warning signs
for heart disease such as high blood pressure and high
cholesterol levels.
What is so important to understand is that these children
are likely to continue having health problems as they age into
adulthood. Studies have shown that up to 80 percent of obese
children will become obese adults. Some experts have even
predicted that if the trends in childhood obesity continue, we
will for the first time in American history see a generation
that lives sicker and dies earlier than their parents.
Many factors contribute to the public health problem.
Personal habits definitely play a part, but so does less
exercise and lack of access to healthy foods. Regardless of the
reasons, the bottom line is that children's diets are too high
in calories, saturated in trans fat, refined sugars, and salt,
and too low in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and calcium. As
a result, they have an increased risk of many serious and
costly diseases.
We also know that marketing is a factor in the types of
foods children eat. A 2008 FTC report found that the food
industry spent more than $1.6 billion in 2006 alone to market
messages to kids promoting foods that often are high in
calories and low in nutrition.
In 2006, the Institute of Medicine released a study on food
marketing to children that examined the role that marketing may
play as a determinate of the nutritional status of children and
the ways in which marketing approaches might be adopted to help
address the epidemic of childhood obesity. In fact, as a result
of this study, the industry launched their own initiative
designed to shift the mix of foods advertised to children to
encourage healthier dietary choices and healthy lifestyles.
I believe that our government has an obligation to work
with industry leaders, parents, schools, and advocates to
address and hopefully reverse the trends of childhood obesity.
The recommendations by the IWG being examined today are one
step in that direction. I, for one, certainly share the goal of
improving children's diets and addressing the high rates of
childhood obesity.
Is the IWG proposal perfect? No, not at all. In fact, I
think, as written, many of these recommendations are
unworkable. But today we will hear from many witnesses,
including the consumer advocates who will attest to that. But
that is why the proposal poses 30 specific questions designed
to elicit input on a variety of issues. So I fully expect the
IWG to carefully consider the many comments that were received.
I do not agree with some of our witnesses who believe that
the IWG proposal should be withdrawn completely and instead
endorse an industry-only approach. Today's hearing will allow
our witnesses to publicly provide important input into the
development of a complete set of recommendations to Congress.
If we want to facilitate and induce real change, it is critical
that any voluntary guidelines encourage and incentivize
American companies to participate.
I look forward to working with my colleagues, and I would
like to now yield the remainder of my time to Representative
Schakowsky.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, A
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS
Ms. Schakowsky. I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
You know, we are going to spend our time today attacking
the Interagency Working Group, whose mission was simply to--I
am looking for exactly the words. The working group's job was
to submit a report to Congress. And that is it. And that is
what Congress told the group to do.
This is not a regulatory document. It doesn't enforce, but
it does inform the conversation we have about a very serious
problem, and that is childhood obesity.
I did want to refer Mr. Vladeck to a myths and facts
article that you wrote some time ago and refer to what the
chairman was saying, it is the parents that are supposed to do
this. And the myth is that this proposal represents the
government's attempt to do a parent's job. Absolutely not.
Parents, not the government, make decisions. But the proposal
is designed to support, not supplant, moms and dads. After all,
the more marketing that kids see that is for foods that make up
a healthy diet, kids will start asking for healthier foods. And
so I think that we need an open mind to listen to these
reasonable proposals.
Thank you.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARY BONO MACK, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Mrs. Bono Mack [presiding]. I thank the gentlelady, and the
Chair now recognizes herself for 5 minutes for my opening
statement.
Today, the evidence is all around us. There is an
indisputable link between childhood obesity and diabetes. It is
an issue that I have been working on for many years. More and
more overweight kids are leading to more and more cases of
full-blown diabetes among children all across America. That
alarming trend demands our attention.
But what is far less clear to me is whether the Interagency
Working Group's proposed nutrition principles are even
achievable for most food groups and what effect they could have
on food prices. Hopefully, we can get some straight answer to
these and some other very important questions before committing
to a national policy that may shrink family budgets but no
waistlines.
Clearly, the IWG's initial proposal went way too far. It
had a dangerously high content of plausibility. To its credit,
the FTC did substitute a little commonsense for an otherwise
rigid menu that could leave American businesses as well as
consumers with a bad case of heartburn. People are smart enough
to recognize that Girl Scout cookies or cake bought at a bake
sale are not health foods, and they should act accordingly.
But, that said, I still remain very concerned that healthy
foods like yogurt could wind up not meeting these new
standards. So much for counting calories.
I am also concerned by a lack of science-based evidence in
some of the IWG's recommendations. For example, despite study
after study, the link between saturated fat and obesity remains
inconclusive. Is there a plausible connection? Yes. But is
there a definitive one? No. Over the years, Americans have
decreased their saturated animal fat intake, and yet
cardiovascular disease rates remain mostly unchanged.
I am also worried about what may happen every time there is
a new cook in the kitchen. While these standards are voluntary,
they can be changed on a whim, creating uncertainty for both
businesses and consumers. Let us rethink that approach before
the standards become finalized.
As a former small business owner, I am troubled as well by
the impact that the IWG's nutrition principles could have on
smaller U.S. companies, which often struggle to comply with
these type of standards. I am anxious to learn what steps are
being taken to ensure that thousands of Americans don't lose
their jobs at a time when unemployment nationwide stands at a
stubborn 9.1 percent.
And, finally, why hasn't this committee received the IWG
report which was supposed to have been delivered to Congress by
July 15, 2010? Frankly, we would like to find out what you have
been cooking up in the kitchen. Right now, I am not sure I like
the smell of it.
And at that point, I will yield the balance of my time to
the vice chair of the Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade
Subcommittee, Mrs. Blackburn.
[The prepared statement of Mrs. Bono Mack follows:]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 77930.004
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 77930.005
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARSHA BLACKBURN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TENNESSEE
Mrs. Blackburn. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Welcome to our witnesses.
As a mother and a grandmother, I have always been concerned
with diet, nutrition, obesity. This goes back to my interest in
foods and nutrition when I was a young 4-H Club member in South
Mississippi. I love that issue, and for decades I have watched
as government has tried to dictate portion sizes and
regulation. But I have come to realize nothing replaces
understanding of the food pyramid and the basic food groups and
how those impact your body and your life.
I think that the nanny state, that government should be
held responsible for how its IWG marketing rules will suppress
free speech, choice, harm our economy, and fail at reducing,
fail at reducing childhood obesity. The government should stop
pretending after all of these decades that it has the answers,
because it does not. Big government is no replacement for
parental involvement in our children's everyday lives and their
understanding of the food that they consume, what they eat and
the individuals that they become.
Furthermore, private industries are already sensitive to
consumer demands and they are bowing to parental concerns. I
see this in the choices for my grandchildren. These broad
marketing restrictions are supposedly voluntary, but it is
clear they will inevitably form the basis for NGO attacks,
shareholder actions, and private litigation.
This hearing is an opportunity to explore these concerns
further. I thank you all for your interest in being here today.
I want to let both panels know that we look forward to having
them here, that we look forward to furthering this discussion,
and to visiting with you about what is a thoughtful way to move
forward with helping to educate parents and children as to what
they are consuming.
Now, I am one of those that I cook for my children and
grandchildren every single weekend. One of the favorite
incentives I have for my 2 grandchildren is an old Mr. M&M. And
when you flip his hand, he dispenses a little M&M. After they
eat the appropriate amounts of meat and veggies and a little
bread and drink their milk, Mr. M&M gives them that candy token
that they are looking for as their reward for doing things
right.
It is my choice as a grandmother. We don't need the FTC. We
don't need the IWG. We do not need the Federal Government
weighing in. Yep.
Mrs. Bono Mack. The Chair now recognizes Mr. Butterfield
for 5 minutes.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. G.K. BUTTERFIELD, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
Mr. Butterfield. Thank you.
To the 2 subcommittee chairs and Chairman Pitts and
Chairman Bono Mack, thank you for holding today's hearing on
the Interagency Working Group's preliminary proposed nutrition
principles on food marketed to children.
Children's health and well-being are paramount. I think we
can all agree on that. We must do all we can to ensure the next
generation of leaders are as healthy as possible. To that end,
Congress directed the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and
Drug Administration, the Center for Disease Control, and USDA
to conduct a study and develop recommendations for standards
for the marketing of food when such marketing targets children
who are 17 years old or younger.
It seems that the working group took that charge and tried
to complete as thorough a document as possible, resulting in
the preliminary proposed nutrition principles to guide industry
self-regulatory efforts. The working group proposal includes
many great suggestions like incorporating more fresh fruits and
vegetables and whole grains into a child's daily diet in
addition to the M&Ms. The working group also suggests limiting
nutrients that are generally accepted as not being healthy in
large quantities, like sodium and saturated fat, trans fat, and
added sugars.
I agree with these principles. I also believe, however,
that certain parts of the preliminary working group report
recommended overly specific standards that would be difficult,
difficult for industry to meet.
In 2006, in response to an Institute of Medicine report,
the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the member companies
of its Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative
instituted a wide-reaching self-regulatory standard.
Representing the overwhelming majority of companies marketing
food products to children, this initiative's goal was to devote
at least half, half of all advertising directed at children to
healthier food options and a healthier lifestyle.
The initiative's self-regulatory requirements were recently
expanded to be more rigorous. Now, when marketing to children
12 and under, member companies must advertise healthier
products, healthier products and 100 percent of the time.
Member companies cannot pay for or actively seek product
placement in programming directed to children. Member companies
are not permitted to advertise in schools serving pre-
kindergarten through 6th grade. Member companies have also
reformulated more than 100 products advertised to children.
They have decreased caloric levels and reduced sodium, sugar,
and fat levels, all of these voluntarily.
It is true that children want what is advertised to them on
television, magazines, or in a store, whether it is a sugary
cereal or the Red Rider BB gun made famous recently, but it is
ultimately the responsibility of parents and caregivers to make
informed and thoughtful decisions about the kind of food their
child eats, just as they do for the kind of toys they play
with.
The government can play a role, however, in the overall
health of our children, nutritional education, and to both
parents and children who can go a long way in helping to
develop long-term, healthy eating habits.
Last month, the USDA retired the 20-year-old food pyramid
and replaced it with My Plate, a simpler and more relatable way
to teach parents and children what they should be eating and
how much. The government also runs the Web site, nutrition.gov,
where anyone can learn more about weight management, dietary
supplements, and even provides recommendations for healthy
shopping, cooking, and meal planning.
I share the President's goal of ending childhood obesity
and related conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease,
and diabetes. I respect the working group's commitment to the
same. But I also believe that children's food and beverage
advertising initiatives should be encouraged and given a chance
to test out their impact.
Moreover, government entities involved in the working group
should not ignore or forget their important role, providing
nutritional education in schools and on television, in print
and on line. Parents must be able to make informed decisions
about what their children eat through exposure to all food
choices, the ones that are good for them, the ones that they
should enjoy sparingly.
And so, Madam Chair, Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for
convening the hearing. I look forward to the remainder.
I yield back.
Mrs. Bono Mack. I thank the gentleman, and the Chair now
recognizes Mr. Barton for 5 minutes.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOE BARTON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS
Mr. Barton. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
I have an opening statement I am going to put in the
record.
I want to do a little focus group with all of the people in
this room. We have got about 200 people. How many had a sit-
down, home-cooked meal with your family last night? Raise your
hand.
I am impressed that that many of you did. That is good. We
had about, I would say, 25 percent of the audience. You folks
are the solution to our problem.
It is not the government giving these guidelines, and the
agencies here are well-meaning, I am sure. It is the fact that
we don't take the time to do what we know is right.
I have a little condo here in Washington. I know this is
about children's obesity, but this is illustrative. I have a
gas stove that has an oven and a 4-top cooker--burners. It
hasn't been connected for 20 years. OK? I have a microwave that
I use to do microwave popcorn.
When I got elected to Congress, I weighed 160 pounds. I
weigh 215 on a good day now. It is not because I don't know
what is nutritious to eat. It is because I don't take the time.
I go to a reception or I go to the Whip's office or I go to a
dinner or I stop at McDonald's. If I am really trying to be
healthy, I will stop at Subway and maybe get a sandwich.
My wife is an excellent cook. And when I am in Texas at
home, I would say about half the time we actually have a sit-
down meal with her and my 6-year-old son. But she works full
time, too. So we go to fast food, whether it is Pizza Hut or
McDonald's or Braum's or Wendy's or Popeye's Chicken or
whatever, and on the weekends maybe we have the meals.
The problem is not government guidelines. The problem is
not knowing what is nutritious. The problem is that in our
world today we just don't take the time to do what we know we
need to do, and you can't regulate that. You can't mandate
that. We can't mandate that everybody sit down with their
family for an hour and a half and have a balanced meal like
Congresswoman Blackburn does with her children and
grandchildren when she is in Tennessee.
So this is going to be a good hearing. We are going to have
a lot of good sound bites. But I haven't heard anybody on
either side of the aisle, my friends on the Democratic side or
the Republican side over here, saying that the government
giving us mandatory--even voluntary regulations is going to
solve this problem. It is up to each of us individually to do
what we know needs to be done.
And with that, Madam Chairwoman, I want to yield, I think,
a minute to Mr. Olson of Texas.
[The prepared statement of Mr.Barton follows:]
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Mrs. Bono Mack. I am happy to recognize Mr. Olson.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. PETE OLSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS
Mr. Olson. I want to thank the chairman emeritus and my
colleague from Texas. I would like to thank Chairmen Upton,
Bono Mack, and Pitts for calling this very important hearing.
Last year, I visited a Frito-Lay plant in the district I
represent with my 11-year-old son. The plant has 465 employees.
There is another Frito-Lay office in my home district which has
181 employees. That is 646 Frito-Lay jobs in the 22nd
Congressional District of Texas.
These jobs involve the manufacture, sale, distribution, and
marketing of snack food products, including products that
qualify as healthy under FDA regulations. However, under the
proposal by the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to
Children, many of these products would be restricted, and the
jobs that produce them would be at risk.
It is my job as a parent, not the government's job, to
ensure that my children eat healthy foods and develop healthy
habits. We don't need the Federal Government dictating which
foods can be marketed to children.
Thank you. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses. I
yield back.
Mr. Barton. I would like to yield the balance of my time to
Mr. Kinzinger.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ADAM KINZINGER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS
Mr. Kinzinger. Thank you for yielding and for the
opportunity for the witnesses to come in and testify today.
The 2009 report language included in the Omnibus
Appropriation Act directed the IWG to complete a study and
submit a report to Congress with its recommendations. Congress
is still waiting. Instead, the IWG devised voluntary nutrition
standards for food marketing to children that would require
product reformulation with no scientific evidence that these
new marketing restrictions would lead to long-term changes in
eating behaviors or obesity rates.
I was elected to Congress by Illinois families that want a
government that fosters a safe and free economy, a government
that is limited in its scope and effective in its goals. This
proposal is counter to that. As many as 74,000 food
manufacturing jobs are in jeopardy with these guidelines. These
jobs are held by parents working hard to feed their children.
It is time we return government to the people and rein in
Washington's culture of senseless regulation. I look forward to
hearing from the witnesses and hope the IWG sees the need in
providing a science-based report that includes how the proposal
will benefit children's health and what it will do to the cost
of our Nation and jobs and economic growth. And I yield back.
Mrs. Bono Mack. The Chair recognizes Mr. Waxman for 5
minutes.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. HENRY A. WAXMAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Mr. Waxman. Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Let me get this straight. Congress said that we should
create an interactive task force from the Centers for Disease
Control, the Food and Drug Administration, the United States
Department of Agriculture, the Federal Trade Commission. We
asked that this task force be set up to give recommendations
about a real problem.
And what is this real problem? There is an epidemic of
obesity among our children. This is a serious health matter. A
third of our kids are now overweight or obese. It is a public
health problem. It is also a problem of national defense. The
Pentagon complains they can't find enough kids who are not so
overweight that they can't go into the military. It is a
problem any way you look at it. It is a complex problem. But
the food industry can contribute to this effort of helping to
educate the public.
Now, how can they do that? Well, they could talk about
safer foods, healthier foods, and not target our kids. The food
industry spends $1.6 billion on marketing to the kids each
year. And when they are marketing candy, they are not saying
take only one M&M from your grandmother. They are saying eat
M&Ms, eat candy, eat all the food that we know is not great.
But kids don't know.
So we have got this interagency task force, and they came
out with a preliminary report. And our committee is going
crazy. We have called a hearing. The Republicans who run this
committee called a hearing. It is a preliminary report. It
means they want to get comments. So before they get comments
from anybody else, we are going to give them our comments.
And what are the comments of the Republicans? ``Their
preliminary proposal is extreme. We don't want Uncle Sam
planning our family meals. It is going to have an impact on
jobs.'' That is what they always say. They even have a figure,
70,000--or 700,000 jobs would be lost each year. I don't know
where they got that figure.
``This is going to lead to litigation.'' Well, I don't know
how it is going to lead to litigation. If there is a reason to
sue because people manufacture and sell legal products that may
or may not be healthy, that is not a tort as I understood
everything I studied in law school. And just because there is a
government guideline for a voluntary effort, I don't know how
that leads to more litigation.
So the Republicans say it is going to lead to litigation,
it is big government, we better find out what the impacts are
on our prices for food, there is not enough of a scientific
basis to even deal with this issue, big government is not a
replacement for parents, as if anybody said big government was
a replacement for parents.
This is a way for the industry to do something on a
voluntary basis to help deal with a real public health problem.
It is a way to educate the public. It is a way not to have our
kids subjected to advertising that they don't know how to deal
with. They are kids.
And then we hear it is too difficult to implement. Well, if
it is too difficult to implement, then the industry doesn't
have to implement it.
I cannot believe this hearing. I cannot believe the
statements that I have been hearing from the other side of the
aisle.
This is an interim report. They are asking for comments.
The comments seem to suggest that they shouldn't have a task
force. Well, the Congress set it up. All the rhetoric. ``We
want limited government, freedom in our country, no regulated
markets,'' on and on and on.
Well, let me tell my Republican friends, if we did nothing,
the epidemic of obesity in children is not going to stop. It is
going to continue. The food manufacturers and advertisers are
not going to change what has been working for them, because
what has been working for them is adding to their profits.
So somebody should do something. If not government
suggesting ideas, will industry act on its own?
I just find this an amazing hearing. The only thing I can
analogize it to is the hearing we had, after all of the tobacco
issues that we discussed for many years, the Republicans took
charge, and we never heard anything more about tobacco. And
suddenly we had a hearing about tobacco, and the hearing was
how smokeless tobacco should be encouraged as a way for smokers
to give up smoking. It was geared to promoting an industry that
no doubt supported financially many of the Members. I wonder if
this hearing is about the same subject.
I yield back my time.
Mrs. Bono Mack. I thank the gentleman, and now we will turn
our attention to the panel.
Our first panel of witnesses will include William Dietz,
Director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and
Obesity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Then
we have Dr. Robert Post, Deputy Director of the Center for
Nutrition Policy and Promotion at the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. And then David Vladeck, Director of the Bureau of
Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission.
Thank you all very much for coming today. We have your
prepared statements in front of us all, and we recognize you to
summarize them. And we will begin with you, Dr. Dietz.
STATEMENTS OF WILLIAM H. DIETZ, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF
NUTRITION, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, AND OBESITY, CENTERS FOR DISEASE
CONTROL AND PREVENTION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN
SERVICES; ROBERT POST, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR NUTRITION
POLICY AND PROMOTION, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE; AND DAVID C.
VLADECK, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF CONSUMER PROTECTION, FEDERAL TRADE
COMMISSION
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM H. DIETZ
Mr. Dietz. Thank you, Chairwoman Bono Mack and members of
the subcommittees. It is a great honor for me to be here today
to talk to you about the Interagency Working Group on Food
Marketed to Children.
Mrs. Bono Mack. Excuse me, Doctor. Would you please pull
the microphone closer to your mouth and make sure that it is
turned on?
Mr. Dietz. Is this better?
Mrs. Bono Mack. Yes, thank you.
Mr. Dietz. Before coming to CDC, I was a professor of
pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston;
and I am a prior President of the Obesity Society and prior
President of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition. My
statement provides background on the burden of childhood
obesity and cardiovascular disease risk factors, a discussion
of how advertising and the marketing of foods and beverages
influence the diets of children and youth, and an overview of
the Institute of Medicine's 2006 report on food marketed to
children and youth.
The 2 greatest diet-related health threats to children and
adolescents in the United States are obesity and the
development of cardiovascular disease risk factors. Our most
recent data indicate that 17 percent of U.S. children and
adolescents are obese.
