In the previous issue I linked to a piece by Thin Lei Win that shed some light on Commercial Determinants of Health, the idea that food companies (and others) use “strategies and approaches … to promote products and choices that are detrimental to health”. It’s probably just a coincidence, but blow me if The Guardian didn’t recently point out that “[o]besity reflects prices, advertising and access, not simply weak willpower”.
An editorial asks the UK government to put public health before food industry pressure. The piece was prompted by a report from parliament’s health select committee, and most of the arguments and proposed remedies are reasonably familiar. Industry lobbying, however, has effectively defanged every previous attempt to do something. Anything. (Can you see a pattern here?)
On Monday, the country welcomed a new Prime Minister. Will “pro-business” Andy Burnham be up to the task?
Also relevant to this issue, Farming’s Overlords with Jennifer Clapp.
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