How Lobbying Makes America Sick

 
Many of us eat at fast food venues because they’re cheap, fast and – let’s face it – they’re everywhere.   What we’re not told about is the intense industry effort at the policy level to keep fast food cheap and ubiquitous.  

Fast food transnationals have used a myriad of tactics to manipulate the policy process.  They spend millions lobbying and supporting fast food-friendly politicians, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg.  To keep public health legislation from being enacted, fast food giants have also filed lawsuits against local government.  

For instance, when San Francisco passed their menu board labeling law, the California Restaurant Association (representing mostly chain restaurants like Burger King and Taco Bell), sued the city.[1] They said the ordinance violated their right to free speech, but their true goal may have been to drain the city’s resources with a drawn-out law suit. The law suit technique is ironic, because the fast food industry has been pushing pre-emptive legislation across the country to stop the public from suing them for the damage that their products cause.[2]

When industry insiders don’t have enough votes to squash public health legislation outright, they work their connections to implement back-up strategies.  Filing industry-friendly “counter-legislation” has worked well for them.  Three U.S. senators recently filed a watered-down, industry-backed federal menu labeling bill to compete with the public health advocate-favored national MEAL act.[3] And in Georgia, the state recently passed pre-emptive, industry-friendly legislation preventing individual counties from passing menu labeling legislation.  Meanwhile, the state seems to have no plans to pass a statewide menu labeling law, effectively outlawing this important public health tool.[4]

1. City Attorney of San Francisco, “California Restaurant Association v. The City and County of San Francisco and The San Francisco Department of Public Health,” and accompanying press release, City of San Francisco, California, http://www.sfgov.org/site/cityattorney_index.asp (accessed August 30, 2008).

2. National Restaurant Association 2003, "National Restaurant Association Board Member Testifies Before Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Frivolous Lawsuits Against Restaurants," National Restaurant News, http://www.restaurant.org/pressroom/pressrelease.cfm?ID=747 (accessed August 30, 2008).

3. Press Release, "Senators Murkowski and Caper Introduce Bill to Help Americans Make Smart and Healthy Choices When Dining Out," Office of United States Senator Lisa Murkowski (September 24, 2008), http://murkowski.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=9abf8846-00c3-43a3-2eee-958969254c8a (accessed December 8, 2008). 

4. Nation’s Restaurant News “Ga. legislature pre-empts county menu-labeling laws,” (April 7, 2008) Business Network,  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_14_42/ai_n25353775/pg_2?tag=content;col1 (accessed December 8, 2008).

Photo: http://pro.corbis.com/images/42-17255537.jpg?size=572&uid={98DD5B7A-8E78-4C55-B6B6-ED20430BADCA}