The caloric imbalance necessary to reverse the obesity
epidemic in children is surprisingly small and ranges from 30
to 170 calories, depending on the age of the child. Modest
shifts in consumption can reduce this excess.
Obese children are at a greater risk for a variety of
health conditions. Approximately 30 percent of obese children
have high blood pressure, 10 percent of all children have
elevated cholesterol, and obesity increases the risk of
elevated cholesterol even further.
Obese children also have an increased risk of Type 2
diabetes and multiple other health problems. Virtually every
system in the body is affected.
In addition, obesity may lead to severe psychological and
social problems, such as absenteeism from school,
discrimination, victimization, and poor self-esteem.
Although elevated blood pressure and elevated cholesterol
accompany obesity, sodium and saturated fat in the diets are
also important contributors. Reductions in salt intake could
decrease adult heart attacks by 9 percent and adult strokes by
14 percent.
The poor quality of the diets of 0- to 5-year-old children
is emphasized by recent data from the feeding infants and
toddler study conducted by Nestle. This study showed that 45
percent of 1- to 2-year-old children and 78 percent of 2- to 4-
year-old children have sodium intakes above the upper limit
recommended by the National Academy of Sciences. 75 percent of
children consume excessive saturated fat. Approximately 30
percent of children consumed no vegetables on the survey day,
and 20 to 30 percent of children consumed no fruit.
Approximately 30 percent of children are consuming pre-
sweetened cereals. High-caloric-density foods are frequently
consumed as snacks, and almost 40 percent of 2- to 4-year-old
children consume fruit-flavored drinks daily. These dietary
patterns increase the risk of obesity and cardiovascular
disease.
Furthermore, food marketing to children leads to increased
consumption of foods of low nutritional value. The 2006 IOM
report on food marketing concluded that, quote, food and
beverage marketing practices geared to children and youth are
out of balance with healthful diets and contribute to an
environment that puts their health at risk. Specifically, the
IOM report found that in 2- to 11-year-olds there is strong
evidence of the effect of food marketing on food and beverage
preferences, food and beverage purchases, food and purchase
requests, short-term consumption, and moderate evidence on the
effects of food advertising on food and beverage beliefs and
usual dietary intake among 2 to 5-year-olds.
We also know that there is a linear relationship between
television viewing and obesity, and it appears that food
marketing to children plays an important role. The more
television a child watches, the more likely they are to consume
foods while watching television, and those foods are more
likely to be the foods that are advertised on television.
Furthermore, several studies have now shown that reductions
in television time are associated with weight reduction without
increases in physical activity. This observation suggests that
the effects of television on childhood obesity are not due to
television viewing displacing more vigorous physical activity.
Multiple studies have shown that among products marketed most
frequently to children are sugar sweetened beverages, sugar
sweetened cereals, restaurant foods, and salty snacks, the same
types of foods that contribute to obesity and cardiovascular
disease risk factors. Foods containing meaningful amounts of
fruits, vegetables, or whole grains are rarely advertised.
We want to support parents in providing healthful foods to
their children. The advertising directed at children prompts
them to nag their parents to purchase the products that are
marketed to them. The high-fat, high-salt, and h-i-g-h sugar
foods consumed as a result of these ads increases the risk of
obesity and cardiovascular disease, while the provision of
meaningful amounts of healthful alternatives to these foods
reduces these risks. The Interagency Working Group is committed
to developing principles for foods marketed to children that
can improve the health of our children and ultimately reduce
health care costs.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Dietz follows:]
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Mrs. Bono Mack. Thank you, Dr. Dietz.
Dr. Post, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT POST
Mr. Post. Thank you.
Chairman Bono Mack and Chairman Pitts and members of the
committee and subcommittees, it is an honor to have this
opportunity to provide this statement for today's hearing on
the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children.
I am Dr. Robert Post. I am Deputy Director for the Center
for Nutrition Policy and Promotion in the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. I represent USDA on the IWG.
My role of reviewing the technical basis for the IWG's
nutrition principles is commensurate with my role as the policy
official leading the development of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines
for Americans.
The current epidemic of overweight and obese children in
the United States is a major concern for USDA. The 2010 Dietary
Guidelines for Americans reports that eating patterns
established in childhood often track into later life, making
early intervention on adopting healthy nutrition and physical
activity behaviors a priority.
As you know, the USDA supports a number of food and
nutrition policies and programs that aim to improve not only
the nutrition but also the overall health and well-being of
America's youth. Primary prevention of obesity and related risk
factors is the single most powerful public health approach to
reversing America's obesity epidemic over the long term.
Lifelong habits are developed throughout childhood, and every
opportunity should be provided to build healthy habits at the
earliest stages of life.
Among the strategies reported in the dietary guidelines
that can be used to help create and promote healthy lifestyles
for children is supporting effective policies to limit food and
beverage marketing of unhealthy products to children. Since May
2009, the IWG has met regularly to study and assess the
science, critically examine the components of voluntary efforts
already being employed by various organizations, and
exhaustively work through scenarios of applying different
criteria to individual foods and foods marketed as meals.
To satisfy the directive of the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations
Act, which called for the creation of the IWG, the working
group reviewed the 2010 Dietary Guideline Advisory Committee's
comprehensive report on nutrition research, the Dietary
Guidelines for Americans, regulations promulgated by the FDA
and USDA concerning nutrient content and health claims, and
relevant IOM reports, as well as nutrition standards developed
by industry groups and various public and private entities
prior to developing recommendations. The recommendations
represent voluntary recommendations that might inform and guide
industry efforts to voluntarily change the promotion of foods
and beverages to children.
Based on this study, in April of 2011, the IWG released for
public comment a draft set of preliminary proposed nutrition
principles for foods marketed to children and solicited public
comment on the draft recommendations to gain insights on the
practicality and feasibility of the proposed recommendations
that would be in a report to Congress. About 29,000 comments
were received, 100 or so of which provided substantive
discussion of the tentative proposed nutrition recommendations.
Also during this period, the Children's Food and Beverage
Advertising Initiative, CFBAI, and its participants released a
new set of food-category-specific uniform nutrition criteria
that are being adopted by all members of the CFBAI. The CFBAI
is a voluntary self-regulation program comprising many of the
Nation's largest food and beverage companies. It is designed to
encourage advertising of healthier dietary choices to children
under the age of 12. There are 17 food manufacturers and
restaurant chains that have signed on to this effort.
The newly released criteria represent a significant change
on how the program operates, as each participating company has
now agreed to follow a unified set of nutrition criteria. The
goal is that participating companies will adopt these new
criteria by December 31, 2013. According to the organization,
its new criteria impose significant challenges on the
participating companies and require reformulation of many of
their products if they wish to continue advertising them after
the criteria go into affect. The CFBAI estimates that one-third
of the products currently advertised to children do not meet
the criteria.
On review, it appears that with the new uniform criteria,
the industry has made considerable efforts to design and
reformulate its products closer to the principles tentatively
proposed by the IWG. The new nutrition criteria of the CFBAI
appear to be a step forward in changing the food advertising
landscape, while also taking into consideration the feasibility
of manufacturers making meaningful changes to the nutrient
content of food products.
There are many aspects--or several aspects--of the criteria
that are helpful in simplifying the IWG's preliminary approach.
Overall, the CFBAI standards present in many respects a
reasonable set of criteria to consider for revising the IWG
preliminary proposal. While the criteria represent a very good
start towards the marketing of healthier foods, food
manufacturers should continue to work in improving the
nutritional content of foods that they intend to market to
children. We believe that additional changes to nutrition
principles for advertising can be considered over time, and we
believe that manufacturers will in fact make earnest progress.
Thank you very much, Chairman and members of the committee
and subcommittees, for this opportunity to provide USDA's
views.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Post follows:]
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Mrs. Bono Mack. Thank you, Dr. Post.
Mr. Vladeck, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF DAVID C. VLADECK
Mr. Vladeck. Good morning, Chairman Bono Mack and members
of the subcommittee. I am David Vladeck, Director of the
Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection. I
appreciate the opportunity to be here today to discuss the
important issue of food marketing to children.
Every parent knows how difficult it is to get children to
eat a healthy diet. We rarely see children having tantrums in
the produce aisles pleading for mom or dad to load up the
shopping cart with broccoli or Brussels sprouts. Indeed, a
cottage industry has formed to advise parents on ways to
smuggle healthy ingredients into foods their children will eat.
The FTC wants to support parents in their challenging quest
to get their kids to eat healthier foods, including, by the
way, yogurt, peanut butter, Cheerios, some of the other foods
that were mentioned this morning. But let me be clear about
this. Not by issuing regulations. The FTC has long encouraged
strong and meaningful industry self-regulation. We have sent
reports to Congress with recommendations on a broad range of
self-regulatory initiatives, including media violence and
alcohol marketing, in addition to food marketing to children.
Regardless of what role marketing may or may not play in
the problem of childhood obesity, the marketing ingenuity of
America's food manufacturers and entertainment providers can be
an important part of the solution. The Commission began to
focus on the issue of childhood obesity in July, 2005, when the
FTC and the Department of Health and Human Services held a
workshop on marketing, self-regulation, and childhood obesity
which, by the way, sparked the industry self-regulatory
program.
Several months ago, acting pursuant to a bipartisan
directive from Congress, the working group released for comment
proposed recommendations for voluntary industry self-
regulation--voluntary industry self-regulation. 29,000 comments
were received.
Now, Congress did not require us to seek public comment or
engage with stakeholders, but we did so because we wanted the
working group process that was used to shape these
recommendations to be as open and transparent as possible. And
because it is ultimately up to the food companies to decide
whether to adopt the guidelines, we needed their input to
ensure that our recommendations to Congress would be attainable
for industry.
The working group took Congress' directive seriously, and
the draft recommendations we issued were ambitious. As we
studied the comments, however, we realized that perhaps we were
too ambitious.
One significant comment came from the Children's Food and
Beverage Advertising Initiative, the industry self-regulatory
group, the CFBAI. The CFBAI's comments announced substantial
improvements in its self-regulatory program, not just by
tightening standards but most notably by adopting uniform
nutritional criteria for its 17 member companies, making the
program much more transparent and strong.
The framework of the CFBAI program has much to commend it,
and I am confident that this framework will be reflected in the
final working group report. But the FTC's focus and expertise
is on marketing, not nutrition. So let me highlight for you the
3 most significant marketing changes that I contemplate with
respect to the final working group report. Of course, these
changes will have to be approved by the Commission and the
other working group agencies, but I believe that these changes
will focus the final report on ads targeted directly to
children and will thereby avoid having the working group's
recommendations covering marketing activities that are family
oriented or directed to a more general audience.
First, I anticipate that the final report will not
encompass adolescents 12 to 17 within the scope of covered
marketing, except for certain in-school marketing activities;
second, philanthropic activities, entertainment and sporting
events also do not appear to warrant inclusion with marketing
that is child directed; and, third, I do not anticipate that
the final report will recommend that food companies change the
trade dress elements of their packaging or remove brand equity
characters from food products that do not meet the nutritional
recommendations.
Parents don't have an easy task when it comes to getting
their kids to eat healthier foods. The FTC is committed to
working with its sister agencies and all stakeholders to make
that burden on parents less daunting.
On behalf of the Commission, I would like to thank the
committee and subcommittees for this opportunity to present
testimony on this important issue. Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Vladeck follows:]
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Mrs. Bono Mack. Thank you, Mr. Vladeck.
The Chair will recognize herself for the first 5 minutes of
questioning, and I will start with you, Mr. Vladeck. It is good
to see you again. A different issue that we are working on
today.
But before I go to you, I just want to sort of answer
something that Mr. Waxman had said. He and I had worked
together on tobacco issues. I have been a staunch supporter of
the anti-tobacco work both on the Federal level and the State.
And I also have been working very hard to address the issue of
prescription drug abuse in our adolescents, and I wish that the
panel would devote as much attention to that as we are to this.
You spoke about kids having tantrums in the vegetable
aisles. When I was a child--I am having flashbacks to my own
childhood as I sit here and listen to you. And I remember being
forced--I don't know if anybody in the audience was forced to
eat cooked liver as a child, but it would smell up the house--
clearly, some people were--it would smell up the house for a
week. But our mothers thought it was good for us. And you know
what? They made us eat it because they thought it was good for
us.
But I have been looking at this issue of childhood obesity
for years. Dr. Frist and I introduced a bill years ago, the
IMPACT Act, to try to address this problem.
But I don't think this is the answer. I don't think we are
there yet. And I recognize all of the work you have done, and I
am happy to continue to work with you, but I just don't think
we are there yet.
And, Mr. Vladeck, you testified that the FTC is currently
completing a follow-up study of food marketing to children to
its 2008 study, and it will submit it to Congress later this
year. Shouldn't the working group report wait at a minimum
until the FTC has concluded that study and the study required
by the 2009 appropriations language? And wouldn't the working
group benefit from the FTC's report?
Mr. Vladeck. I think that that is a possible approach.
We are, of course, dealing with a mandate from Congress
that required us to finish our work a year ago; and, as has
been pointed out on numerous occasions this morning, we are
late. This has been a complicated task, and part of the delay
has been occasioned by our effort to engage closely with
stakeholders.
This process has been a long one in part because we have
held 2 workshops, we have solicited comments. Industry has, to
its credit, come forward with a dramatic shift in its own self-
regulatory approach that we need to take into account.
I don't know whether at this point it makes sense for us to
wait for what will be at least another 6 months or so while we
analyze the data that we got from industry. I think my
colleagues' testimony this morning makes this clear. I think we
are at a point where I wouldn't say that there is clear
convergence between the working group and industry, but the gap
has been narrowed to a point where I think we should go ahead,
try to finish up. These are voluntary guidelines.
Mrs. Bono Mack. Let me jump ahead again why I think we are
missing the boat and I think it is a mistake. Because one hand
of government doesn't want to talk to the other or wait to work
together collaboratively on this. And I will turn to Dr. Post
and Dr. Dietz for their answer to this.
I grew up as a gymnast and I would spend an awful lot of
time in the gym as a child. I mean, I am 5'7''. It was kind of
a dumb sport to do when you are a kid being so tall, but I did
it. I grew up--I literally grew up on SpaghettiO's and some
other cereal. That is what I would eat every day.
You testified that you do not believe that the lack of
exercise is contributing to this problem. I believe that is
what I heard Dr. Post say, that you have--is that what you
said? I might have misheard you. What is the interplay between
exercise and diet? Where does it come in?
Mr. Post. In fact, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines stress that
we are, in fact, at energy imbalance. We need to balance our
calories with physical exercise.
Mrs. Bono Mack. What does that mean to a mother? You are
basically saying that the amount of television and what you
eat, that it doesn't matter. That is really what you said.
Again, I think you all are trying to throw a panacea out there.
And I will tell you as a mom--this is even far more
complicated than that. Mothers are looking for time and answers
to, you know, how do we raise our children when we are busy
working and how do we do it. Maybe we have to look at the fact
that mothers are busy and stressed and it is easier to grab a
box from the center aisle than to go to the produce aisles.
But this troubles me, because I am convinced that our
children have to get active. And if they were active, they
wouldn't be watching the TV and they might not see the ads that
you are afraid of. Is that not true?
Mr. Post. We are very supportive in all of our programs at
USDA to balance the idea of energy and physical activity or
calories in. I think, though, that the comment was made by Dr.
Dietz in the connection between advertising----
Mrs. Bono Mack. OK. Can Dr. Dietz then have the last 22
seconds to solve this problem for me--in 22 seconds?
Mr. Dietz. I think physical activity in children is
critically important, and the best data we have suggests that
it has declined over time. It is certainly a contributor. But
one of the things about obesity is that I don't think any
single answer is going to work. I think that we require a
multisectoral, a multicomponent approach; and physical activity
is one of those approaches.
Mrs. Bono Mack. Thank you. My time has expired. And I
appreciate your answer very much.
The Chair will recognize Mr. Butterfield for 5 minutes.
Mr. Butterfield. I thank the chairman.
Mr. Vladeck, in the Trade Commission's memo accompanying
the release of the proposed standards back in April, the
Federal Trade Commission indicated that the goal was to steer
children away from foods of little or no nutritional value. My
question is, what evidence do you have that cereal and foods
the FDA has deemed healthy are foods of little or no
nutritional value?
Mr. Vladeck. Well, I will ultimately refer that question to
my colleagues who work for the nutrition agencies.
The way our approach worked was quite simple. We want to
encourage kids to eat healthy foods that make meaningful
contributions to diet. Many cereals do that. And we wanted to
discourage kids from eating foods that do not make a meaningful
contribution to their diet. How the FDA and USDA categorize
foods, that is not the FTC's expertise. And I would defer to my
colleagues.
Mr. Butterfield. All right. Dr. Dietz, Dr. Post, do you
want to try that one?
Mr. Dietz. One of the principles that we included was that
foods marketed to children should contain a meaningful amount
of a food to encourage according to the dietary guidelines,
such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, or dairy. So it was
less about restricting advertising and more about encouraging
the advertising of foods that would contribute to a healthy
diet.
Mr. Post. And to add to that, of course, the idea is that
we need to consume less often certain food constituents like
sodium and saturated fat, and certainly added sugars. So there
was an emphasis, here again, to promote the more healthful
choices out there and empower parents with the ability to make
those choices for their children.
Mr. Butterfield. As I recall, Congress directed the working
group to include in its study consideration of the role of
calories in obesity. But it seems that the working group did
not include calories in the standards. That is despite the fact
that the working group members have consistently said balancing
calories in against calories out is the most effective way for
consumers to maintain a healthy weight.
For example, the FDA has said that although there is much
discussion about, one, the appropriate makeup of diet in terms
of relative proportions of micronutrients and, two, the foods
that provide those micronutrients for maintenance of a healthy
body weight, it is the consumption and expenditure of calories
that is most important. Health and Human Services has said that
a calorie is a calorie is a calorie, whether it comes from fat
or carbohydrates. Anything eaten in excess can lead to weight
gain. You can lose weight by eating less calories and by
increasing your physical activity.
Despite Congress' directive to consider calories, and
despite your own agency's statements that calories are the key
to maintaining a healthy weight, your proposal it seems does
not address calories. Help me with this, please, either one of
you.
Mr. Post. Yes. I would be happy to. The thresholds for the
added sugars and the solid fats are a way to get to the
calories issue. By setting thresholds, some level, the
tentative or the preliminary proposal, in fact, had a proxy for
the calories issue. And by promoting food groups like low-fat
and fat-free dairy, more nutrient-dense foods, fruits and
vegetables, that is also a way of decreasing calories from
added sugars and solid fats. So we dealt with the calories
issue by the types of nutrients and food components that are
the subject of the proposal.
Mr. Dietz. Just to add to that, we were compelled by the
capacity of certain foods to auto-regulate weight independent
of calories. So we knew that low energy density foods, foods
that contained fewer calories per gram, such as fruits and
vegetables, were more filling than other foods. And in
addition, we knew that fiber increased the regulation of
satiety. So that if those foods contained a meaningful amount
of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, satiety would be
automatically regulated independent of calories.
Mr. Butterfield. I am going to start this question. I might
have to finish it during the second round. Dr. Dietz, industry
is concerned about obesity. In fact, broadcasters donate a
tremendous amount of time to produce and air public service
announcements, including anti-obesity public service
announcements to their viewers and listeners. Earlier this
year, NAB coordinated a let's move flash workout, featuring
Beyonce, in support of First Lady Obama's initiative aimed at
curbing childhood obesity. Middle school kids across the
country participated in this endeavor, as well as local radio
and television stations, to underscore the importance of
physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle for children.
I am going to continue this question, Madam Chairman, in
the second round. I yield back.
Mrs. Bono Mack. I appreciate that. The Chair now recognizes
Mr. Pitts for 5 minutes.
Mr. Pitts. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I apologize for
having stepped out to testify in front of the Rules Committee.
In fiscal year 2009, Congress explicitly directed the IWG to
complete a study and a report to Congress. However, the
guidelines you released in late April did not include a study,
and the guidelines you developed are directed to industry, not
a report to Congress.
I have a series of questions here that each of you can
respond to. Have you calculated the impact of your food
marketing restrictions on charitable organizations like food
banks, Dr. Dietz?
Mr. Dietz. No, we did not. That was not part of the scope
of the report as we were instructed.
Mr. Pitts. OK. Have you calculated the impact of your food
marketing restrictions on jobs in the food industry? Any of you
can respond.
Mr. Dietz. No, we have not. And I know that some numbers
have been promoted today that suggest that jobs will be lost.
And I think one of the people on the second panel is going to
present data which contradicts that assertion.
