[Dialogue] Article in today's NYTimes

[J&OSlotta]

4 AM Mountain Time, Thursday 4 May '06

Hello, John-



Just the headline of this article in today's NYTimes brings a hopeful 
introduction to my long day. You and others have initiated a wonderful 
discussion that has included the potential and real morality of 
businesses.

So, as I depend on coffee and positive messages to allow me this day to 
look at my reflection on the crt screen and say, "It's Show Time!", I 
also say bless you and Ann as you look to unleash those signs of 
morality.



Jim Slotta



Bottlers Agree to a School Ban on Sweet Drinks
By MARIAN BURROS and MELANIE WARNER
The top three soft-drink companies said that they would start removing 
sweetened drinks from schools.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/04/health/04soda.html



May 4, 2006



Bottlers Agree to a School Ban on Sweet Drinks
By MARIAN BURROS and MELANIE WARNER

The country's top three soft-drink companies announced yesterday that 
beginning this fall they would start removing sweetened drinks like 
Coke, Pepsi and iced teas from school cafeterias and vending machines 
in response to the growing threat of lawsuits and state legislation.

Under an agreement between beverage makers and health advocates, 
students in elementary school would be served only bottled water, 
low-fat and nonfat milk, and 100 percent fruit juice in servings no 
bigger than eight ounces. Serving sizes would increase to 10 ounces in 
middle school. In high school, low-calorie juice drinks, sports drinks 
and diet sodas would be permitted; serving sizes would be limited to 12 
ounces.

The agreement, which includes parochial and private schools contracts, 
is voluntary, and the beverage industry said its school sales would not 
be affected because it expected to replace sugary drinks with other 
ones.

"This is a voluntary policy, but I think schools will want to follow 
it," said Susan K. Neely, president of the American Beverage 
Association.

Still, about 35 million public school children would be affected by the 
agreement, which would apply to extended school functions like band 
practice but would not apply to events likely to be attended by 
parents, like evening plays or interscholastic sports. An additional 15 
million students attend schools that operate under stricter 
regulations, where the guidelines would not apply.

Last week, for example, Connecticut banned all sodas, including diet 
drinks and sports drinks like Gatorade, in its schools; New York City 
schools permit only low-fat milk, water and 100 percent fruit juice — 
which is sold under an exclusive contract with Snapple.

Contracts between schools and bottlers would be updated under the deal, 
and changes would not go into effect before the next school year.

The agreement was brokered by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, 
a collaboration between the William J. Clinton Foundation and the 
American Heart Association. It is similar to an arrangement that the 
industry had been negotiating with a coalition of lawyers and the 
Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group, that had 
threatened to sue if an agreement could not be reached. The terms were 
accepted by the three biggest soft-drink companies, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo 
Inc. and Cadbury Schweppes (whose products include Dr Pepper and 
Snapple), which together control more than 90 percent of school sales.

At a news conference at his office in Harlem, Mr. Clinton called the 
beverage industry "courageous" for agreeing to switch to lower-calorie 
drinks. Mr. Clinton, who has made obesity a major issue of his 
postpresidency agenda, was joined by Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, a 
vocal proponent of fitness.

Later in the day, Mr. Clinton said it was more than the threat of 
lawsuits that spurred the agreement.

"We've been talking to them for months and months, and they may have 
liked the way we were working with them, not just singling them out," 
he said in a telephone interview. "I'm glad we did it without 
litigation and could accelerate the process."

It will take three years for the agreement to be put fully into effect. 
The industry has agreed at the end of each school year starting in 2007 
to disclose the progress toward fulfilling the agreement. The new 
standards are expected to be in place in 75 percent of schools by the 
summer of 2008 and all by 2009. The success of the program depends on 
schools' willingness to amend existing contracts, industry 
representatives said.

The majority of school contracts with Pepsi Bottling Group, Pepsi's 
largest bottler, for instance, are for three to five years, said its 
spokeswoman, Kelly McAndrew, who said Pepsi would encourage schools to 
renegotiate their contracts.

"We're doing our part to communicate this new policy," she said.

Mirroring overall beverage consumption in the United States, bottled 
water and sports drinks have become increasingly popular in schools in 
recent years. But in a survey released in August, the American Beverage 
Association said 45 percent of all school vending sales were sweetened 
soda.

While the soft-drink industry was negotiating the deal, it was 
discussing a similar accord with the Center for Science in the Public 
Interest and a group of lawyers who had successfully sued tobacco 
companies.

Richard A. Daynard, associate dean at Northeastern University School of 
Law, a tobacco-lawsuit veteran, called the agreement "the first major 
victory for the obesity-litigation strategy."

"This would not have happened but for the threat of litigation," 
Professor Daynard said.

Beverage-industry officials acknowledged discussions with the lawyers 
but would not comment further.

Dr. Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in 
the Public Interest, applauded the agreement, but said, , "I'd like to 
get rid of the Gatorades and diet soft drinks completely."

Nutritionists and parent groups have pressured schools and the beverage 
industry for some time to restrict sales. Several states, including 
California, and some local school districts have banned soft-drink 
sales, and other states are considering similar crackdowns. In 
response, the beverage association last year announced a policy that 
would have cut back on the sale of certain soft drinks in schools. But 
critics said the plan was unenforceable.

Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a nonprofit 
public-health group, said the new agreement might prove to have the 
same problem. Mr. Ruskin criticized it, too, because it did not address 
soft-drink advertising in schools and did not stop bottlers from 
advertising on Channel One, which is shown to seven million 
schoolchildren a day.

Mr. Clinton said there remained "an enormous amount to be done" about 
childhood obesity.

"You can't single out one cause of this problem," he said. "But if an 
8-year-old child took in 45 less calories per day, by the time he 
reached high school, he would weight 20 pounds less than he would have 
weighed otherwise.."