Inside the New York Soda Ban Hearings

Here are a few excerpts from my comments:

This isn’t about choice or any other dis­tract­ing rhetoric

The soda indus­try, because it does not have sci­ence (or even com­mon sense) on its side, is resort­ing to meth­ods of dis­trac­tion such as claim­ing that this pro­posal is an affront to con­sumer choice. Of course, this pro­posal doesn’t take anybody’s choice away. New Yorkers who wish to con­sume more than 16 ounces are free to pur­chase more.

But let’s take a closer look at the con­cept of choice. It is the soda indus­try that has taken away the choice of rea­son­able por­tion sizes. Nobody demanded larger bev­er­ages. Cups got larger and larger over the years because the soda indus­try (in coor­di­na­tion with food ser­vice out­lets) real­ized it has a gold mine on its hand. When the bev­er­age indus­try and its cohorts use the word “choice,” it’s really code for threat­ened profit mar­gins — which are esti­mated to be as high as 90 per­cent. 90 per­cent.

The soda indus­try is act­ing like Big Tobacco

One tried and true tac­tic of the tobacco indus­try is invent­ing “grass­roots” smok­ers’ orga­ni­za­tions, a strat­egy known as Astro-turfing (as in fake grass). It’s a great way for com­pa­nies that don’t want their fin­ger­prints on a con­tro­ver­sial cam­paign to hide behind a front group. Such groups tend to gar­ner pub­lic sym­pa­thy and sup­port while attract­ing media attention.

“New Yorkers for Beverage Choices” is a clas­sic Astro-turfing cam­paign led by the American Beverage Association, the soft drink industry’s lob­by­ing group, which has retained pow­er­ful polit­i­cal and PR con­sul­tants. Who made this list of alleged New Yorkers so con­cerned with their choices? For starters, other lob­by­ing groups out­side of New York, such as:

• The Grocery Manufacturers Association
• The International Franchise Association
• The National Association of Concessionaires
• The National Association of Theater Owners
• The National Restaurant Association

Also, restau­rant chains like Chick-Fil-A, Denny’s, and Darden Restaurants, owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster, among oth­ers. Not quite the sort of grass­roots activism mem­bers you hope for in a cam­paign about per­sonal choice.

Additional Big Tobacco-style tac­tics from the soda lobby include:

• Shooting the mes­sen­ger and name-calling, by depict­ing Mayor Bloomberg as a “nanny” in full-page ads taken out by the indus­try front group, Center for Consumer Freedom, which not coin­ci­den­tally, began with fund­ing from Philip Morris and is run by noto­ri­ous tobacco lob­by­ist Rick Berman;
• Claiming to take the side of small busi­nesses because they know the pub­lic and the press have more sym­pa­thy for the lit­tle guy than multi­na­tional cor­po­ra­tions such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo;
• Claiming to care about the eco­nomic plight of poor peo­ple, never mind the fact that the soda indus­try tar­gets these same pop­u­la­tions with adver­tis­ing designed to get them hooked for life on their unhealthy products.

Ultimately, the tobacco indus­try lost all cred­i­bil­ity with the American pub­lic (along with most pol­i­cy­mak­ers) by engag­ing in such deceit­ful tactics.

In con­clu­sion, the soda indus­try is run­ning scared because they know the jig is up; that the pub­lic health cri­sis their prod­ucts have helped cre­ate means that indus­try can­not keep enjoy­ing the same unfet­tered reg­u­la­tory envi­ron­ment. This com­mon sense pro­posal will catch on as other cities take New York’s lead. This is an idea whose time has come.

You can read the entire sub­mit­ted com­ments here. A deci­sion by New York’s board of health is expected in September.

Michele Simon

Michele is a pub­lic health lawyer who has been research­ing and writ­ing about the food indus­try and food pol­i­tics since 1996. Visit her site at www.EatDrinkPolitics.com/