Mr. Pitts. What about have you calculated the impact of
your food marketing restrictions on jobs in the broadcasting
industry or cable?
Mr. Dietz. No, we have not, although we think that food
advertising, food marketing to children will continue, and that
for example the promotion of healthy products that would
replace those that are currently advertised would result in no
loss of jobs in the advertising industry.
Mr. Vladeck. Can I add one comment?
Mr. Pitts. Yes, Mr. Vladeck.
Mr. Vladeck. The CFBAI proposal, which sort of moves the
discussion in ways that we had not anticipated when we issued
our preliminary report, I think reflect industry's view that it
can move ahead without sacrificing economically. I assume that
the CFBAI proposal is based on industry's clear-eyed assessment
of the costs and benefits of making these changes to their
products. And so, you know, part of the concerns that you are
raising I think go to the economic rationality of our proposal.
I think that, you know, there has been a change in the game.
And it is not at all clear to me that those concerns are
necessarily going to have traction given where the industry
itself has moved to.
Mr. Pitts. Well, what about did you consider the impact of
your food marketing restrictions on the price of food?
Mr. Vladeck. Sir, we asked comment broadly in large measure
to have a dialogue with stakeholders, including food producers
and marketers, about what would be the impact of adoption of
these guidelines. So, you know, those are the kinds of issues
that we tried to discuss. We did not get in our comments any
information of the kind that you have just identified. This was
not an issue that was raised by any of the 29,000 commenters
that commented on the preliminary draft.
Mr. Pitts. OK. The nutrition standards underlying your
proposal are inconsistent with, and stricter than the standards
for the standards USDA applies to school lunches or the WIC
program.
Does it make sense that the government has two sets of
nutrition standards, one for the food a child can be served in
school and a second for a food advertisement a child can see on
a cartoon network? And why?
Mr. Post. The thread that holds all of the food nutrition
programs together in the Federal sector is the Dietary
Guidelines for Americans. And that, in fact, is the foundation
that sets directional approaches for nutrients and foods: more
food groups, less of the nutrients of health concern. And so
that is, in fact, the way all of our efforts are joined. When
it comes to differences between the IWG's proposal and programs
like WIC, we have got to understand that these are programs
that focus on a particular need for a particular circumstance
or a client that has particular nutritional needs. So the
market baskets would be different and the food meal patterns
would be different for postpartum moms, for children up to 5
years who are looking for nutritional assistance. And the same
thing would apply to the school program, where a complete meal
is depended on for giving the nutrients and the food groups
that a student needs. So you would see those differences. There
really isn't a valid comparison. But the foundation is the
same. And that is the dietary guidelines for Americans.
Mr. Pitts. If private industry--my time is almost up--is
already doing this, doesn't that mean that government action
isn't necessary?
Mr. Vladeck. We were asked by Congress to submit a report,
and we will do that. I think that government action here is
simply giving our views about what would be the kinds of foods
we would like to see marketed to kids. Again, I can't stress
enough that these are voluntary guidelines. And our mandate was
to help give guidance to industry. And that is what we are
trying do.
Mr. Pitts. Thank you. My time has expired.
Mrs. Bono Mack. Thank the gentleman. The Chair recognizes
Mr. Engel for 5 minutes.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Vladeck, I am glad
you reemphasized voluntary guidelines, because this is all that
this is. I have heard some comments from my friends on the
other side of the aisle that I really just find incredulous. I
mean if we want to have the head in the sand approach and
pretend that obesity is not a problem, or know that it is a
problem but have this sort of visceral reaction to government
doing anything about anything, then I think we are really just
frankly kidding ourselves. There can be no substitute for the
family. There can be no substitute for parents. Government is
not in it to substitute. But I think that government, the panel
of professionals and people doing this report can help guide
us. You know, I am a father of three. My kids are grown now.
Any help that I could get I would take. And what responsible
parent wouldn't do it?
So rather than being attacked for government intrusion or
other such nonsense, you know, we should be saying thank you,
because I think your report helps all of us as parents and all
of us as a country. Obesity is a problem that we can't ignore,
and we need engagement from all sides. Of course responsible
parenting, as well as industry participation, government
participation. I mean working together, you know, maybe we can
get at this problem. We have directed FDA and FTC and CDC and
USDA to come up with these proposals. And I think that the
proposal you have all come up with is a reasonable response
that all parties should be able to support. It is a voluntary
proposal, and it meets the industry more than halfway. And it
is a positive step forward as we all work together.
Now, let's look at some statistics. Obesity costs the
country $147 billion per year in direct medical costs, which is
over 9 percent of all medical spending. And economists have
calculated that the total economic cost of the obesity epidemic
nears $270 billion per year. Kids would just have one of the
testimonies here before, I think it was Dr. Post talked about
kids drinking Kool-Aid or whatever it is. They don't eat fruit.
They don't drink things. And this is something that we have
perpetuated on these kids.
I want to just ask you about industry self-regulation. I am
told that the percentage of unhealthy TV food advertisements
has decreased significantly since industry tried to self-
regulate in 2006. Is that true? Is it not true? How is the
industry self-regulation working, in your opinion?
Mr. Dietz. There was a recent paper which indicated that
the products advertised by adherence of CFBAI decreased by
about 10 percent, but were replaced by an increase in fast food
restaurant advertising. I would describe that as a modest
change.
Mr. Engel. Well, I think that that shows that we still have
a lot of work do, and that if we can use some commonsense
approaches, which is what you are doing with these voluntary
guidelines, I think it is very important. You know, Mr. Waxman
before raised tobacco. I mean I have been in this Congress long
enough to remember when the tobacco industry came and sat right
in front of us and told us that tobacco was not something that
had injury, that tobacco was just fine. And the industry
resented it, and resisted for years and years. I mean we now
have stamped on cigarettes that tobacco kills, yet people buy
tobacco and smoke them. I mean we are not talking about a panel
that intrudes into people's lives and tells them what they can
or cannot do. We are talking about a report that helps us
understand the problem and helps us to take steps as a country
to ameliorate the problem.
So I just want to thank you, and unless you have anything
else to add, I will yield back my time. Because I think that it
is so unfair for people to portray this as obtrusive, big
government. It is just nonsense. This is something that
Congress directed you to do. I think it is a guideline. As a
parent, I would have wanted to have this guideline. And I
listened to all your testimony, and I just want to thank you
for the good work you are doing. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Pitts [presiding]. The Chair thanks the gentleman, and
recognizes the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Shimkus, for 5
minutes for questions.
Mr. Shimkus. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And sorry I missed
your opening testimony. I had to go to the Rules Committee on
another bill. So obviously, I have had a good opportunity to
evaluate your opening statements, along with what was involved
with the letter sent by Members to kind of raise issues of
concern based upon the Senate language that asked for you all
to do that.
I guess the first question is you all were asked, through
the language in the bill, to actually do a report back. Is that
correct?
Mr. Vladeck. Yes.
Mr. Shimkus. So Mr. Vladeck says yes. And what we have seen
is guidelines being offered, which for us has a concern that we
don't have the full report. We just had a submission, or the
proposed guidelines. Now, to my good friend from New York State
and the city, our concern is that when these guidelines are not
voluntary, they will be in essence the force of law. And if I
look at the top 100 most commonly consumed foods, beef burgers,
I just had one for lunch--I am not a child any more--beef
burger, hamburger, 95 percent lean, one patty cooked and bun
doesn't make it. Bottled water, noncarbonated. Bottled water
doesn't make it. Egg scrambled. Egg scrambled, made with added
fat and salt, doesn't make it. Hot cereal, a leading instant
oatmeal, raisin, prepared with water does not make it. Leaf
salad, iceberg lettuce chopped with salad dressing, light
ranch, doesn't make the list, doesn't make it because of the
dressing, the sodium in the dressing. That is our problem with
the government. That is the problem with--you know, when I go
home, my constituents are saying government is too big, it
costs too much, get out of things that it really has no
constitutional right to be delving in. The ability of parents
to adequately take care of their kids, feed them what the
parents would like the kids to be fed, the nutritional issues,
to have big government do this, this is really bizarre.
And so I am glad we have had this hearing today. And I
guess the question is--I mean we already talked about it, we
would like to see the science based before guidelines, a true
analysis of this. But let me go to a question for Director
Vladeck.
Can you comment on the role taken by FTC during the
Interagency Working Group process related to appropriate
nutritional levels? What did you all do?
Mr. Vladeck. Well, our expertise is more in the marketing
side than the nutrition side.
Mr. Shimkus. Exactly.
Mr. Vladeck. Though I think it is important to note,
Congressman, that many of the foods that you mentioned as
somehow being excluded by the draft guidelines, I don't believe
that is correct. I think that Dr. Post would love a minute to
just sort of clear up the record on this issue.
Mr. Shimkus. Well, we can have you submit additional
comments for the record. Let me go on and continue on this line
of questioning to Mr. Vladeck. Did FTC make any judgments or
issue specific recommendations on this topic informally or
formally during the Interagency Working Group? The question is
what has the FTC done on--I mean if you question my analysis of
the food groups based upon--I don't want to know what Dr. Post
did. I want to know the FTC's involvement in the health
analysis of these foods. And is that a role that you have any
expertise in?
Mr. Vladeck. This is not our area of expertise, no. We were
certainly at the table, but I think it is fair to say the
nutrition guidelines were principally the product of the expert
agencies, the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Mr. Shimkus. Yet here is an FTC memo questioning the USDA
on their nutritional standards. So you all are questioning the
USDA, who should have the expertise on nutritional aspects. Our
concern is you are playing the role of food analysis, when you
should be in advertising and the like. And I yield back my
time.
Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman, and yields to
the ranking member emeritus, Mr. Dingell, for 5 minutes for
questions.
Mr. Dingell. You are very kind. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Like everybody in this room, I am troubled about children's
nutrition. But the process by which we arrive at good standards
is a matter of great importance to me. I note that in 2009 the
working group was, and I quote, directed to conduct a study and
develop recommendations for standards for the marketing of food
when such marketing targets children who are 17 years old or
younger. Now, that was not done. I find myself curious, because
here you are coming forward with guidelines. Congress has
suggested that you should tell us what is going on. You have
not done so. We find that this gives us real problems in terms
of understanding what is to be done or should be done. And we
have to think that you, despite the fact that you are hired
full-time to work on these matters, will be having equal
difficulty.
Now, according to your testimony, the guidelines you
released in April are not based on any new studies conducted by
the working group's agencies. Is that correct? Yes or no? Yes
or no?
Mr. Post. We did----
Mr. Dingell. I don't have a lot of time. Yes or no?
Mr. Post. No new study.
Mr. Dingell. No new studies. The guidelines you developed
are directed at industry, and not a report to Congress. Is that
correct?
Mr. Post. Excuse me? No.
Mr. Dingell. Now, you note in your testimony that the
working group recommendations, quote, will cover all the most
important aspects of children's marketing, without being unduly
restrictive. Did the working group weigh any cost-benefits that
the recommendations would have on industry? Yes or no? Either
Mr. Vladeck or Mr. Dietz, you may proceed.
Mr. Vladeck. Not in the way you are describing it, no.
Mr. Dingell. OK. Now, does industry agree on this? Yes or
no?
Mr. Dietz. More or less.
Mr. Dingell. OK. Now, you note in your testimony that FTC
has long been an advocate for strong and meaningful self-
regulation. I happen to agree with that, and I happen to have
been a strong supporter of that. In the instance of food
marketing, industry has been self-regulating marketing to
children to ensure that foods advertised are healthier since
2006. And this is to Mr. Vladeck. Do you believe that the
industry's self-regulation of food marketing to children has
helped to ensure the products advertised to children and their
parents are healthier? Yes or no?
Mr. Vladeck. Yes.
Mr. Dingell. OK. Now, as you know, the Children's Food and
Beverage Advertising Initiative recently released
recommendations to improve nutritional standards of food
marketed to children that member companies must meet by
December 31, 2013. Do you believe that these recommendations
will help to improve the nutritional content of products
advertised to children? Yes or no? Again, Mr. Vladeck.
Mr. Vladeck. Yes.
Mr. Dingell. Have you consulted with industry and do you
have their comments or agreement? Yes or no?
Mr. Vladeck. We have had lots of comments from industry,
yes.
Mr. Dingell. Now, do you believe that these recommendations
will help encourage development of healthier foods for
children? Yes or no?
Mr. Vladeck. Yes.
Mr. Dingell. Now, will the working group take into
consideration the set of nutrition principles set forth in the
initiative before finalizing its own guidelines? Yes or no?
Mr. Vladeck. Yes.
Mr. Dingell. Now, I would like to focus for a moment on
breakfast cereal--this is a major product of my home State of
Michigan--and the science regarding the relationship between
cereal consumption and body weights. Specifically, I note that
several significant studies appearing in the Journal of the
American Dietetic Association, including a study conducted by
the NIH's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, established
that children who eat cereal frequently are less likely to be
overweight than those who eat it less frequently. The result
was obtained for all age ranges. But to take an example from
one of the studies, kids 7 to 9 who eat cereal eight or more
times per 14 days are three times less likely to be overweight
than kids who eat cereal zero to three servings per cereal in a
14-day period. In fact, dietary guidelines recommended eating
nutrient-dense breakfast, and suggested that not eating
breakfast is associated with excess body weight, especially
among children and adolescents. Eating breakfast has also been
associated with weight loss and weight loss maintenance.
Shouldn't we perhaps be encouraging kids to eat more cereal
as a part of a healthy breakfast instead of a less amount of
this as the preliminary proposal would do? Yes or no? I will
take Mr. Vladeck on that.
Mr. Post. No. We support breakfast cereal.
Mr. Dingell. Now, like all members of this committee and
the witnesses before us, I believe strongly we must address the
rising issue of children obesity in this country. It is costly
for health and future success of the country, and it is costly
to our health system. So as we work to address this issue,
though, we must ensure that the actions and guidelines proposed
by the Federal Government do not negatively impact business,
industry, and job creation.
One more question, and I know I am beyond my time, Mr.
Chairman, but I am curious, how do you assure us that these
voluntary guidelines will not become grafted into the law as a
statement of government policy or something which will achieve
a mandatory impact upon industry?
Mr. Vladeck. We have issued----
Mr. Dingell. How are we to ensure that some lawsuit or some
good lawyer at some future time is not going to say, oh, these
guidelines say this, and therefore these people have done a
significant hurt, have committed a tort, and this class action
is going to be decided against them?
Mr. Vladeck. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.
Mr. Dingell. Pardon?
Mr. Vladeck. Were you finished? I didn't mean to----
Mr. Dingell. I am more than finished. I am over my time by
a minute and 21 seconds.
Mr. Pitts. You may respond if you wish.
Mr. Vladeck. There is this myth that somehow voluntary
guidelines will be the foundation of litigation brought against
the food companies. We have not ever seen any evidence of that
kind of litigation being brought. We issue voluntary guidelines
on a number of topics, including seven reports to Congress on
media violence that suggests all sorts of industry self-
regulatory proposals. Industry has adopted them to some extent,
but not completely. We have never seen litigation on that. The
Supreme Court recently relied heavily on our self-regulatory
proposals in Brown v. Merchant Education Enterprises, this was
the video violence case that the Court resolved last term,
cited extensively to our research on this issue and talked
about the industry compliance. Some parts of the industry
comply, some do not. It has never been the trigger of
litigation.
Mr. Pitts. Thank you. The Chair thanks the gentleman, and
yields to the gentleman from Kentucky, Mr. Guthrie, for 5
minutes for questions.
Mr. Guthrie. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Some of the concerns
that we have when we have these kind of situations, I was at a
rock quarry on Monday, and a Federal prosecutor went to a rock
quarry because the garbage can was overflowing. And in the
whole criteria of safety in the section that the inspector
looked at, part of it was are you having workers at high
altitude not strapped, and another one is can you close the lid
on the garbage can. So that is where you get to that we just
got to make sure that we have reasonableness in what is going
forward.
And I just took the same sheet, I don't know if you all
have that or not, that Mr. Shimkus was showing to Mr. Post. And
I kind of came up with a day's meal for my kids, and ask if
this would meet the 2021. If I start out with scrambled eggs,
wheat toast with jam, and then 2 percent milk. And then for
lunch when they went to school I had a turkey sandwich on wheat
toast with vanilla yogurt, low fat, and either bottled water or
2 percent milk. And then for dinner we had a light salad--a
salad with light ranch, chicken breast, corn, green beans, I
did put in a roll, and bottled water or 2 percent milk.
Would any of that meal fit the guidelines of the 2021
criteria?
Mr. Post. Well, yes, it would. We, in fact, went through
considerable effort to conduct a study. We reviewed and
incorporated findings from numerous studies. We looked at IOM
reports. We looked at the Dietary Guidelines. And then we did
testing. We did our homework and did testing of our proposed
thresholds. To test the feasibility of the April 28 preliminary
proposed criteria, we analyzed foods commonly advertised to
kids, to children. And we are concerned that parents continue
to depend on the foods that they have learned are the more
healthful choices. We found that many products in the various
product lines meet the April 28 proposed principles, including
tuna, peanut butter, flavored low-fat milk, orange juice, oat
cereals, instant oatmeal, popcorn, baked chips, salted peanuts,
yes, salted peanuts, whole wheat bread, and even fast-Sfood
meals. Water was never excluded. Canned vegetables, we have
heard about that as well, that are low in added sodium would
certainly meet the criteria, although it is doubtful many are
advertised to kids. But we did our homework, and we do have the
information to know that there are foods that are eligible for
advertising.
Mr. Guthrie. I don't know if you all have this list or not.
It shows meets 2021 target criteria, the same one Mr. Shimkus
had. And everything I just mentioned didn't--it says bottled
water doesn't meet the guidelines, less than 50 percent of a
food group. Chicken breast, see if I can find it on here.
Anyway, none of those, according to this analysis, meets that
criteria. And I know you can prepare things differently. If you
fry an egg you can do it differently than if you scramble an
egg, and you can add sodium if you salt. But it just seems that
as I looked at this list, you know, I am concerned about
childhood obesity. If anybody want to do something to really
open their eyes, tour a dialysis place and see what people are
doing when they are older and they are obese and it happens
when they get diabetes. It really opens your eyes. But as you
start looking through things that according to this analysis,
all family cereal, all leading family ready to eat cereal, no,
sodium, added sugar; lasagna, no, saturated fat, sodium. I mean
just different things that are on this criteria, it just seems
like it is not just the M&Ms that Congresswoman Blackburn
talked about and getting a couple M&Ms so you eat the healthy
stuff. It seemed like a whole list of things that most American
parents would say I am giving my kid a turkey sandwich on wheat
bread and giving them vanilla low fat yogurt. It is because of
the vanilla flavoring I think is why it doesn't meet--but it is
low fat--doesn't meet the guidelines. That is when I was
looking through that and said this is--we are spending a lot of
time on stuff that--go ahead. It is almost like the guy getting
cited for his garbage can being full.
Mr. Post. If I can respond, we were focused on foods that
are marketed to kids. I think the list you have are foods that
are consumed, not necessarily the same foods that we
considered. Beer and coffee are on that list. You know, we
wouldn't consider that as foods marketed to children. So it is
a matter of looking at what we did, and that is the foods that
are commonly advertised.
Mr. Guthrie. Even if these aren't marketed to children,
somebody is putting these guidelines saying that that is not a
recommended 2021 target, meets the guidelines for a healthy
meal. I mean whether it is marketed to a child or not. Because
I try to find a turkey sandwich when I am traveling around for
the purpose of being healthy. And I am about out of time. But
as I was saying, as you start going through these guidelines,
you say it just seems to be--you know, it is not about certain
foods that we would all look at and say, well, maybe that is
too much for a kid to be eating, you know, whatever, I am not
going to bring all those up. But when you look at this 2021 it
doesn't meet the target, it just kind of opens your eyes of--
well, I will let you finish. I guess I am about out of time.
Mr. Post. Just as a last response, we are looking to
industry in changing the nature of the foods out there,
obviously, and we know through the CFBAI effort there is a
great effort there. So we are looking forward to the work that
that proposes occurring over the next couple of years. So, we
know we can get more healthful choices out there.
Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman, and yields to
the ranking member of the Health Subcommittee, Mr. Pallone, for
5 minutes for questions.
Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentleman, I am kind
of following up on what Mr. Guthrie said. I don't mean to be
repetitive, but I wanted to ask. The Grocers Manufacturing
Association says that the working group recommended nutrition
standards are arbitrary, have no basis in scientific evidence,
and conflict with Federal dietary guidance and nutrition
policy. And then they go on to say that under the working
group's recommendations, and I quote, whole wheat bread,
breakfast cereals, reduced fat yogurt, canned vegetables, and
bottled water could not be promoted for consumption by
children.
