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Congressional letter writing campaign helps torpedo voluntary food marketing guidelines for kids
By Nancy Watzman May 1, 2012 9 a.m.Days after receiving several campaign checks from the food lobby last May, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who is up for reelection this year, sent a letter raising concerns about the Federal Trade Commission's efforts to develop voluntary guidelines aimed at toning down the marketing of junk food to kids.
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No government money to criticize soda, says freshman lawmaker
By Nancy Watzman Feb 13, 2012 2:22 p.m.Outraged that federal stimulus money has been used for local advertisements targeting soda as unhealthy, Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., has introduced the Protecting Foods and Beverages from Government Attack Act, which would make it illegal to use federal funds to criticize a legal food or beverage product.
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Food and media companies donated generously to lawmakers opposing food marketing guidelines for kids
By Nancy Watzman Dec 20, 2011 4:50 p.m.Last summer, a bipartisan group of House members from Pennsylvania wrote federal agencies complaining that proposed guidelines restricting the marketing of unhealthy food to children marked “an alarming regulatory overreach.” They emphasized their sugary roots in “the leading confectionary producing state in the nation.”
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Food and media companies lobby to weaken guidelines on marketing food to children
By Nancy Watzman Dec 5, 2011 11:38 a.m.A major lobbying push by a powerful group of food and media companies appears to be working, with a federal agency indicating it would back off on parts of proposed voluntary guidelines for marketing food to children. The guidelines are meant to combat childhood obesity.
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Senators grilling FTC commissioner on obesity guidelines took campaign money from industry
By Nancy Watzman Nov 16, 2011 10:09 a.m.When Jon Leibowitz faced a Senate committee yesterday afternoon for a hearing on his renomination as commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), he got a grilling from several Senators, Democrats and Republicans alike, on a controversial issue: the agency’s proposed guidelines on advertising food to children, meant to help in the fight to reduce childhood obesity.
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