White House Obesity Strategy makes recommendations on food marketing

Date: 12/05/2010

At a White House press conference on 11th May, First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled the Interagency Task Force action plan: Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within a Generation.  The Task Force, established by a presidential Memorandum on 9 February, spent the past 90 days reviewing the research and consulting experts, as well as the broader public, to produce a set of recommended actions that, taken together, aim to "put our country on track to solving the problem of childhood obesity." The Task Force is composed of representatives of 12 federal agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, and Transportation, as well as the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission.

The report makes a number of recommendations focusing on the four priority areas identified in the presidential Memorandum, which also form the pillars of the First Lady's Let's Move! campaign: (1) empowering parents and caregivers; (2) providing healthy food in schools; (3) improving access to healthy, affordable foods; and (4) increasing physical activity.  The Task Force will now develop a strategy for implementing this plan, working in partnership with the First Lady to engage stakeholders across society.

Under the pillar "empowering parents and caregivers", the report analyses the issues of food marketing to children and sets out a set of recommendations for action. The fundamental objective is to "reduce marketing of unhealthy products to children". 

WFA Members can login above to download a full analysis on the action plan. For more information please contact Will Gilroy [email protected]

 


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Documents:
White_House_Obesity_Strategy.pdf