I just wanted to start with Dr. Post to comment on that, if
you would. Is it really true that your report recommends
against marketing to children whole wheat bread or reduced fat
yogurt and these other listed foods that they talk about?
Mr. Post. Well, in the work that we did, in the study that
we did, and what we reviewed and incorporated, we did look at
the numerous studies that are already out there on the issue.
We did, in fact, exhaustively go through the Dietary Guidelines
advisory committee's comprehensive nutrition research report.
We looked at the Dietary Guidelines exhaustively as well. And
we considered regulations that are promulgated by FDA and USDA
governing nutrient content claims and health claims and food
labeling. We looked at relevant IOM reports, and industry
groups' reports, and various public and private entities'
standards that are out there. We know that there are foods,
because we did our homework and we did what we called food
runs, we did our analyses to know that foods like whole wheat
bread, and orange juice, and oat cereals, and popcorn, and I
mentioned salted peanuts, will in fact pass the thresholds that
were established for the preliminary recommendations. And we
know, too, now with the CFBAI effort, that there are foods that
can in fact be advertised. Although some work is needed, as
that organization reported; to continue to reformulate is a
necessity. But for the most part, yes, there are foods out
there. So the assertion is incorrect. There are foods that can
be advertised.
Mr. Pallone. All right. And Dr. Dietz or Mr. Vladeck, did
you want to comment on that at all? No? OK. I mean I think it
is important that, you know, the standards that you recommend
to Congress have to remain aimed at promoting healthy children,
but they have to be achievable, or otherwise the industry is
just going to ignore them. And they also have to set clear
targets that will lead to improved nutritional quality of the
foods that are marketed to children.
You mentioned the IOM. You know, some today are saying that
we don't have enough science to justify these guidelines for
marketing foods to kids. And the IOM did in fact say there is
no clear causal relationship between advertising and body fat
levels of kids in their report, I guess in 2006. Now, I know
none of you served on that IOM panel, but can someone help me
understand why the working group, you know, recommends changes
in marketing foods to kids given, you know, that the IOM is
saying there is no clear causal relationship? What is your
response to that?
Mr. Dietz. I am not sure whether you were here for my
opening comments.
Mr. Pallone. I wasn't. I had to go to Rules. Sorry.
Mr. Dietz. The caloric imbalance necessary to reverse
obesity is pretty small. It is about 30 calories for young
children, 2- to 5-year-olds, and about 150 calories for 6- to
11-year-olds. Our belief is that modest reformulation or modest
reductions in the caloric content of foods commonly consumed by
children could achieve that deficit. Not a single food, but
across the board. And we also know that there is a direct
relationship between television viewing and obesity in children
that seems to be mediated by the consumption of foods
advertised on television. So there seems to be this linkage
between television advertising, consumption of foods advertised
on television, and obesity.
Despite the conclusions of the IOM panel, it is worth
examining a little more carefully what the studies were that
they looked at. They reviewed about 65 studies. About 75
percent of those studies, some of which were cross-sectional,
so you can't really demonstrate causality from those, but about
75 percent of those studies found an association between food
marketing and obesity in children. But the more important
studies, in my view, are the intervention studies that have
shown that reductions in television time are associated with
reductions in weight without a concomitant increase in physical
activity, pointing to that connection between television
viewing and obesity in children.
Mr. Pallone. So there may not be a direct or clear causal
relationship, but it is still something that, you know----
Mr. Dietz. Admittedly circumstantial.
Mr. Pallone. OK. Anyone else want to comment on that? All
right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman, and recognizes
the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Latta, for 5 minutes for
questions.
Mr. Latta. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And gentlemen, thanks
very much for joining us today. It is a very interesting
conversation that we are having here this morning. You know,
one of the things that I would like to ask is let's go back in
time, if we can.
I know that on page 3 of Mr. Vladeck's testimony you have
that the Institute of Medicine has strong evidence that TV ads
influence food and beverage purchases and requests for kids
under the age of 12. When these studies were being done, did
you go back and check what happened with advertising 40 years
ago, 50 years ago, 60 years ago, 70 years ago? Because I am
just kind of curious. Because I grew up in the late 50s and
early 60s when I was a kid. Now, granted we got two channels on
a good day when I was a kid, black and white, and some days
they came in, some days they didn't come in. But Saturday
mornings was my favorite day of the week because that is when
all the cartoons were on. Plus that is when all the cereal
commercials were on. OK? And I am thinking back through the
kids I went to school with that we didn't have an obesity
problem. But I tell you what, we ate so much what we would
consider junk food today. But it is kind of a difference in
time.
And also if you go back to the late 30s and 40s, I am
always interested in listening to old recordings of old
advertising, and some of the things how they used to advertise
to kids at that time. Of course, they were sitting at a radio
staring at a radio. Nothing was happening except for a sound
coming out. But we have had advertising going on for decades
specifically to children, but it seems like only recently that
we have had this obesity problem really starting.
And I guess the question I would ask is this, that Mr.
Barton, or Chairman Emeritus Barton I think was right on point
when he was talking about families and sitting down and eating
meals and preparation. And I tell you when I came home as a kid
from school, if my sister and I got home and we said, gee, is
there something to eat, my mom would actually make oatmeal. We
would eat cabbage hearts, carrots, apples, and all these other
things. And also we had this great fear. When I was a kid, if
our parents ever saw us in the house, I don't care if you were
at your friend's house, if you were sitting, that must mean you
had time to do more work, I don't care if it was school work or
housework or yard work. So we took off. But, you know, are
there studies out there that go back and look at what was
advertised 40, 50, 60 years ago and how that affected kids when
you did the study?
Mr. Vladeck. You know, we are about the same age. And I
remember Saturday mornings fondly as well. Of course, in those
days there wasn't very much fast food. There wasn't much
prepared food. Most of the meals, my mom worked, but she cooked
dinner from scratch every night. I don't know whether they are
the kinds of long-term studies that you are describing. We will
take a look, and we are happy to get back to you on that. Maybe
one of my colleagues does, but I am not aware of the kind of
analytic work that you----
Mr. Latta. If there are studies from back then, I would be
very interested to see if somebody went back and looked at
that, especially with obesity rates.
Mr. Post. Just to add to that to bring on the issue of
complexity, we know the food environment is so much more
complex, and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans has a whole
chapter now that recognizes how complex the food environment
has become, that it is not, you know, simply a household
influence anymore; there are so many other influences.
Mr. Latta. Also, if I may, and I just throw this out
because I know Mr. Dietz' testimony on page 6 when he is going
through about of the more than $200 billion for children and
youth collectively spent annually, ages 8-12, I didn't have any
money when I was a kid unless I shoveled somebody's driveway or
mowed. So the money I got came from my parents somehow. So it
is really a question I think also today is that where these
kids are getting the money, who is buying the TVs, who is
buying the computers? It is the parents. And unfortunately, in
a lot of cases, as we all know, the parents plop their kids in
front of the TV set, put a snack in front of them, and voila,
you now have instant food, you have an instant baby-sitter. So
I think a lot of it falls back on where the parents are. And I
know I think Mr. Dietz made the comment in regards to that, you
know, kids nag their parents. And I told both my girls a long
time ago that I want them to always remember there is a
difference here, that I was their dad, not their best friend,
and they had to figure out there a was a big difference between
the two. But I really would be interested if we could find out
if studies have been conducted in the past, especially in the
40s--40 or 50 years ago, in the infancy of television, when
those commercials were still really out there, but the obesity
from then to today, I would like to really get that analysis.
And I see my time is up, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate the
time. Thank you very much for being here.
Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman, recognizes the
gentlelady from California, Mrs. Capps, for 5 minutes for
questions.
Mrs. Capps. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I am really
pleased that we are able to have today these two subcommittees
coming together to discuss what is such an important topic. And
I appreciate the testimony of the three presenters so far. I am
pleased that we are here today to discuss the partnership that
has in the past and I hope will continue to exist, between
private industry and public health professionals to address the
marketing of less healthy food to children, that being our
goal. But I worry that we are losing sight of the reason we are
having this discussion at all.
Your testimony, Dr. Dietz, clearly makes that point. About
one-third of our Nation's kids are overweight or obese,
affecting not only their physical and emotional health, but
also the fiscal health of their families and of our Nation.
Specifically, Dr. Dietz, you note that the direct costs of
childhood obesity are at least $3 billion a year. And this
health condition, that is an epidemic really, and the high
costs often continue into adulthood. In light of these numbers,
it is clear to me that the obesity epidemic necessitates an
equally strong response. As a former school nurse as my
background, protecting the health and well-being of our
children is one of my greatest concerns. However, the potential
benefits of these voluntary guidelines on our national health
care expenditures is also an important factor that I believe
these guidelines could themselves address.
So Dr. Dietz, would you take a minute or two to explain
more to us on the record about the costs of the obesity
epidemic to our health care system?
Mr. Dietz. As you point out, the costs in childhood are
about $3 billion a year. This was a recent study published in
about 2009 by Leo Trasande. That is trivial compared to the
costs of obesity in adults, which somebody else mentioned
earlier is about $147 billion.
Mrs. Capps. And isn't it true that obesity in adults almost
always starts at some point in childhood?
Mr. Dietz. The majority of obesity in adults, at least
historically, has started in adulthood. The childhood obesity
has contributed a minor portion of that obesity. But what is a
concern about childhood obesity that persists into adulthood is
that it accounts for a disproportionate share of severe obesity
in adulthood, and therefore may contribute disproportionately
to the costs of obesity in adulthood.
Mrs. Capps. So in terms of other costs?
Mr. Dietz. Well, the costs that have been estimated in the
paper that we published that cited the $147 billion, that was
the costs associated with obesity, which also accounted for the
costs of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and the
hospitalizations and medications associated with all the
diseases associated with obesity.
Mrs. Capps. Right. So Medicare, Medicaid, private insurers
are shelling out more money.
Mr. Dietz. Well, a big concern is about half those costs
are borne by Medicare and Medicaid.
Mrs. Capps. And this is not to mention the additional
indirect costs from decreased productivity and absenteeism from
school. So there are some ripple effects as well into the rest
of society. Like most chronic health conditions, I am convinced
that primary prevention, doing all we can to stop obesity
before it ever starts, is key to addressing these concerns.
I want now to turn to Mr. Vladeck. As you may know, a
different take on this topic, in 2003 the IOM issued a report
on the marketing of alcohol to kids. A similar kind of
questioning came from my colleague Mr. Pallone. But with
respect to the comparison with alcohol, IOM concluded, like in
the case we are discussing today, that there was no clear
causal link between marketing alcohol and the use of it by
kids, but still recommended limitations on alcohol marketing to
kids.
There are of course differences between alcohol and food.
But a few years later, in 2008, at the close of the Bush
administration, the FTC issued a report. Mr. Vladeck, the
industry was engaged in self-regulation at that time. They said
the IOM report was not based on strong science. What did the
FTC do in that 2008 report?
Mr. Vladeck. We encouraged self-regulation. And these are
difficult areas for us. We do not have, particularly in the
food area, rulemaking authority that would permit us to
regulate in these areas. And there are, as you know, there are
First Amendment issues that would arise if we tried to regulate
aggressive marketing. We have, through enforcement efforts,
such as our recent case against Phusion, taken action against
marketers who are marketing to children. One of the counts in
the Phusion complaint was a count alleging that Phusion, which
is the seller of FourLoko, which is an alcohol product, used
images plainly of kids, people under the legal age, in order to
promote alcohol.
Mrs. Capps. Right. I know I am going over time now, but I
would--saying that there are differences between alcohol and
food, there also is a close parallel for how the agencies
provided a framework when voluntary industry-based efforts were
not adequately addressing a vital public health problem. There
isn't anything extreme in this document on marketing to kids.
It may not be perfect, but I believe it is clearly the next
sensible step to take.
And in closing, Mr. Chairman, I would like to submit
testimony submitted by Mars for the record. I believe this
document may have identified areas that I hope we can use to
form a common ground. I yield back.
Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentlelady, and the
gentlelady's unanimous consent request to include in the
hearing record a statement of Mars. I also have four other
items, a letter to HHS, FTC, Department of Agriculture, and
CDCP from Members of Congress, led by Eric Paulsen of Minnesota
from October 11, 2001; statement from the American Bakers
Association; testimony from the President and CEO of American
Frozen Food Institute; and a statement of the American Frozen
Food Institute to the FTC. Without objection, both sides have
seen these, without objection these will be included in the
record.
[The information follows:]
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Mr. Pitts. And now the Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Mississippi, Mr. Harper, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Harper. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank each of you
for being here. And as I look at this, and Dr. Dietz, your
opening statement and remarks, and looking at your report, you
know, you have a statement here that says not only does obesity
increase the likelihood of a child developing those serious
physical issues, you also said but it also may lead to severe
psychological and social problems, such as absenteeism from
school, discrimination, victimization, and poor self-esteem. So
I just wonder what you are doing here for the skinny kids like
me. You know, I was 6-5 and 160 pounds. Now, I got a little,
you know, I added a little. By the time I got married I was
165. So you know, I did beef up some during that time. But you
know, when you are a skinny kid, particularly going into young
adulthood, and you have to have a suit--back in that day you
had two choices. You could get navy blue, or really dark navy
blue. I mean that was pretty much your choice. So as you look
at this, you know, every child is different. But it appears
that your report is focusing more on obesity. And I understand
the physical reasons for that. But tell me exactly what was the
charge or the task that was given the IWG? What was the
verbiage for that?
Mr. Dietz. I will just jump to the directive. The working
group is directed to conduct a study and develop
recommendations for standards for the marketing of food when
such marketing targets children who are 17 years or younger or
when such food represents a significant component of the diets
of children. In developing such standards, the working group is
directed to consider positive and negative contributions of
nutrients, ingredients, and food, including calories, portion
size, saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, added sugars, and the
presence of nutrients, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, to
the diets of children; and secondly, evidence concerning the
role of consumption of nutrients, ingredients, and foods in
preventing or promoting the development of obesity among such
children.
Do you want----
Mr. Harper. Sure. That is fine. Now, you know, one of the
things, one of the proposals, and I want to make sure I have
got this right, one of the proposals is it would eliminate
sports figures and also animals from boxes. That is correct on
what the recommendation is?
Mr. Vladeck. In our proposed draft there is a discussion
about that. As I tried to signal in my written testimony, and
in my oral statement today, my sense is that we are moving away
from that.
Mr. Harper. OK. And would it be your personal
recommendation that you move away from that?
Mr. Vladeck. Yes.
Mr. Harper. And what about you, Dr. Post?
Mr. Post. We are in agreement, yes.
Mr. Harper. OK. Dr. Dietz? OK. Well, that is--you know, as
we look at the correlation you were talking about, Mr. Vladeck,
about television and obesity, each of you have heard this, you
know, is it because--is the obesity connection for television
because of the advertising or the sheer number of hours that a
child will sit in front of the television to watch?
Mr. Dietz. Well, certainly inactivity is a contributor. And
as time has gone on, we have been more and more concerned about
screen time, because it is not limited to television time. The
data we have, though, is about television time, and the
advertising on television, and the connection that that has to
the consumption of foods advertised on television while
watching television.
Mr. Harper. So if it is related to the advertising of the
food product, then you are saying that the child, who is a
child, is the one who sets the standard for what the parent
will buy at the store and not the parent?
Mr. Dietz. Well, not always, but children have a huge
influence on parental decision-making. And that is derived from
the advertising that directs children to want products.
Mr. Harper. We have all seen or experienced certainly, in
aisle 6 the child pitches a fit, and it is easier to give in
and put it in the basket than it is to be the parent and maybe
not shop in the store with the child. So what is the average
number of hours that your study shows that the typical child
will spend watching television?
Mr. Dietz. We have not done a recent study of that. My
recollection is that on average it is 3 hours. It is variable
by age. But I think on average--and there are significant
ethnic disparities. African American children tend to watch
more television.
Mr. Harper. OK. Anybody else have different figures besides
the 3 hours that you have heard or are familiar with? OK. And
during that let's say a typical 3-hour period that a child is
watching TV, they are inactive, obviously during that time.
Mr. Dietz. Yes.
Mr. Harper. During that 3-hour period, how many
advertisements would typically be about a food item?
Mr. Dietz. I think the majority of ads, and I can't
remember, FTC has those numbers, I want to say 11. But I
think--a Saturday morning is quite different than weekday.
Mr. Vladeck. I think the average is somewhat lower than
that, outside of the cartoon hours on Saturday morning.
Mr. Harper. And I know my time is up, but it sure seems
like we are trying to do these--and I know we have many things,
many regulations that are well intended, and we certainly want
people and kids to be healthy, but it seems to me that we are
trying to do what the parent is supposed to be doing here, to
have the responsibility for that self-discipline of the family
and to do those things that need to be done. So we are in a
situation where this doesn't mean that--we all want to see an
end to childhood obesity, but this seems to be a farfetched
approach, when what we should be doing is expecting the parents
to do their job.
With that, I yield back.
Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman, and yields to
the gentleman from New York, Mr. Towns, 5 minutes for
questions.
Mr. Towns. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. You know, I
want to follow up on Mrs. Capps' question. Is it true that the
IWG agencies do not have regulatory authority over food
advertising to children?
Mr. Vladeck. I think it would be very difficult for the
Federal Trade Commission to issue regulations that had any
binding effect in terms of marketing food to children. Our
rulemaking authority is very limited in this area. We have
enforcement authority, but it wouldn't extend to the kinds of
issues that we are talking about today.
Mr. Towns. Could you give me an example of your enforcement
authority? Just a classic one, you know.
Mr. Vladeck. Our authority is deception. It rests on a
company committing a deceptive act or an unfair act. But here
the only example I could come up with would be if, you know, if
a company were making completely unsubstantiated claims about
the beneficial health effects, selling, you know, lard covered
in fat and making claims that this is going to improve your
heart health or something like that. But our authority here,
our regulatory authority and our enforcement authority is
pretty limited. And even if it were not, regulating in this
kind of area might raise First Amendment issues. And so one of
the points that we tried to make repeatedly is there is nothing
that isn't voluntary about the proposal. If industry decides
not to adhere to it, then we spent a lot of time and we haven't
accomplished very much.
But it is up to the industry ultimately to decide whether
it is going to abide by these standards.
Mr. Towns. Why do the companies feel that it is not truly
voluntary? Why do they feel that way?
Mr. Vladeck. I don't know. If you look at--we have been
doing this sort of work for quite some time. For example, we
have, I think, submitted several reports to Congress making
recommendations about media violence. The fact of the matter
is, is that the industry, I think, has welcomed our role here.
But some of the industry complies, some of it doesn't. We have
never brought a case because not abiding by these standards
doesn't fit the deception theories that we can rely on.
The Supreme Court discussed our voluntary approach at
length in a recent Supreme Court case, involving violent video
games sold to children. So there is a long track record of the
FTC engaged in this kind of voluntary self-regulatory guidance
without any coercion from our part, without any enforcement
from our part, without any collateral litigation being brought
by third parties. So I am mystified by that claim.
Mr. Towns. They are saying that these rules and regulations
will bring about a job loss. I mean, what are your views on
that?
Mr. Vladeck. Well, there is one study which we find
perplexing because it assumes that as a result of our voluntary
standards, industry will stop advertising to children
altogether and the loss to the economy will be $2 billion,
which greatly exceeds the amount of advertising directly to
children that we found in our most recent study. And that study
goes on to conclude that there will be substantial job loss.
We have had our economists look at the study. There are no
citations in the study. So we don't know where these figures
come from. But the figures don't match the industry's own data
about how much it spends in advertising to children. So we do
not understand that study and we certainly don't agree that a
voluntary self-regulatory proposal is going to have that kind
of a consequence on the economy.
Mr. Towns. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Olson, for 5 minutes for
questions.
Mr. Olson. I thank the Chair. I would like to welcome the
witnesses again and thank you for your time and expertise
today. And my first question is going to be for you, Dr. Post.
As I mentioned in my opening statement, hundreds of jobs in
the district I represent and thousands in my home State of
Texas involve the manufacture, sale, distribution, marketing of
snack products, including wholesome and nutritious products.
These products qualify as healthy under FDA regulations and are
eligible under the Healthier U.S. School Challenge, a Federal
nutrition program. I am referring to products like Sun Chips,
Baked Lays Potato Crisps and Baked! Cheetos snacks, and yet the
IWG draft proposal would deem them unacceptable. And to make
things more confusing, my staff has told me that classic
hummus, right here, as sold under the Sabra label, is not
restricted but green olive hummus sold under the same label is
restricted. Why is green olive hummus a threat to children's
health and not classic hummus? Help me understand why there is
such a disconnect between these Federal agencies?
