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Drinks target kids who shouldn't drink them

This is another in a series of posts based on the recent f.a.c.t.s. (“food advertising to children and teens score”) report on sugary sodas issued by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale. A while ago, the center did a similar report on the advertising of junk food to children, and you can read my excerpts from that here.


Fruit drinks are also sugary

This is the second in a series of posts based on a recent f.a.c.t.s. (“food advertising to children and teens score”) report on sugary sodas issued by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale. A while ago, the center did a similar report on the advertising of junk food to children, and you can read my excerpts from that here.


Rudd Center reports on sugary drinks

A good long while I ago, I wrote a series of posts a report on the advertising of junk food to children prepared by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale. Last week, Yale came out with another f.a.c.t.s. (a rather labored acronym signifying “food advertising to children and teens score”) report, this one on sugary beverages, and I thought I’d follow the same fashion.


What to know about Big Food

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The following is lifted verbatim from Andy Bellatti's interview of Bruce Bradley, which I saw published on Grist's food feed. Bellatti I'm a bit familiar with; I follow him on Twitter. I also now follow Bradley, as a result of the full interview. Bradley worked in Big Food for years, so he knows the industry from inside.



Smug and contemptible

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My predominant attitude toward paid corporate mouthpieces: Shut the hell up. Of course they have the right to speak, but if they're just spouting a line, I don't want to hear it. But sometimes, I do appreciate the chuckles I get when they do start talking.

Here's a bunch of crap from Elaine Kolish, vice president of the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, an industry-run front erected to forestall binding curbs on advertising of junk food to kids:


Again with the promotions

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I taped an interview about "Fat Boy Thin Man" a few weeks ago with Smoki Bacon, a Boston cultural institution, for her show "The Literati Scene" at her Beacon Hill home. It will be telecast tonight at 7:30, and again at 9:30 tomorrow morning, on Channel 23 in Boston. It also will appear, though at different times, on better than a dozen other local Boston outlets. See here for a roster of outlets, if not a list of showtimes.


Two stories in the Globe today

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Though they weren't conceived in tandem, I had two stories on related topics in the Boston Globe today.

The business section's centerpiece is about farmer Joe Czajkowski of Hadley, Mass. A fascinating, very literate guy, he does a lot of business with schools and other institutions through the Mass. Farm To School Project.


Kim Szeto: "Creating a better food system..."

Welcome to another installment of “10 Words or Less,” in which I ask questions, and for answers, of that length. Today’s participant just won the Blue Ribbon Award from the Massachusetts Farm to School Project for her work in the Boston Public Schools. Please remember: No counting! 10 words is a goal, not a rule, and besides, let’s see you do it.

Name Kim Szeto
Born Waltham, Mass., Oct. 27, 1984
Residence Boston
Title "Farm to School coordinator, Boston Public Schools"
What you wanted to be when you grew up “It changed a couple of times, but there was a period when I wanted to be a mailman.”
The best part of your job “Seeing kids getting excited about eating a new vegetable.”
Something you’re passionate about “Creating a better food system that nourishes all people, replenishes the land, and pays its workers fairly.”
Do you grow any of your own food? "Yes. My sister and I share a plot in a community garden."
What kind? "Lots of stuff.  We had tons of Red Russian kale this year. But my favorite is Dinosaur kale and we only had one this year.”


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