Mr. Post. Well, as I had mentioned earlier, we did in fact
do analyses of food composition, the products that are commonly
out there in the world of advertising. And our findings are
products like the whole wheat bread and the other products,
even the baked chips that you had there, would, in fact, be
allowable under our structure. Some products, because of higher
sodium contents, would fail. I mean, I imagine olives as a
source of an ingredient in a food would be a problem. We were
interested in following the Dietary Guidelines and, in that
regard, we were looking for reductions in sodium, saturated
fat, and certainly sugars as well. So, in some cases, the
threshold couldn't be achieved. But there are certainly a lot
of products that would be viable out there for marketing.
Mr. Olson. Also with all due respect, we are talking about
a lot of marketing. And look at the packages, exactly the same
exact three words here, Greek olive hummus and classic hummus.
Again, I appreciate what you are talking about--some of the
sodium and what all this might add. But the fact here is we are
talking about advertising. Those two products look the same to
a kid, to an adult. And I think we have got to be careful here
because again we can't--the responsibility ultimately rests
with parents. And that to me in my mind is not some sort of
danger to children's health. I mean, no child is going to look
at that different packaging and say, ``Mom, I want that one
because it is classic'' or ``Mom, I want that one because it
has olives.''
A question for you, Dr. Vladeck. I am troubled by your
testimony today. In response to a question from my colleague,
Mr. Shimkus from Illinois, regarding the FTC's role in
recommending specific nutritional standards in the IWG process,
you said that the Commission should and did defer to USDA's
judgment given the subject matter and expertise on nutritional
standards. Yet in a July 15, 2010, memo written at your request
by attorneys in the Division of Advertising Practices at FTC--
Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to put this memo in the
record.
Mr. Pitts. So ordered.
[The information follows:]
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Mr. Olson. Thank you, sir. Employees at the FTC expressed
strong disagreement with the nutritional standards recommended
by the USDA. In the memo, attorneys at your Commission delve
into inherently scientific questions about nutrition, such as
proper thresholds for sodium intake and the associated risks
related to blood pressure in children. Commission employees
also expressed concern with the saturated and trans fat levels
recommended by USDA. This memo seems to contradict your
assertion to Mr. Shimkus just a few minutes ago that FTC did
not involve itself in nutritional aspects of the working group
process. I find your juxtaposition of this letter and your
statements troubling.
Can you explain your assertion and the seemingly
contradictory fact? I have got a copy of the memo if you need
it, sir.
Mr. Vladeck. I am aware of this memo. I think the thrust of
this memo is that we were worried and these were--there were
many drafts--as you know, this process is--we are in our second
year of this process and we are not done. But what we were
concerned about was one of the interim update USDA proposals
may have cut back on industry's own self-regulatory efforts. If
you look at page 3, what we were concerned about is that there
was a USDA proposal that might actually be weaker than some of
the industry self-regulatory guidelines. And that was a cause
of concern to us. I would note that this is an internal FTC
memo. I am not sure that this was shared with anyone other than
within the FTC. And this is simply a memo to me suggesting that
there may be concerns about the IWG process if we are going to
undercut industry's own self-regulatory efforts.
Mr. Olson. I appreciate that, sir. Again in your testimony
to Mr. Shimkus, you said you defer to USDA's judgment about
the----
Mr. Vladeck. I said USDA, FTC and CDC, yes, sir.
Mr. Olson. Yes, sir. Again, I don't believe this is a
proper role for the FTC. I ran out of time. I thank you. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman. I recognize--
just a minute. Do you have a problem with this? All right. We
will reconsider a unanimous consent request if you want to take
some more time to look at that. All right. Do you want to yield
to Mr. Terry for 15 seconds? All right. We will recognize the
gentleman from Nebraska.
Mr. Terry. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All I want to do is ask
unanimous consent that I may place a statement into the record.
Mr. Pitts. Without objection. He wants a unanimous consent
request for a statement in the record. So ordered.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Terry follows:]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 77930.079
Mr. Pitts. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Louisiana, Dr. Cassidy, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Cassidy. Gentlemen, I am a physician. I am totally
aware of this issue and very much concerned. And thank you for
your input. My questions are not to challenge. My questions are
to understand. Dr. Post, what a great name for a guy from USDA
talking about childhood nutrition. I see that the State of New
York and other States had a proposal that would not allow sugar
sweetened beverages to be purchased in the SNAP program. USDA
would not allow this restriction saying there was no proof that
decreasing sugar consumption would decrease the health in SNAP
beneficiaries. Man, that just seems very kind of counter to the
whole thrust of this discussion. Any comments on that?
Mr. Post. That is an issue that is obviously very deeply
being dealt with in the Food and Nutrition Service, our sister
agency. And I haven't been part of the discussion regarding the
SNAP program.
Mr. Cassidy. I see that there is a correlation, at least in
some studies, between SNAP participation and obesity. And, in
fact, I am wondering if there was a regression analysis, some
sort of statistical analysis that said, oK, what is the
relative role of participation in SNAP versus the relative role
of Tony the Tiger. And so I say that because I have read that
there is a boom and bust type cycle with SNAP programs, that
people get their SNAP benefits once monthly, they purchase a
lot of goods and then they get them again the next month. You
cannot purchase vegetables and fruit to keep them for the whole
month. We are effectively saying go out and buy high caloric
stuff at stores. Do we really know that we have met the enemy
and the enemy is SNAP?
Mr. Post. A response to that is that we aren't aware of any
evidence, convincing evidence, that establishes SNAP
participation or participation in other food nutrition
assistance programs as the cause of overweight or obesity.
Mr. Cassidy. Do you mean there is stronger evidence that
kids watching commercials on Saturday morning are more likely
to be obese than the SNAP program, which encourages the
consumption--because I have seen evidence that people on SNAP
don't buy more fruits and vegetables, but they do buy more
calorie dense foods.
Mr. Post. Well, with regard to the evidence on nutrition
assistance programs, including SNAP, the evidence that exists
is in fact mixed and that while some studies have shown an
association between participation and certain of these programs
and higher weights for some groups of participants, others have
found no association. So none have, in fact, shown a causal
relationship.
Mr. Cassidy. And so you are saying that, you are
emphasizing causal relationship. Again, have we seen a causal
relationship between advertising to children and not just an
association but causal association between advertising to
children and increased obesity?
Mr. Post. Well, I will defer to the CDC, but I will say
that there is certainly a contributing factor there. Perhaps
not a causal relationship, but certainly a contributing factor.
Mr. Cassidy. The difference between a causal and just being
associated.
Dr. Dietz.
Mr. Dietz. Now, the whole debate about causality of obesity
is complicated. And I tend to focus more on what can be done
about obesity than emphasizing another longitudinal study
trying to control for all of the factors which affect it. What
we do know about obesity is that one of the most powerful
interventions is reductions in television time.
Mr. Cassidy. Now, you say that, but I was wondering we
don't necessarily know that reductions in TV are not
associated. Is that a secular thing or does it actually
influence other things?
Mr. Dietz. Sir, these are randomized clinical trials.
Mr. Cassidy. So if you have somebody who is watching more
TV, is she or he more likely to be in an area which is a food
desert, an area in which the built environment is less
conducive to getting out and walking or in families which have
more children and perhaps mom is using TV to baby sit?
Mr. Dietz. Now, those are sound questions. I don't think we
know the relationship of television viewing to food deserts,
for example. We do know that there is a relationship between
television viewing and neighborhood safety, that parents----
Mr. Cassidy. Now, that in itself--because my wife will not
let my children bicycle on our busy street. So clearly built
environment figures. Do we really not--as I was listening, I
kept on thinking, man, I bet you TV watching correlates with
lack of an appropriate environment for a child to exercise
without mama's supervision.
Mr. Dietz. There have been some studies that confirm that.
I don't think it accounts for all the television viewing that
is going on.
Mr. Cassidy. I accept that, but on the other hand we are
making the case for these rules based upon something which may
have an alternative explanation. Is that a fair statement?
Mr. Dietz. First, these are not rules. They are voluntary
proposals.
Mr. Cassidy. I am sorry. You are right. I apologize.
Mr. Dietz. And you are right. I think we still need more
data on factors that affect obesity and most importantly on how
to resolve it.
Mr. Cassidy. Again, gentlemen, I am not saying all of this
to challenge, but rather to understand better.
Thank you for your participation. I yield back.
Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
the vice chairman of the health subcommittee, Dr. Burgess, for
5 minutes of questions.
Mr. Burgess. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can we just continue
on that concept for a moment, both Dr. Post and Dr. Dietz? It
does seem like the focus now is regulating the end product.
Have we sufficiently studied the issue of lack of access to
healthy foods? And I know in part of the district that I
represent, I am dealing with the problem of food deserts. And
it seems like that is a more appropriate place to start, the
access to healthy foods rather than some of the voluntary
guidelines that are being talked about this morning. Do you
have any thoughts on that?
Mr. Dietz. It is true that food deserts are a significant
problem that impair the intake of the healthful diet. We were
not asked to look at the impact of food deserts on food intake.
We were asked to look at the effect of food marketing.
Mr. Burgess. Not meaning to interrupt, but you still in
your testimony you talk about the disproportionate impact on
minorities and lower socioeconomic status. And certainly in the
areas that I am thinking about at home, I mean, your only
option for nutrition is a convenience store. And not being
derogatory to convenience stores--I use them all the time
myself. But if that is your only option, it is tough to get a
head of lettuce when all you have got is a Twinkie display. Do
you know what I mean?
Mr. Dietz. No question about it.
Mr. Burgess. Again, I would just ask the question. Would we
be better focusing our efforts in a time of limited budgets,
should we try to fix that problem first before we go into this
direction?
Mr. Dietz. Well, I think those efforts are underway. As I
said earlier, I think we need a multi-component, multi-sectoral
approach. As I am sure you are aware, there is the Healthy Food
Financing Initiative which has allocated substantial sums of
money for the development of grocery stores and other retail
changes in food deserts or areas with limited access to food. I
think that is an important step forward. Unfortunately, we
don't know what the impact of that intervention will be on
obesity rates.
Mr. Burgess. I guess, Dr. Dietz, let me stay with you. I
mean, you referenced a moment ago in your discussion with Dr.
Cassidy that the causality of childhood obesity is complicated
and multi-factorial and multi-faceted and I may have some words
there to your discussion. But nevertheless, it is a complicated
issue. So do you have available and can you provide us--has the
CDC compiled a compendium of articles and data and data
collections on the scientific basis for the conclusion that
banning food advertising will promote public health? What is
the precise scientific basis for the conclusions of the working
group that banning food advertising will promote public health?
Mr. Dietz. We are not talking about banning food
advertising. We are talking about modifying food advertising
directed at children.
Mr. Burgess. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some
people would say your modification results in a ban. But oK.
Fair enough. But you were really not even asked to provide
guidelines, but you kind of did, didn't you?
Mr. Dietz. Well, we were very careful not to call them
guidelines. What we called them were principles.
Mr. Burgess. Look, we don't call income relating means
testing, but everybody knows that it is. So were these
guidelines or not?
Mr. Dietz. No. I think they were principles.
Mr. Burgess. Very well. On the principles then that you
developed, can you provide us with the precise scientific basis
for the conclusions detailing those principles?
Mr. Dietz. Yes. I think Rob reviewed the data sets that we
analyzed.
Mr. Burgess. And I apologize for not being here. But
perhaps if the CDC has that available. I know you guys compile
a lot of data. Maybe you would be able to do that for us.
Mr. Dietz. We have referenced those studies in our
testimony. I think all three of us have done so. But if you
would like additional information, we would be happy to provide
it.
Mr. Burgess. I think that would be helpful to the overall
direction of where this committee is going. And again, just
like Dr. Cassidy, I am not trying to be confrontational. We
appreciate all of you making time to be available to us here on
the committee this morning. But at the same time, these are
issues that have significant impact and import. And I
appreciate the fact that there is work being done on providing
for areas of food deserts, but I have got to tell you I am not
seeing the results. I am not seeing the activity. So if the CDC
is doing that, I am grateful and I welcome your participation.
But in some parts of the world it is not happening. And the
difficulty is these are parts of the world that are otherwise
affluent. The surrounding communities you would drive through
and say, ``Nothing to see here, let us keep moving.'' But the
reality is you have got pockets of poverty within these
relative areas of affluence that are significant and of course
they have been hurt harder by the recession than the
surrounding communities.
Mr. Chairman, I thank you for your indulgence. I will yield
back the balance of my time.
Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Kinzinger, for 5 minutes for
questions.
Mr. Kinzinger. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess this will
go to all three, but Director Vladeck first and Dr. Post
second. In a fiscal climate where every dollar is precious, we
do have to be focused on protecting jobs and we have to be
focused on our economy. That is where the real concern is right
now. But it appears that the IWG has completely disregarded any
attempt to find out an economic impact that any kind of a ban
or suggestion or whatever would have on this. The reality is
the food and beverage industry employs 1.4 million workers, 12
percent of our manufacturing workforce, and it is one of the
biggest sources of manufacturing jobs.
Now, you said you didn't consider the economic impact or
benefits when creating these guidelines. Is that true, there
were no economic benefits taken into account?
Mr. Vladeck. We did solicit questions in our comments. And
we expected if there were economic objections to get them in
our comments. That was not the focus.
Mr. Kinzinger. You got zero comments of anybody that was
concerned about the economic impact?
Mr. Vladeck. No. I am not saying that. We did get submitted
a study which we gave to our economists to take a look at. The
study purported to be based on advertising expenses for ads
geared at children. And the economic analysis posited that if
our voluntary guidelines, principles were adopted by industry,
it would essentially end all advertising to children, costing
about $2 billion in expenditures a year.
Mr. Kinzinger. And specifically, what about jobs? What
about jobs----
Mr. Vladeck. I think it concluded ultimately that there
would be a loss of 74,000 jobs. Our concern is--we have many
concerns, one of which is there is no underlying data, there
are no citations to any of the assertions made in the study.
But more problematic, it assumes that advertising to kids will
stop and it uses a figure for advertising expenditures that
greatly exceed what industry tells us it is spending.
Mr. Kinzinger. Your study says 74,000 jobs it costs but you
don't have the basis of probably not actually the case?
Mr. Vladeck. It is not our study.
Mr. Kinzinger. The study that you have seen that we are
talking about.
Mr. Vladeck. I mentioned the comments. I was explaining
that in connection with the comments this study was submitted.
But more importantly, as I tried to make clear before, industry
itself has proposed quite substantial changes in its own self-
regulatory proposal, bringing it very close to where we are
likely to end up. Industry is not proposing making these
changes if it thinks it is going to cost it money, revenue or
jobs. And so I understand your concern about----
Mr. Kinzinger. Yes, it is a big concern. I mean, you have a
lot of people that want jobs out there. And when you talk about
killing jobs from the government perspective, that is not a
good way to get on the right train of creating jobs.
Mr. Vladeck. We agree.
Mr. Kinzinger. I appreciate that.
Mr. Vladeck. But voluntary standards don't kill jobs.
Mr. Kinzinger. Let me ask another one. You contend that
these restrictions are voluntary, but some of the most
distinguished scholars of the Constitution argue that these
would violate the First Amendment, these voluntary proposals.
Do you believe the food and beverage industries will treat
these restrictions or principles, or mild hints or general
reminders, do you believe they will consider them rules, they
will count them as rules? I mean, do you think that they will?
Either of you.
Mr. Vladeck. I don't. They are not enforceable in any
respect.
Mr. Kinzinger. But if they are not rules and they are not
enforceable, then why even go through the trouble of creating
them in the first place?
Mr. Vladeck. Well, because Congress told us to issue----
Mr. Kinzinger. Well, we also wanted a report, right, that
we are still waiting on?
Mr. Vladeck. That is correct.
Mr. Kinzinger. Do you expect that any time within the next
few whatever that we are going to see the report that we
actually requested?
Mr. Vladeck. We are hoping to get you a report by the end
of this year.
Mr. Kinzinger. So we are able to get some of these
guidelines out, but the report we will hold off--we are hoping
we will have by the end of the year?
Mr. Vladeck. The report will constitute our--what we are
calling principles, guidelines.
Mr. Kinzinger. Gentle suggestions may be the new word. All
right. Thank you. And I yield back.
Mr. Pitts. The gentleman yields back. The Chair thanks the
gentleman and recognizes the gentleman from Kansas, Mr. Pompeo,
for 5 minutes for questions.
Mr. Pompeo. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for your
time today. It has been a long morning for you all. It started
with Mr. Waxman saying he was mystified by the fact that we are
holding this hearing. That is maybe one of the first things I
have agreed with Mr. Waxman on in my 9 months in Congress. I am
mystified, too. I am mystified that the Federal Government
believes that it can identify a problem, childhood obesity. And
I think everyone here has agreed that there is a challenge,
there are health risks, but think that the Federal Government
has got a solution and that we can get so detailed and we can
spend hours talking about these things and that the Federal
Government can solve this problem with a set of principles out
in the air. I am deeply troubled by that fact. I know you would
use the defense of Congress made me do it, but I will tell you
that was a previous Congress. And I hope this one will
reconsider that.
Having said that, Mr. Vladeck, I wanted to talk to you
about your notion of voluntary. You continue to say that the
industry came up with a set of principles that are very close
to where you are going to be. Don't you think that is at least
in part because they are afraid of you?
Mr. Vladeck. I assume it is because they think it is the
right thing to do.
Mr. Pompeo. Right, right. Because they are afraid that the
Federal Government is going to come put a more onerous set of
restrictions and it is often the case the industry will respond
by trying to move close enough that they can convince
regulators like you that they have been good citizens. So it
may well not be the profit motive that drove them but the fear
of regulation that drove them to do it.
Mr. Vladeck. I would disagree. We have voluntary standards,
for example, for media violence, violent video games, movies.
Industry has adhered to some and has not adhered at all to
others. We have no enforcement role in that space. The
voluntary principles that we articulated were done pursuant to
a congressional mandate just like the congressional mandate
here. No one has suggested they have a coercive effect. I think
one of the things that we need to look at----
Mr. Pompeo. Until just this moment I suppose. I just
suggested that. So one person----
Mr. Vladeck. I apologize. I didn't mean to put it that way.
I was talking about the media. I understand that you suggested
it. But two other quick points. One is this is an area in which
we have very limited regulatory authority. So the idea that we
could turn around tomorrow and take these principles and codify
them in a binding--you know, in a binding regulation, there is
no basis for that concern even though--you know, I know
Kathleen Sullivan, I know Marty Redish, the First Amendment
scholars. I have litigated in this area extensively. I have
argued commercial speech cases before the Supreme Court. I know
this area of law. It takes a law, a statute, a regulation or
some other practice that is the force of law to create a
restraint or to create coercion. And it is not there.
Mr. Pompeo. I appreciate that. Would you commit today to
filing a friend of the court brief in defense of the industry
if someone should choose to sue on this matter, saying that the
principles we put forth provide no basis for it on behalf of
the FTC?
Mr. Vladeck. I don't have that discretion on my own.
Mr. Pompeo. Would you recommend to the FTC that they would
do that?
Mr. Vladeck. I will commit to putting something if we can
persuade our colleague agencies to say that in the final report
that this is not intended to create binding legal standards and
should not be the basis of something along those lines, which
should signal quite clearly our view that industry has no legal
obligation to follow.
Mr. Pompeo. I appreciate that. Yes, thank you. This is a
question for all three of you and then I will be complete. Have
we seen any examples in other countries where this type of
principle or guideline has been effective at changing behavior
and improving health conditions in children?
Mr. Dietz. I am sorry. I don't have any of that data at my
finger tips.
Mr. Post. And we are aware that other countries have these
kinds of voluntary standards, organizations in other countries
do. Whether they are successful on their own, no. This is a
complex issue. So it is part of the puzzle.
Mr. Pompeo. Great. Thank you. I yield back the balance of
my time, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Dr. Murphy, 5 minutes for
questions.
Mr. Murphy. Morning, gentlemen. I am all the way over here.
Good to be with you. Just a little background. I am also a
psychologist. I have dealt a lot with obese kids over the years
and I maintain a faculty appointment with the University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine in pediatrics. So I appreciate
your concerns about youth here.
I am thinking as I am hearing all of this, I don't know how
we survive because a typical menu some of you may have had may
have been similar to mine. I can still recall that we would
have meatloaf, fish sticks, canned vegetables, canned fruit
cocktails, fried chicken, Campbell's tomato soup and that
wonderful thing that cures all ills, that Velveeta sandwich on
white bread. I don't know how we survived. And yet the CDC has
this great map on your Website which shows obesity rates
changing over time. It seems to me there are some big
differences here. I just want to make sure as you prepare some
reports on this that you are looking at the full breadth of
what I think is making a huge difference here. I am also noting
as these guidelines on marketing come by, I am looking at this
Website here that has some things in there which sounds like it
may be one of those things I just want to make sure we are not
going after in terms of attacks.
You know what Tagalongs are? Does anyone know what those
are? Tagalongs? They are Girl Scout cookies. My favorite. Now,
the serving size unfortunately is 2 and I think most kids would
say I would rather have 8 or 10 or 12. And I am concerned. I
want to make sure we are not going to attack those poor Girl
Scouts on the box cover there as well. Because the issue here--
I want to make sure we are broadening this.
And, Dr. Dietz, I think you brought it up about the
television time. I think you would agree it is not television.
It is what they are doing instead of television, that years ago
it was not just what we ate but what we did when we were not
eating. Perhaps some of you also grew up in an area where your
parents told you in the morning get out of the house, play all
day; if you come in here, I am going to put a vacuum cleaner in
your hand, you are going to wash windows, you are going to do
something else. Kids were very active and now they are not.
What I am concerned about here in guidelines coming forth--
and I am doing this more as recommendations than I want your
comments. Are any of your familiar with the Naperville School
District? Their program is pretty exemplary and one which I
hope at some time we can even bring someone in to talk about
that from the school district. They actually spend less per
student in expenses than some other school districts in
Illinois, but they require an hour of vigorous activity,
elevated heart rate every day. And in turn, these students
actually exceed many other countries and many other Asian
countries on transit international mathematics and science
studies, reading tests, et cetera, and obesity rates where as
nationwide is--we are approaching about 30 percent, nationwide
obesity rate? They are, like, 3 percent. How much is it in
children?
Mr. Dietz. 17 percent.
Mr. Murphy. 17 percent in children. But they have--97
percent of eighth graders turn out very bright and a very small
percent of them have obesity rates. So as you are talking about
these guidelines and as we are looking at marketing, I would
like to know what your thoughts are in terms of--the big
culprit here is also immobility, lack of activity, dealing with
thumb movements on gaming or dealing with clicking things on
the Internet. It is not activity. But I would like you to
comment on marketing of those issues too as a key ingredient of
burning off calories and getting healthy nutrition. Could each
one of you going through that, starting with you, Dr. Dietz?
Mr. Dietz. I couldn't agree with you more about the
importance of activity and equally importantly the
contributions of inactivity. And certainly physical activity is
a strategy to be encouraged not only because it helps weight
control but also because it reduces the co-morbidities
associated with obesity. And I have known about Naperville for
a long time. And it is a model. I have worried that it is
confounded by income and socioeconomic status and perhaps other
factors. I would love to know whether kids walk to school in
Naperville because they don't in most parts of the country. And
we have certainly eliminated physical activity as part of a
child's daily behavior in life.
Mr. Murphy. I have got a few seconds, but I want to hear
from each person. Next. Dr. Post.
Mr. Post. I think this comes back to this being a very
complex issue. We are totally supportive of ensuring that we
empower people with information: kids in schools, where we
learn, where we play, where we get fitness, certainly in health
care settings. So I think we can look at all of the solutions
being part of a multi-sectoral effort. And certainly
advertising is one way we can deal with this, certainly also
enhancing school meals. And there are a lot of other
opportunities that are working----
Mr. Murphy. Dr. Vladeck.
Mr. Vladeck. We agree, this is a complex issue and physical
activity is one important step in the right direction.
Mr. Murphy. Well, I would venture to say I think it is of
critical importance. It is not something that should be a
postscript to this, but one I think that is absolutely
essential. And I think we are going down the wrong road of
going after advertising with regard to food if we are not doing
other things. One of the companies in my district is Dick's
Sporting Goods. I venture to say they do more to reduce
childhood obesity than some of these other things to deal with
some advertising of some foods that we will be doing. So I hope
that is something that you all include in your report right up
front. It is extremely important. And this is something that I
hope this committee takes into account in the future too, Mr.
Chairman.
With that, I yield back.
Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman. The ranking
member has a unanimous consent request.
Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I ask unanimous
consent to enter into the record an open letter on the First
Amendment and the Interagency Working Group principles. This is
from various constitutional law professors from around the
country, and I believe you have it.
Mr. Pitts. We have it. Without objection, so ordered.
Mr. Pallone. Thank you.
[The information follows:]
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Mr. Pitts. That concludes the questioning for our first
panel. And the Chair thanks the witnesses for your testimony,
for your responses. And we will dismiss the first panel and
call the second panel to the witness table. While the staff is
setting up the table, we will suspend for 5 minutes.
[Recess.]
Mr. Pitts. The subcommittees will come to order. And I will
introduce the second panel at this time. Our second panel
consists of seven witnesses. Our first witness is Jim Baughman,
Senior Marketing Counsel for the Campbell Soup Company. Next is
Dan Jaffe, Executive Vice President for the Association of
National Advertisers. Our third witness is Elaine Kolish, Vice
President and Director of the Children's Food and Beverage
Advertising Initiative. Our fourth witness is Beth Johnson,
Principal and Founder of Food Directions. Next we will hear
from Margo Wootan, the Director of Nutrition Policy at the
Center for Science in the Public Interest. We also have Dale
Kunkel, a Professor of Communication from the University of
Arizona. And finally Dr. John Irons, Research and Policy
Director at the Economic Policy Institute.
Thank you all for coming. We have your prepared statements.
They will be entered into the written record. We ask that you
summarize in 5 minutes your opening statement.
Mr. Baughman, you are recognized to summarize your
testimony.
STATEMENTS OF JIM BAUGHMAN, SENIOR MARKETING COUNSEL, CAMPBELL
SOUP COMPANY; DANIEL L. JAFFE, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT,
ASSOCIATION OF NATIONAL ADVERTISERS; ELAINE D. KOLISH, VICE
PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR, CHILDREN'S FOOD AND BEVERAGE
ADVERTISING INITIATIVE, COUNCIL OF BETTER BUSINESS BUREAUS;
BETH JOHNSON, PRINCIPAL, FOOD DIRECTIONS LLC, ON BEHALF OF
GROCERY MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION; MARGO G. WOOTAN, DIRECTOR,
NUTRITION POLICY, CENTER FOR SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST;
DALE KUNKEL, PROFESSOR OF COMMUNICATION, DEPARTMENT OF
COMMUNICATION, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA; AND JOHN S. IRONS,
RESEARCH AND POLICY DIRECTOR, ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE
STATEMENT OF JIM BAUGHMAN
Mr. Baughman. Good morning and thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr.
Pallone. My name is Jim Baughman. I am Senior Marketing Counsel
for Campbell Soup Company, and I very much appreciate the
opportunity to speak with you today about just some of the
concerns we have with the Interagency Working Group's proposal
to define marketing to children and to adolescents and then to
lay out the nutrition criteria for products that are promoted
in ways that meet those definitions.
Our biggest concern is that the proposal loses sight of
what we believe is the national priority on which we should be
focusing childhood obesity. Cracking obesity is the key to
diet-related conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. As
the only corporation in America having an executive devoted to
childhood hunger and obesity, we are fully committed to that
priority. By taking their eye off obesity, the agencies have
proposed criteria that, for example, not only fail to address
calories, but would discourage the promotion of soup, a food
associated with managing weight.
But why are the agencies discouraging people from eating a
food that isn't related to obesity? The essential reason is
that the agencies have been focused on idealized foods, rather
than on foods parents will actually include in the family meal
plan. Moms look for foods that kids will eat and parents will
enjoy too. And, yes, there are men and women in every food
company who roll up their sleeves and figure out how to make
actual foods that taste really good, have a pleasing texture--
that is not just a kid's concern--that won't spoil as soon as
you get them home, won't cost an arm and a leg and will provide
good nutrition.
The problem is that the IWG nutrition criteria are simply
not realistic when it comes to making great tasting food. For
example, while calling for more whole grain content than can
readily be put in baked products for kids, they call for
reducing the very things that help kids find whole grain
products good to eat, a little salt and sugar to help with
texture and to reduce that little bit of a bitter taste that
kids can find objectionable.
It is all in the power of definition. Advocacy
organizations have been telling you and anyone who will listen
that practically all we make and sell are unhealthy foods. But
healthy and unhealthy have to be defined. When Campbell calls
something healthy, we follow the FDA and the USDA requirements
for using that term. For example, we only market healthy soups
and healthy canned pasta to kids. The IWG proposal uses
definitions that are, in fact, inconsistent with the government
standards. For example, when it comes to sodium, they impose a
requirement that foods contain about one-fourth the level that
is in the healthy definition, an amount in foods that are
already not enjoyed by everyone. To produce foods to
definitions that are even less tolerant of salt and sugar and
fat would discourage people from eating the healthy foods they
are now enjoying and it would discourage food makers from even
trying.
We are told that we should not complain about the agency's
proposal because it is voluntary and just a suggestion. That is
not how it feels from here. These four agencies are the
agencies that regulate our business, that have the power to
shut us down, that look hard at everything we do and say. They
are not advisers to the food industry. What they say in their
official capacities matters. If adopted, these so-called
voluntary principles will certainly evolve in that dimension.
Even now, Senator Tom Harkin has introduced legislation laying
the groundwork to make them binding in S. 174.
We are all impatient to see some results in our national
struggle with childhood obesity. And in that impatience, it is
important to not put obstacles in the path of helping real
people and real families eat better. Creating nutrition
standards and marketing definitions that would put what we
decide to call healthy food out of the reach of most people's
taste buds and wallets will not help us eat better and manage
our weight as a nation. It is a different kind of leadership we
need from our government, leadership in partnering with
stakeholders to educate the Nation in how to eat and live in a
way that will better promote our health and leadership in
promoting scientific research to better understand what
practical tools may help reverse the incidence of childhood
obesity.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Baughman follows:]
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Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
Mr. Jaffe for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF DANIEL L. JAFFE
Mr. Jaffe. Good afternoon. So again I would like to thank
Chairwoman Bono Mack, Chairman Pitts, Congressman Pallone and
the other members of the subcommittees for this opportunity to
testify. I am Dan Jaffe, Executive Vice President of the
Association of National Advertisers. And our membership
includes 400 companies with 10,000 brands that collectively
spend over $250 billion in marketing and advertising annually
in the U.S.
ANA strongly opposes the proposed IWG guidelines. These are
unprecedented extreme proposals with far reaching implications
for individual companies and our Nation's economy. The IWG's
proposed guidelines defy common sense and are inconsistent with
other Federal nutrition standards. They are not well-founded or
likely to reduce childhood obesity.
You have heard a great deal about childhood obesity
throughout this hearing. But there is no words in the report
that you have received, in the preliminary report that in any
ways discusses how the various proposals if followed would have
an impact on obesity. These guidelines need to be formally
withdrawn and returned to the drawing board.
The IWG in effect is attempting to reengineer the American
diet by declaring war on many healthy products, including whole
wheat bread, 2 percent milk, cereals, yogurt, oatmeal and
literally thousands of other healthy products. Again you have
heard this questioned, but when we have had this study by our
experts and then talked to our company members, they all
confirmed that this is the truth.
Of the 100 most popular foods consumed in America, only 12
could be advertised under the IWG standards. And you say, well,
that is your claim, but the IWG in its own report on page 5
admits that, quote, a large percentage of food products
currently in the marketplace would not meet the IWG principles,
which I think really answers the question pretty definitively
when they admit that they are wiping out most products in the
marketplace.
The Federal Government seems to be suffering from a severe
split personality when it comes to nutrition standards. The IWG
proposals are dramatically inconsistent with other Federal
nutrition standards. They do not match the standards set forth
in the School Lunch Program. They could not match the
Department of Agriculture's dietary guidelines issues just last
year. They do not match the WIC, Women, Infants and Children
Program.
This defies common sense. Foods that meet the Federal
Government's stringent criteria for being labeled healthy both
by the USDA and by the FDA should be advertised more, but the
IWG says that they should not be advertised at all. In his
Executive order issued in January, the President required
Federal agencies to consider the costs and benefits of any
regulation. It does not appear that the IWG involved here have
ever considered these impacts. Lost jobs and lost sales are
certainly likely outcomes of the proposal.
The noted economic firm, his Global Insight, analyzed the
IWG proposal using a macroeconomic model developed--and I
emphasize this--by Nobel Laureate in economics, Dr. Lawrence
Klein. They estimate that the guidelines, if acceded to, could
drive down food and beverage advertising expenditures
substantially. These reduced expenditures would result they
claim in a decreased in total annual sales of $28.3 billion and
elimination of 74,000 jobs. This has already been argued about
in this hearing, and we will hear from another witness
questioning that. But the facts are that there is nothing in
the report on the costs or benefits. So how is the Congress
going to determine who is telling the truth and who is stating
things that are not accurate?
The IWG proposal is a veritable Sword of Damocles hanging
over the head of industry while avoiding the requirements of
cost-benefit analysis that any sweeping proposal such as this
should require.
Two of our country's leading constitutional scholars,
Professors Martin Redish, Northwestern University Law School,
and Kathleen Sullivan, former Dean of the Stanford University
Law School, analyzed the IWG proposals and found them to be a
thinly disguised attempt at backdoor regulation.
The four agencies were specifically directed to conduct a
study and make recommendations to Congress concerning nutrition
standards and their impact on childhood obesity. So far, the
IWG has produced no study. And instead of reporting to
Congress, they issued a specific, highly technical performance
mandate with an implementation timetable. Worst of all, there
is absolutely no proof or discussion about how the massive
changes called for in the proposal which would cost multi-
billions of dollars just in reformulations would have any
direct impact on reducing childhood obesity rates if they were
all carried out.
We believe it is critical that before any final report is
issued by the IWG, that the Congress demand at the very least,
two key things: A complete cost-benefit analysis and a specific
demonstration on how any proposed changes will directly impact
childhood obesity rates. This is what the Congress called on
the IWG to do and what they still have not even attempted to
provide.
Thank you again for giving me this opportunity to speak to
you today.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Jaffe follows:]
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Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes
Ms. Kolish for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF ELAINE D. KOLISH
Ms. Kolish. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Madam Chairwoman,
members of the committee. I am delighted to be able to
participate today, and I would like to make three points.
First, self-regulation through the Children's Food and
Beverage Advertising Initiative is steadily improving the foods
in child directed advertising. Our participants, 17 of the
Nation's leading food companies, represent the vast majority of
child-directed advertising. By using meaningful nutrition
criteria, they have shifted the emphasis of their advertising
to children to foods that are substantially lower in total
calories, lower in fats, salt and added sugars and higher in
nutrient content, just as the Institute of Medicine recommended
in its 2006 report on food marketing.
Indeed, many of the foods advertised to children today meet
the FDA's definition of healthy foods. The companies have
accomplished these product improvements by devoting vast
amounts of time and by spending millions and millions of
dollars. As a result, kids watching children's television
programming regularly see ads for foods such as apples or
applesauce or other fruits, milk, yogurt and veggies either as
a part of a canned pasta dish or as part of a meal. And now
more than ever, products are including whole grains or larger
amounts of whole grains.
And I would like to say in response to Mr. Waxman's
concern, it is also important to know that major candy
companies, Mars, Hershey, Cadbury's have agreed to stop
advertising to kids under self-regulation and are
participating--Nestle has agreed to stop advertising its Wonka
and other confections to kids as well.
Second, the CFBAI's new groundbreaking category specific
uniform nutrition criteria will further improve the foods in
child-directed advertising and make self-regulation work even
better. Our new criteria build on the successes from our
current program in which companies use meaningful but
individually based standards. Our new uniform criteria will
replace the company standards by the end of 2013. After that
date, products across companies will meet the same criteria for
the relevant product category.
Our process for developing the new criteria was informed by
the experience of high level in-house nutrition professionals
who on a daily basis work on the development of new products
and recipe changes. As a result, we have the benefit of their
food technology and food science experience, as well as their
understanding of the barriers to consumer acceptance of changes
to popular products and newly developed products.
In developing the criteria, we also were sensitive to
competitive issues, and the criteria are purposely flexible to
encourage even greater participation and self-regulation and to
promote competition in the marketplace. The new criteria take
into account the inherent differences in food product
categories. A one-size-fits-all approach simply does not work.
Grain products and dairy products, for example, are different
and they need to be treated differently. Accordingly, we set
limits for calories, fat, trans fats, sodium, sugars and
requirements for positive nutrients such as fruits and whole
grains that are appropriate to each category to spur product
improvement and innovation. And our new criteria are tough.
They will require the participants to change almost one-third
of the products they currently advertise to children, products
that already meet meaningful nutrition standards if they wish
to continue advertising them after these criteria go into
effect.
Third, the Interagency Working Group proposal was not
realistic or workable. It inappropriately would have swept in
advertising to moms and families and its proposed nutritional
criteria greatly underestimated the technological and consumer
acceptance barriers to reformulating well-liked products. Our
new criteria, in contrast, provide a rigorous yet realistic
roadmap for future improvements. Our new criteria also are well
within the scope of what the IWG said it was seeking as an
alternative to its own proposal. Our new criteria are based on
or closely aligned with regulations to finding healthy products
and disclosure levels just as the IWG suggested. They also are
informed by IOM's recommendations for school meals and other
foods sold in schools.
In conclusion, we were delighted to learn that the IWG
considers our new criteria a significant development and that
it intends to take them into account in its report to Congress.
That is good news. Self-regulation has accomplished a
significant amount in just a few short years. It has changed
not only what products are advertised to kids, but the
expectations about what should or should not be advertised to
kids. So our new criteria will continue the steady improvements
already occurring in foods advertised to kids and result in
self-regulation working even better.
Thank you so much.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Kolish follows:]
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Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentlelady and recognizes
Ms. Johnson for 5 minutes for an opening statement.
STATEMENT OF BETH JOHNSON
Ms. Johnson. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman Pitts,
Madam Chair Bono Mack, Mr. Pallone and Mr. Butterfield and
committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to testify
today. My name is Beth Johnson. I am a dietician and mother of
two girls, 8 and 11, and have worked in the food policy world
for almost 20 years. I am pleased to be speaking to you today
on behalf of the American Beverage Association, Food Marketing
Institute, Grocery Manufacturers Association, the National
Council of Farmer Cooperatives, National Grocers Association,
National Restaurant Association and the North American Millers
Association.
I want to start with what most of us agree on, there is an
obesity problem in the United States. How to address the
problem, though, has been a question for as long as I have been
working in the area of food policy. Some ideas that the
government is wisely engaged in, as is the private sector, are
backed by clear evidence, like community interventions or
school interventions that we talked about earlier. Others, like
food marketing, are less clear in their causal evidence.
To that end, Congress directed the Interagency Working
Group to conduct a study of the issue and report its findings
and recommendations to Congress. Among other issues, Congress
directed the IWG to consider calories. Instead of conducting a
study, it appears the IWG did a literature review and proceeded
directly to proposing comprehensive food marketing restrictions
that contradict established nutrition science, ban the
marketing of many healthy products to our children, and impact
thousands of food and farm jobs. Interestingly, even though the
effort was clearly about obesity and the agencies have
longstanding positions on the importance of calorie balance on
obesity, the calorie portion of the report is at a minimum very
confusing, if even there.
What the restrictions would do, however, is add to the
confusion that is already out there on nutrition. Once fully
implemented, the proposal would restrict the marketing of most
whole grain breads, not all, yogurts, even though those foods
provide important nutrients like fiber and calcium. Many
cereals, too, would be prohibited from advertising because of
sodium and/or sugar, both of which are far lower today than in
the past. Some would argue that many children's cereals are
high in sugar and shouldn't be advertised. But sugar levels
have come down significantly and now represent a mere 5 percent
of daily sugar intake and only 4 percent of calories. Cereal
provides significant levels of important vitamins and minerals
and is a vehicle for about 40 percent of milk consumption.
Numerous government studies show that kids who eat cereal for
breakfast have lower BMIs and do better in school. As a
dietician and a mom, I think that is a pretty good track
record.
Equally as troubling is the lack of consistency within the
Federal Government. Recently the Department of Agriculture
updated the WIC food package based on recommendations by the
Institute of Medicine. Certain foods like yogurt and cereal
have been determined by nutrition experts to be important
enough to supplement children's up to 5 diets through the WIC
program, yet most of these same foods couldn't be advertised
according to the IWG. The IWG criteria also don't match FDA's
definition of healthy. At a minimum, this is very confusing and
adds to the confusion that Americans are already facing today
about nutrition.
To be clear, the industry supports finding innovative ways
to address the obesity challenge. In the past few years, the
industry has reformulated over 20,000 product choices to reduce
calories, sugar, sodium and other ingredients. These changes
have occurred with significant research and resources to ensure
safety, quality and consumer satisfaction. Kids are not fooled
that easily. If it doesn't taste good, they won't eat it. And
preventing the advertising of foods won't make healthier foods
taste better.
In addition to reformulation, the industry has listened to
concerns about marketing to children. As a result of the
Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, all
marketing to children by CFBAI participants is for nutritious
foods that meet the science-based standards. Let me note that
critics dispute some of the results as far as the lowering of
advertisements for food and beverages, but that is because
their standards--they base their analysis on different
standards.
Finally, the question of costs and benefits must be
addressed. A recent study by Georgetown Economic Services
concluded that IWG's proposed restrictions if fully implemented
would have a significant and negative impact on the U.S.
economy in part because the cost of the IWG compliant foods are
much higher than healthy foods in the diet. Indeed, if we ate
the way the IWG would like us to eat, we would be spending 60
percent more on our food than we do today. There would be other
implications across the economy as well. But despite two recent
Executive orders, which require government proposals to take
into account benefits and costs and to be based on best
available science, the IWG has not done a cost-benefit
analysis.
We urge the administration to withdraw the food marketing
restrictions proposed by the IWG. Instead, we urge the IWG to
do as Congress directed and conduct a study. Additionally, we
urge them to follow the President's direction and look at the
benefits and costs of its proposal. Obesity needs attention,
but none of us can afford to waste limited government
resources.
Thank you for the opportunity.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Johnson follows:]
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Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentlelady. I recognize Dr.
Wootan for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF MARGO G. WOOTAN
Ms. Wootan. Good afternoon. I am Margo Wootan, the Director
of Nutrition Policy At the Center for Science and the Public
Interest. I know that I am supposed to say that I am happy to
be here, but actually I am quite concerned about the focus of
this hearing and the food advertising and entertainment
industry's aggressive lobbying to prevent the Interagency
Working Group from providing even voluntary suggestions for how
they might improve upon self-regulation of food marketing to
kids.
You have heard about some of the progress that has resulted
from the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative,
and we support self-regulation and have successfully urged many
companies to join the CFBAI. But after 5 years of self-
regulation, progress is very modest and insufficient given the
huge effect that childhood obesity is having on our children
and children's current diets.
From the time before self-regulation was in place until
after, the percentage of food ads that are for unhealthy foods
has decreased only a little bit, from about 90 percent of food
ads to 80 percent.
Recently, the CFBAI announced a common set of nutrition
standards for food marketing to children, and that is a
positive step forward. But it is only a baby step. Unlike the
Interagency Working Group, the industry standards were
developed through a closed-door process, with no opportunity
for parents, the public, and public health experts to provide
input. Under the CFBAI's so-called groundbreaking new
standards, Cocoa Puffs, some varieties of Kool-Aid, fake fruit
snacks, sugary Popsicles, and many other food that nutrition
professionals consider to be unhealthy are considered healthy
by the industry.
I worked with Senators Brownback and Harkin on the
bipartisan provision that required the formation of the
Interagency Working Group, and I know firsthand that the intent
was not to supplant self-regulation but simply to strengthen
it. The Interagency Working Group guidelines would simply be
suggestions for how companies could strengthen their food
marketing policies to make them more effective.
In fact, the CDC, USDA, and FDA lack regulatory authority
over food advertising to children; and Congress itself took
away this authority from the FTC in 1980.
The Interagency Working Group's proposed guidelines are
based on science and what is best for children. Those
recommendations have overwhelming support from health groups
and researchers and from the public. Out of the 29,000 comments
that the agencies received, over 28,000 of them are in full
support of the proposals by the agencies. The industry has
proposed its own new marketing guidelines that are what
business wants.
As much as we support the original IWG proposal, we know
that there will be a compromise somewhere in between.
Unfortunately, for children and families, industry doesn't even
want a compromise. They want Congress to step in and kill the
Interagency Working Group.
Few deny that childhood obesity and poor diets are national
health concerns. We all agree on that. And of course there are
multiple contributors to children's poor diets and obesity. But
food marketing plays a key role. Industry representatives have
been arguing that food marketing isn't effective. But if
marketing doesn't work, why are companies concerned about these
voluntary standards and why do they spend almost $2 billion a
year marketing to children?
Marketing is effective. Studies show it. Companies and
parents know it. The reason that marketing has a negative
effect on children's diets and health is that the overwhelming
majority of products marketed to children are still of poor
nutritional value.
Now, of course, parents bear much of the responsibility for
feeding their children healthfully. But parents are outgunned
by industry that has psychologists, market researchers, great
music, cartoon characters, and other sophisticated marketing
techniques at its disposal.
A parent's job is hard enough. Companies should support
parents by not encouraging our children to desire and to expect
to be fed food that undermines their diets and health.
In closing, I ask you to let the Interagency Working Group
finish its work; and I urge the food, entertainment, and
advertising industries to work with the Interagency Working
Group, not against it. The IWG is simply providing companies
with much-needed advice on how they could continue to
strengthen self-regulation. Then it will be up to the companies
to decide what to do next.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Wootan follows:]
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Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentlelady.
The ranking member has a unanimous consent request.
Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Olson from Texas requested unanimous consent to submit
an FTC document into the record during the questioning of the
first panel. I just wanted to note a few things about this
document. There was no signature on it, no time stamp, no
evidence that this was a final document. My staff has asked for
the origin of the document, and we have not heard anything yet.
And, without further information, this isn't even an internal
memo. It is a draft of an internal memo from staff to their
chairman.
I am not really sure why the majority would want to enter
it into the record. However, in the interests of full
transparency, the FTC has no objection to entering it into the
record. Therefore, I have no objection either. But, in doing
so, I just want to make it clear that I don't believe the
document merits a great deal of attention from the committee.
With that, I would withdraw my objection.
Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman. Without
objection, it will be entered into the record.
And, Dr. Kunkel, welcome.
STATEMENT OF DALE KUNKEL
Mr. Kunkel. Thank you.
Let me start by asking, why are we here today? Based upon
much of the discussion so far, one might surmise it is to argue
about where to draw the line in terms of defining foods as
healthy, or maybe to debate the proper role of government in
people's lives.
While both of those issues may be central to what we have
discussed today, the fundamental reason why we are here is that
the Nation faces a staggering epidemic of childhood obesity;
and, contrary to assertions we have heard from some, there is
compelling evidence that food marketing to children contributes
significantly to the crisis.
There are many elements involved with the obesity epidemic.
Fewer family meals, increased reliance on fast foods, less
physical activity, and a host of other elements all contribute
to the problem. But we now know with great confidence that
children's exposure to advertising for unhealthy foods stands
prominently among the factors that contribute to childhood
obesity. That evidence-based conclusion should remain front and
center in the discussion about the fate of the IWG guidelines.
In 2005, I served on an Institute of Medicine panel that
produced this report, which has been referenced quite a bit
today. More than a dozen of the Nation's leading scientists in
nutrition, child development, marketing, and media effects
systematically reviewed every scientific study that has been
conducted on the topic, reaching back more than a quarter
century.
Among our key findings that were unanimously reported: One,
children are heavily exposed to food advertising; two, the vast
majority of child-targeted food ads promote obesogenic products
that are high in added fat, salt, and sugar; three, child-
targeted food advertising is highly effective; and, four,
children who see more food advertising have a significantly
higher risk of succumbing to obesity.
Based upon that overall body of evidence, the IOM report
concluded that food and beverage marketing practices put
children's health at risk. It is well-known that the IOM report
had several recommendations. One was that food marketers should
shift their children's product portfolios to healthier foods,
and two is that they should similarly shift their advertising
practices.
But the IOM issued yet another key recommendation that has
largely been overlooked, and I want to draw your attention to
that today. It explicitly recommended that if voluntary efforts
failed to shift advertising during children's television to
healthy foods, Congress should enact legislation mandating that
shift on both broadcast and cable television.
That report was released more than 5 years ago. That is
when the IOM rang the bell that this is a problem that is
harming our Nation's children's health. That has certainly been
ample time for the industry to respond effectively.
What we haven't heard anything about today is what does the
evidence say regarding how well industry self-regulation is
achieving the goal of shifting child-targeted food advertising
to healthy foods? So on this point I have some evidence that--
in fact, the evidence across a number of studies is strong and
consistent. The large majority of child-targeted food ads still
promote unhealthy products that should not be a part of a
regular diet.
Prior to the advent of self-regulation, my research shows
that 84 percent of all foods advertised on TV to children were
for products in the poorest of three nutritional categories
used by DHHS; and that consists mostly of highly sugared
cereals, beverages, snacks, and fast foods. If self-regulation
was achieving its goal perfectly, the percentage of foods that
fall in that category now should come down from 84 percent to
zero. If self-regulation was even moderately effective, that
proportion should at least be below 50 percent. But my studies
show that in 2007, following self-regulation, the proportion of
foods marketed to children that remained unhealthy was 79
percent, and in 2009 it was still at 72 percent.
I will soon release some findings from research I have
conducted this year that indicate more of this pattern of
inching in tiny steps in the desired direction, while falling
very far short of the actual goal.
In sum, industry self-regulation has not yet achieved any
meaningful improvement in the nutritional quality of the foods
marketed to children; and at the current rate of reform my data
indicate it will take until the year 2033 for self-regulation
to eliminate all child-targeted advertising for foods in the
poorest nutritional category, all of which are products that
should not be part of a child's regular diet.
But instead of pursuing the regulation that the IOM report
recommends, this committee has called a hearing that questions
the mere recommendations that industry should be more
responsible in their billion-dollar campaigns to influence
children's eating patterns. It seems to me that this committee
has lost sight of the fundamental cause for concern in this
realm, that the marketing of unhealthy foods to children
contributes to the epidemic of childhood obesity.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Kunkel follows:]
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Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman, and now
recognizes Dr. Irons for 5 minutes for your opening statement.
STATEMENT OF JOHN S. IRONS
Mr. Irons. Great. Thank you, and good afternoon. Thank you
for the invitation to speak with you today about this very
important topic.
My name is John Irons. I am the research director at the
Economic Policy Institute. My organization, the Economic Policy
Institute, has been a leading nongovernmental voice emphasizing
the need for more jobs in this weak economy. As an economist, I
am very concerned about the impact of high and prolonged levels
of unemployment on families and on the long-term health of the
economy.
With the current economic weakness in the labor market, it
is important to assess the economic and employment effects of
the voluntary marketing guidelines that are the subject of
today's hearing. Let me briefly outline the prime impact of the
proposed guidelines on employment. In my view, to the extent
that companies follow these guidelines, the impact would be
primarily a shift in advertising and a shift in product sales,
not necessarily a reduction overall in these industries.
First, to restate the obvious, the IWG proposed guidelines
are voluntary, and thus there is no automatic reduction in
advertising as a result of these guidelines.
Second, if companies do choose to adopt the voluntary
guidelines, a primary change that would result is a shift in
consumption across food categories, for example, from foods
with high levels of fats, sodium, and sugars towards foods
lower in these nutrients. This shift in either advertising
dollars or in sales could occur across product lines within a
single firm or across firms within the industry. There might
not be a net reduction in advertising, in sales, or employment
even within the industry. It is also possible that advertising
dollars would be shifted from marketing to children towards
advertising on other products, or advertising on the same
products to other people, such as their parents.
Over time, we can expect firms and industry to respond to
the guidelines by establishing new, healthier products and
product lines that could then be marketed to kids. In fact, a
surge in advertising might result as companies seek to expand
product recognition for new product lines amongst kids and
their parents.
For example, as the FDA was considering adopting
regulations requiring trans fat labeling, many companies
reformulated their products to remove trans fats and invested
in marketing those products. For example, Frito-Lay back in
2003 had an ad campaign that was placed in the top 25
newspapers around the country announcing zero grams of trans
fat for their products that they had recently reformulated.
Further, industry advertising is often designed to compete
with other brands, transferring market share across companies
but resulting in little to no change in their final industry
level sales.
A report by his Consulting has been cited widely, including
in this hearing today, that claims to show that guidelines
could result in a 20 percent reduction in ad sales and a loss
of 74,000 jobs. My submitted testimony includes a more detailed
critique, but let me summarize that the assumed 20 percent
reduction in ad sales would seem to be a significantly
exaggerated response, given the existing advertising patterns,
the voluntary nature of the guidelines, and the likely shifting
of ad dollars to other products or to targeting other age
groups.
Even if it still were the case that advertising reduction
led to fewer sales in the food and beverage industry, consumers
would simply shift some or all of those expenditures to
products in other industries. A realistic assessment is that
the proposed guidelines would have, at most, a modest impact on
overall advertising levels and an even more modest impact on
industry level sales and employment. Even if there were a job
impact at the industry level, the shifts to other industries
would likely yield job increases that would offset some or all
of the impact on the food and beverage industry.
As I said earlier, I am an economist, and I am concerned
with the health of the economy. However, as a father, I am
primarily concerned with the health of my two daughters. I am
well aware of the challenges of getting a 3-year-old to eat
healthy. In my family, fruits and vegetables are sometimes
ketchup and French fries. I realize that my girls will see
thousands of ads while they grow up, but I would much prefer
that the advertising that they do see be for healthier
products.
As an economist, I think that the IWG guidelines would
primarily result in a shift of ad dollars towards healthier
products and not a reduction in overall industry advertising,
sales, or jobs.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Irons follows:]
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Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman, thanks the panel
for your prepared testimony.
We will now begin questioning, and I will recognize myself
for 5 minutes for that purpose.
Mr. Baughman, should the IWG withdraw its recommendations
and start over? If you believe that, why?
Mr. Baughman. Well, yes, I do believe that. As I said in my
prepared statement, IWG has really focused on idealized foods.
And I was heartened to hear that in fact they are looking at
the precedent that we set as part of the CFBAI to look at
different foods differently, because they play a different role
in the diet, and they offer different plusses and minuses, if
you will, in the diet. Even within categories of foods, there
are differences in how much--for instance, how much whole grain
you can put in something, how much salt it may need to be
palatable. So, yes, the approach that they have taken has
really been not a productive one.
Mr. Pitts. Mr. Jaffe, should the IWG withdraw its
recommendations and start over? If you believe that, tell us
why.
Mr. Jaffe. Yes, I do. And as I said in my testimony
earlier, we believe these are very radical proposals. There is
nothing in the proposals that answers the key question that the
Congress has asked, which is how these proposals, if acceded to
by industry, would affect obesity. We think they would have
extremely significant economic impacts. So, across the board,
we think that the proposal as it now stands is so flawed it
should be withdrawn.
If it is not going to be withdrawn, at the very least the
agency should answer the 10 questions that came out of this
committee and also the specific questions that were in the
report before they ever file it. And I believe that, because
they missed the target so dramatically and they have admitted
that they have to substantially change their report, that there
should be a chance for comment from the industry once again
before they finalize it.
Mr. Pitts. Ms. Kolish, would you respond to that question
as well?
Ms. Kolish. I believe that the IWG's proposal was very
unrealistic and unworkable, but I am very heartened to hear
they are taking our new criteria into account and will be using
them in their report to Congress. I think that is a very good
solution.
Mr. Pitts. Ms. Johnson, please respond.
Ms. Johnson. Yes. I do think that the guidelines, in
particular how they have put them out at this point, should be
withdrawn. I think that they need to focus on conducting a
study, as they were told to do. And, also, as they are putting
this together, make sure they address the confusion that they
have added to instead of helped to clarify on the nutrition
front.
Mr. Pitts. All right. Mr. Baughman, has your company
conducted any type of economic analysis for implementing the
IWG recommendations? What type of impact would this have on
your company's ability to hire new workers or retain current
ones? Can you talk about the economic impact of these
recommendations on your company and others?
Mr. Baughman. We have not done a study on the economic
impact. What I can say is that following the nutrition criteria
and the guidelines would mean that we would not be able to
promote these foods to children. None of our soups--even our
low-sodium soups would fail to comply because of--you know, you
need a little bit of something to make things, you know,
something you want to eat. And also with soups, of course,
because there is a great deal of water in a soup, it doesn't
comply with the positive food group requirements.
But I think the misconception often is that food companies
can control what people eat. In fact, we don't control what
people eat. They control what we can sell to them, and we have
to be very conscious of that. And certainly the criteria that
have been set out here in their proposal are ones that would
make it impossible for us to comply.
Mr. Pitts. Mr. Jaffe, what is the most serious problem with
the IWG proposal, in your opinion?
Mr. Jaffe. Well, at least--we represent marketers. The most
serious problem from the marketing side is that, as it
specifically states, it makes it impossible, if people are
going to accede to the command of the IWG, that a large
percentage of food products currently in the marketplace would
not meet the principles and not be able to be advertised.
And we heard earlier in the hearing that the numbers that
were being used for the economic analysis were too high. What
was ignored is the fact that this would not just impact kids,
but they have now expanded the number to those under 18 and
then said that if there is 20 percent of the marketplace that
includes those between 12 and 17, or 30 percent of the
marketplace between 2 and 11, that that would mean that the
advertisers would be treated as if they were directed just to
kids.
So this sweeps in an enormous amount of adult programming
as well. We estimate that more than 1,700 programs on broadcast
and cable would be affected.
We can't understand how anybody can claim that this is not
going to have very, very significant economic impacts if most
of the foods that are advertised in this country are suddenly
verboten for anybody under 17, and in many programs with a
substantial adult audience, as much as 80 percent of the
audience adult, not be allowed to be advertised and still meet
these criteria. So we think that this is a very radical
proposal. We don't think that that is hype. We just think that
is the fact.
Mr. Pitts. The Chair thanks the gentleman.
The time has expired. Recognize the ranking member for 5
minutes for questions.
Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I have my own questions that I wanted to ask, but I did
want to give one of the three other panelists--Dr. Wootan,
Kunkel, or Irons--an opportunity to respond to Mr. Pitts's
question, if you want to, you know, whether or not the working
group recommendations should be thrown out. I don't want all
three of you, because I have my own questions. Would any of you
like to respond to that?
Mr. Kunkel. My response is going to be stronger than likely
my colleagues.
My response is that I wouldn't withdraw the IWG guidelines.
I would table them. And I would table them while the Congress
considers the recommendation of the Institute of Medicine. And
that is, if the industry could not move significantly to reduce
marketing of unhealthy food products to children in the short
term, that this Congress should regulate to accomplish that.
And it has been 5 years, and we haven't seen any significant
improvement.
What we have seen--and I will agree with Ms. Kolish. She
said there has been steady improvement. There has. We are
inching to success. But we can't afford to wait 30 years to get
there.
Mr. Pallone. OK. Let me go back to Mr. Baughman. I am
always happy to see somebody from a New Jersey corporation
testify. So thanks for being here.
Mr. Baughman. Thank you.
Mr. Pallone. I was glad to hear from your testimony that
Campbell Soup agrees with Congress, the IWG, and the IOM that
addresses the prevalence of childhood obesity, that that should
be a national priority. And we recognize that childhood obesity
is simply a problem that we can't ignore. But, you know, I
think you have to have partnerships with the private sector and
that we have to find realistic and workable guidelines for food
marketing to children. So I wanted to say I think we all agree
that the IWG proposal needs some reshaping, but I still believe
it is an important step towards this kind of partnership, if
you will.
You are clearly opposed to any type of Federal guidelines
and suggest the proposal be eliminated altogether. So how do
you instead propose that the food industry work with the
Federal Government to address childhood obesity? What would you
have us do?
Mr. Baughman. I do think that discussion and dialogue are
important in any major public issue, and certainly I think we
as Campbell are always interested in sitting down with anyone
to talk about those kinds of issues. We have in fact, as I
believe you know, have been working with obesity experts
locally in our home city of Camden in tackling hunger and
obesity, and there we are working with a great number of NGOs
and so forth to tackle this issue.
Mr. Pallone. Let me ask you about the sodium, because I
know you mentioned the sodium levels, and I know that CPSI also
spoke about their concern with the sodium level requirements.
Instead of the IWG, how would you propose addressing sodium
levels in food products marketed to kids? Let's just talk about
that. How would you propose to do it?
Mr. Baughman. I would propose taking the approach we have
taken as one of the members of CFBAI, which is to look at
specific product categories and looking at what sort of sodium
or salt is required in a particular product category to meet
consumer expectations in terms of texture--obviously, there is
food safety issues but, very importantly, taste and not have a
one-size-fits-all standard.
You may know that, for instance, a soup does require a lot
more sodium to taste good than a yogurt. It is a savory
product. If you mix up chicken meat and water with some carrots
and celery and so forth, you do need some salt in order to make
that a good food. And our concern is that by applying one
standard for sodium across the board that we are under the
delusion that every food that we eat has to have the same exact
profile.
We should be eating a variety of foods, and each of those
foods has its unique contributions in terms of food groups and
positive nutrients, as well as the nutrients to limit. That is
putting the entire diet together with a mixture of foods that
compose a healthy diet.
Mr. Pallone. Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to make clear that
I fully expect that the IWG is going to take these comments
into account when finalizing their guidelines. It is my hope
that we can work in tandem to address this. I mean, it is a
national epidemic, and it has to be addressed.
Thank you.
Mrs. Bono Mack [presiding]. I thank the gentleman and note
that I am Madam, not Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Pallone. I didn't see you came back, Mary. I apologize.
I certainly didn't want to think that I saw you instead of Joe
there.
Mrs. Bono Mack. Thank you. And thank you for your time. I
will recognize myself for 5 minutes for questioning.
I just want to start with an observation to all of you, and
that is often in the political debate here you are either the
pessimists or the optimists. We have been told this is the
health of our children versus jobs and our struggling economy.
If you are an optimist, the glass is half full. If you are a
pessimist, it is half empty. Our job is to design the perfect
glass, and I just don't think we have done it yet. I really
don't. I am not hearing from all of the witnesses today that we
have got it perfect.
Dr. Kunkel, you mentioned that we should regulate the
Institute of Medicine and that you think we should get out
there and regulate. I will just point out that today or
yesterday there was a study released, not relative to this
point but still in the health care debate. It was a study
released by the Archives of Internal Medicine that now says
multivitamins for women causes a decreased life span. That is a
brand new study.
So you regulate yet in an area that changes, and data
changes so quickly. What was healthy today might not be healthy
tomorrow. I mean, we created hydrogenated oils because butter
was unhealthy suddenly. And so I don't think we are there yet.
And, Dr. Wootan, you said that Congress wants to kill the
working group. No, we don't. But we want common sense. We want
to know that the FDA and the FTC and the working group are
actually collaborating, working together, so that we are not
constantly reinventing the problems and the unintended
consequences that are created out of this mess.
So, Dr. Irons, to you, though, as the economist and to the
father, the crux of the matter here is the jobs. And have you
really analyzed the jobs? You know, we are talking about the
advertising industry, we are talking about the food industry,
and we are talking about content. Each of you critics have
pretty much taken a lot of shots at the content providers. Can
you talk about the hundreds of thousands of jobs that are
created?
You know, certainly what I care about is southern
California, but it will impact those people, those jobs, the
seamstresses, the grips, all the people who work in that
industry. And I don't know how many of you are actually focused
on those people who are trying put food on the table for their
children. So if you can speak briefly to that, that would be
great.
Mr. Irons. Yes, I am very concerned about those people,
too. Let me just kind of throw out an example.
If you look at the advertising industry, they employ about
a half a million people, plus or minus, in any given year. The
food and beverage industry is about a million and a half people
per year. I think a good case study is the impact of the CFBAI
regulations--not regulations, but guidelines. If you look at
employment in those industries from 2005, before the
initiative, to 2008, after the initiative was started, you find
that for the economy as a whole employment grew by about 2.3
percent. For the advertising industry, it grew by faster than
that, by 3.5 percent.
Mrs. Bono Mack. And this is the frustration that somebody
like I have with the fact that the agencies don't talk to one
another. You just cited years that are even long before the
digital explosion being what it is now. Content providers are
struggling in an everyday world to provide content because it
is all moving to the digital world, and it is out there for
free. So you are looking at studies that are 6 years old, 7
years old, about the way it used to be. I mean, so for us to
say, wait a minute, you don't have it right yet, is it that
hard to recognize that we need to talk about today and tomorrow
and going forward and what it means for jobs, not what it meant
6 years ago?
Mr. Irons. I think that is right. But the way we assess the
impact in the future is to look at past experiences with these
kinds of guidelines, and it looks as though there has been no
major impact in the past. So like I said in my testimony, my
view is that there is a shift within the industry and that, if
not a reduction in advertising, it will be a shift in the kinds
of products that are advertised, with at least the possibility
that there could be a surge.
So, you know, I do want to recognize it is important to
assess the consequences. Absolutely. But from my perspective I
don't see in the data, I don't see in the studies any major
impact this would have on jobs.
Mrs. Bono Mack. But then again I think that those of us say
that we just don't yet see a major impact on the childhood
obesity rate by what we are trying to do here. And I think it
is very reasonable to say when, Dr. Kunkel, you said table it,
I was excited, thinking, oh, you did mean let's talk about this
a little bit further and figure out how to do something that is
good for the economy and good for our children, design that
perfect glass.
Mr. Baughman, how have your soups changed over all the
years? And when would everybody--when would you say the obesity
epidemic really started? And have your soups changed over those
years?
Mr. Baughman. Well, that is a complex question.
Mrs. Bono Mack. You have 10 seconds. You are lucky.
Mr. Baughman. Yes. While I think I am well informed on
obesity, saying when the obesity epidemic began, you know, I
believe that it began, you know, a couple of decades ago. But
our soups have not really become more caloric. The difference
in our soups has been really in thinking of those condensed
soups that everyone is especially familiar with. The major
change there has been having about a thousand milligrams of
sodium per serving not that many years ago and gradual
decreases in sodium over that time.
Mrs. Bono Mack. Just briefly, and I am sorry because your
time is up, and I would just like to end with one point. By
sodium, it would be good--you also do mean MSG, right?
Mr. Baughman. I am sorry?
Mrs. Bono Mack. MSG is really what you mean by sodium?
Mr. Baughman. No, sodium, I mean salt. I mean sodium
bicarbonate in a baked product, other sodium-containing
compounds.
Mrs. Bono Mack. My time has expired. So thank you very
much.
And the Chair is happy to recognize Dr. Burgess for 5
minutes for questioning.
Mr. Burgess. Thank you, and I appreciate the opportunity. I
appreciate you all staying with us for so long.
Mr. Jaffe, let me just ask you a couple of things. Now, in
your testimony, of course we are told these are voluntary
guidelines, compliance is voluntary. But you actually imply in
your testimony that there may be more to the voluntary than
meets the eye, the ability during the research of the working
group to actually subpoena information and to get specific
information from marketers. Do I understand your testimony
correctly in that regard?
Mr. Jaffe. You are absolutely correct.
And, by the way, the focus cannot be just on the Federal
Trade Commission. The White House did a report on obesity. And
in the course of that report they said if the industry does not
carry out adequate self-regulation that the Federal
Communications Commission should step in and limit the amount
of children's advertising.
And, also, as you are, I am sure, aware, for a broadcast
licensing you have to operate in the public interest. If you
have four agencies who are supposedly the experts both on
marketing and on health in this country, all come together and
make a proposal to the Congress saying that all of this type of
advertising is unhealthy for our children, do you not think
that we are going to start seeing that when people come up for
their licenses, if they are continuing to run those types of
ads, that they would be under challenge?
There is a great deal of more compulsion here than has been
expressed in this hearing, and this is not just our view. As I
said, Martin Redish, who is one of the top constitutional
experts in this country, has said so.
Mr. Burgess. Let me just ask you a question about that. Was
there in fact intimidation involved in questioning the
industry?
Mr. Jaffe. Well, all I can say is that, you know, the fact
that the industry has been as exercised as this I think gives
you a clear sense that they did not think that this was
something people could just ignore or walk away.
Mr. Burgess. We saw this during the health care debates.
The phrase that was frequently used with the administration was
you are either at the table or on the menu. Since this is a
food hearing, that is an appropriate analogy. But was that same
principle at work here with this working group?
Mr. Jaffe. Well, certainly we felt that if this went
forward that the Congress would now be on record as saying that
the vast majority of all of the advertising that all of these
companies--the restaurant industry, the beverage industry, the
food industry--was doing was inappropriate and unhealthy for
children. That is what these four agencies were claiming. And
that clearly was going to put all sorts of different pressures
on us, whether they came from government, whether it came from
stockholders, whether it came from consumer groups. And to act
as if there wasn't any pressure I think is very unreasonable to
expect. I think the fact that 150 Congress and Senate
representatives have spoken out against this report suggests
that they think this is more than something that is a mere
voluntary proposal.
Mr. Burgess. Let me ask you something. Because Mr. Pompeo,
who is not here with us, asked a question of the previous
panel, what is going on in other countries? I mean, are there
other countries that actually restrict this type of
advertising? And what has their experience been? Are any of you
aware of countries that restrict this type of advertising?
Mr. Jaffe. I can at least start that answer, and I am sure
there are others here who could build on it. Sweden has
basically banned all children's advertising across the board,
not just for food advertising.
Mr. Burgess. Over what period of time now has that
occurred?
Mr. Jaffe. Certainly a decade, but I think it is more than
that now.
Mr. Burgess. Are they able to point to any difference in
rates of childhood obesity?
Mr. Jaffe. Their obesity rates are worse than a number of
other European countries that have no restrictions. Same case
for Quebec.
Mr. Burgess. What are those advertising minutes--what are
they filled with? Do they advertise BB guns? What are they
advertising during those minutes that are no longer sold to----
Mr. Jaffe. I think I have to defer to others on that. All I
can say is they certainly are not advertising food, beverage,
restaurant products during that time frame. And yet the obesity
rates have not gone down.
And that was--Quebec is another place which has tried to do
the same thing. They do not have better obesity rates than the
rest of the Canadian commonwealth. So it is just not provable.
And if you go look at the IOM report itself, despite the
fact that people would want to dismiss it, they say that they
couldn't find causation. And in fact for 12 to 17-year-olds, it
was the opposite, that they found a negative association
between advertising and the consumption patterns for those
groups.
Mr. Burgess. I thank you for that.
And, Dr. Kunkel, I will just share with you that sometimes
I do share in your frustration. And if I ran the world, things
could be better. But we do live in a free society. If I had my
way, I would ban tobacco and alcohol as well as high fructose
corn syrup. But we do live in a free society.
And honestly, Dr. Irons, it puts the responsibility of
parents in a free society are even higher than if the
government exerts complete control, complete regulatory
control.
It would be great if we lived in a perfect world, but we
don't. And we all know that those things that are severely
regulated we don't always get the desired behavior that we
want. So before we give up more of our freedom to something,
perhaps we ought to evaluate the risks and benefits what the
trade-off is.
And I will just offer that as an observation. You are both
free to respond to that.
Mr. Kunkel. I respect your point of view, but what----
Mr. Burgess. Ironically, I am way on the left to you, but,
to me, I am way on the right. So it is a difference in
perspective.
Mr. Kunkel. I appreciate your point. But what we are trying
to suggest is that there isn't a level playing field here, that
the industry is investing nearly $2 billion annually to try to
influence children's eating patterns. And it is working, and
the foods that they promote are contributing to childhood
obesity. So therefore----
Mrs. Bono Mack. The gentleman's time has expired. I am
sorry, but we have other people waiting to ask the panel some
questions.
So the gentleman's time has expired, and the gentlelady
from Tennessee is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mrs. Blackburn. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
I have got a series of eight questions. They are basically
yes or no, and then someone may want to give a quick response.
But let's work through these.
Before I do, Mr. Jaffe, I just want to say to you that last
week my colleagues on the Congressional International Anti-
Piracy Caucus sent you a letter regarding advertising placed on
pirate Web sites, and I wanted to highlight your comment. You
told C-NET Daily that the issue is of very, very high
importance. It is of high importance to us and to many of the
musicians and songwriters and individuals that we represent
that don't get paid if there is advertising on Web sites.
All right. Now to my questions.
OK, this first one is a yes or no for all of you. Just
raise your hand. OK, yes or no, do you think the IWG guidelines
can be accurately described as a new regulation? No? Raise your
hand if you say no.
OK. So that is three of you. Four of you. So we have got
four noes.
How many you say, yes, they are new regulations? One. And
we have two that can't make up their mind. OK. So there is one
yes.
If no--let me tell you what I think about new regulations.
When I look at something to see if it is a new regulation, I
say, is it going to cost businesses money? Is it going to have
an impact on jobs? Have we looked at the cost of the new
guidelines? So those are things that go into regulation.
So if you said no, why would this--how is this not going to
cost money or cost jobs or be an expense to businesses to
implement? Anybody have 15 seconds to offer on that?
Ms. Kolish. Ms. Blackburn, I said no, but when I said no, I
didn't think it was regulation. I did think it had the feel and
impact of back-door regulation, which is equally troublesome.
And I am really gratified that they have noticed that we have
taken a significant step in our new criteria and will take it
into account in their report to Congress. I think that is very
important.
Mrs. Blackburn. OK. And, you know, the FTC--we got a letter
from USDA, HHS, and FTC describing these rules as, quote,
unquote, nonregulatory recommendations. That is always of
concern.
OK. Question number two. We see that these are voluntary,
supposedly. But how many of you think that these could end up
being government standards or being used as the basis of NGO
attacks? Could form the basis for shareholder actions? Could be
used to initiate private litigation? How many of you fear that
these regulations----
OK, so we have got four of you that think it could form
that kind of basis. Anyone want to comment?
Ms. Wootan. I mean, that is where a lot of different
questions certainly will encourage companies to follow those
standards. But you can't sue a company for not following a
voluntary suggestion. You can only sue----
Mrs. Blackburn. That was not the question.
Ms. Wootan (continuing). For breaking the law.
Mrs. Blackburn. That wasn't the question.
Number three. To see if this is needed or not, do you think
this is duplicative of the FCC guidelines for marketing to
children? Anyone see this as a duplication of efforts?
No? OK.
All right, number four. Do you find it alarming that food
currently sold through the WIC program, which is designed by
USDA experts to provide a healthy diet for young children,
could no longer be marketed under your proposal? Does that
cause you concern? Any hands?
Ms. Wootan. The WIC standards----
Mrs. Blackburn. We have got four.
Ms. Wootan. I like the stronger WIC standards that they
proposed.
Mrs. Blackburn. OK. Question number five then. Do you think
that IWG guidelines raise any free speech concerns and have you
determined the likely impact on advertising revenues?
So how many of you think that it would cause free speech
concerns? May I see your hands?
So we have got four that are there.
And do you think it is going to have an impact on
advertising revenues?
We have got two.
OK. How many think these guidelines will actually do
something to reduce obesity?
We have got two.
OK. How many support or sponsor exercise programs in your
companies or your organizations?
We have got three that believe in exercise, which is a big
part of reducing childhood obesity.
OK. How many favor regulating Web sites, mobile devices, or
point of purchase access to children? Would you go in and
regulate what is on a Web site, what is on a mobile device like
a mobile TV? Would you regulate access at point of purchase,
like when a child is in the grocery store with their parents?
How many of you would extend your guidelines, your marketing
guidelines to that?
Ms. Wootan. These aren't regulations. They are suggestions.
Mrs. Blackburn. And we know where regulations get their
genesis.
Thank you all so much. I yield back.
Mrs. Bono Mack. Thank the gentlelady, and the Chair is
pleased to recognize Dr. Cassidy for 5 minutes for questions.
Mr. Cassidy. Thank you all.
This is kind of a confusing hearing for me, because there
is really a kind of disagreement on questions of fact. I mean,
the gentleman from FTC said, Mr. Vladeck, said he could not
think of a single time when principles have led to litigation
or to rules, and here we have folks putting their hand on a
Bible raising them and saying, heck, this is our existential
anxiety that this is what it will lead to.
So, Mr. Jaffe, just to pick you, if Mr. Vladeck were here,
if I were channeling Mr. Vladeck right to you and you had a
chance to reply to him saying there has never been an example
and he gave the example of principles regarding violence in
video games and et cetera, what would you say? I mean, he says
there is never an example. But for you it is an anxiety.
Mr. Jaffe. Well, that is clearly wrong. There is the Bantam
Book case where the Supreme Court clearly acted before there
had been any overt regulation. And I would then quote to him
Professor Sullivan, who was, as I mentioned earlier, a former
dean of the Stanford law school, who is a chair at the school
still, and it said, Professor Sullivan further notes that
government action undertaken with the purpose and predictable
effect of curbing truthful speech is de facto regulation.
Mr. Cassidy. But they would reply that this is not to curb
speech. It is just going to be like me telling my son, boy,
when you are out on the tennis court don't behave in a certain
way, and he goes out and behaves as he wishes. You follow what
I am saying?
Mr. Jaffe. But what she says is, even where the mode of
censorship is informal and even where the acceptance of the
speech restrictive conditions is nominally voluntary, the
Supreme Court has long held that such efforts are
unconstitutional.
Mr. Cassidy. Dr. Kunkel, what would you say to that man? Or
Dr. Irons or anybody who would disagree with Mr. Jaffe.
Ms. Wootan. There is a letter from 38 very esteemed legal
scholars that have a very different opinion than the industry's
hired attorneys.
Mr. Cassidy. This guy is from Stanford. The person who they
quoted is at Stanford.
Ms. Wootan. And ours are from Yale and Harvard and all over
the globe.
Mr. Cassidy. But what I am saying is, in a sense, you
deprecate him by saying he is hired. But I mean theoretically--
--
Ms. Wootan. He has two. We have 40. I don't know. I don't
think it is--it is not the common opinion.
Mr. Cassidy. I have limited time. I don't mean to
interrupt. I apologize.
So I am looking here, Institute of Medicine--because you
quoted him. I am thinking IOM, and they have a thing here using
litigation to change policies and practices regarding childhood
obesity--and so I have to admit I am in a sense thinking, wow--
litigation can raise public awareness of an issue, result in
disclosure of important documents. And it goes through
strategies, advantages, disadvantages of litigation. That would
seem to support, though, what these folks are saying, that
there are actually people out there who think how can I use a
lawsuit to push the envelope? You see what I am saying?
Mr. Kunkel. The litigation that is being referenced, the
litigation that they are talking about is existing legal
standards, for example, misleading information. So there are
organizations and there are government agencies that have
litigated against the food marketing industry when they claim
that their products are healthy by putting, let's say, a Smart
Choice check on it, when in fact it has significant evidence
that the product contains elements that make it unhealthy.
Mr. Cassidy. So I have something which is a high fiber
sugar-coated something.
Mr. Kunkel. How much? Sugar coated can be a thin veneer. It
can be loaded and loaded.
Mr. Cassidy. So I think what we just agreed upon is there
is a level of subjectivity here. Now, high fiber may be what
sends you to the restroom after eating breakfast----
Mr. Kunkel. The subjectivity is where do you drawn the
line?
Mr. Cassidy. Yes.
Mr. Kunkel. No one would disagree that excess amounts of
sugar is healthy--I am sorry, is not.
Mr. Cassidy. But they may disagree as to what is excess.
Mr. Kunkel. Yes. Where to draw the line.
Mr. Cassidy. So you could say it is healthy based upon
fiber content but then get dinged because of sugar?
Mr. Kunkel. We know many foods are so far over the line in
the unhealthy side of the equation that they are contributing
to childhood obesity.
Mr. Cassidy. Let me stop you right there. I have got your
point.
Ms. Kolish, I will throw it to you, but this is a different
question. I mean, there are articles in the medical literature
that our children will have a shorter life span than we because
of obesity. If not this remedy for obesity, what?
Ms. Kolish. I think self-regulation--advertising self-
regulation alone is not going to cure the obesity problem. We
need the joint efforts of everyone. But self-regulation is
doing an outstanding job of reducing sugars, fats----
Mr. Cassidy. But is it reducing childhood obesity?
Ms. Kolish. It is a multifaceted problem, and I don't think
you can take that factor alone and say it by itself is reducing
obesity or causing obesity. So I can't answer that. I don't
think anyone could.
Mr. Cassidy. I am out of time. I wish we were sitting
around drinking Diet Coke discussing this further.
I yield back.
Mrs. Bono Mack. I thank the good doctor. I am not sure
about Diet Coke being healthy for you.
So I would like to begin wrapping up and to thank all of
our witnesses today and to assure you that, again, I am happy
to work with you. I know our subcommittee, until we get this
right, to continue visiting it.
I would like to thank the Health Subcommittee, their staff,
for their hard work with today, as well as the subcommittee and
members of the CMT Subcommittee.
So I will remind Members they have 10 business days to
submit questions for the record. I ask the witnesses to please
respond promptly to those questions. Members should submit
those questions by the close of business on October 26.
And the subcommittees are now adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 1:50 p.m., the subcommittees were
adjourned.]
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