Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Stephen Gardner, Director of Litigation, Center for Science in the Public Interest, 5646 Milton Street, Suite 211, Dallas, TX 75206, 214-827-2774, sgardner@cspinet.org

In general, private litigation involving food marketing is growing exponentially. Companies are inventive in their quest to take advantage of consumers by trying to pass off products as something that they are not and by manipulating with the label so that we don't know what is actually in a product, and the private bar is responding. Governmental regulatory agencies are traditionally the ones responsible for policing food and drink manufacturers but they are limited in their effectiveness. Over the past 25 years, the federal government has taken a decidedly hands-off approach to the regulation of food marketing to children. This vacuum of government action has resulted in a virtual free-for-all for food companies.

Mr. Gardner describes the work of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which has only recently turned to the courts for remedies out of necessity. Mr. Gardner explains how litigation may be employed to drive social goals and responds to industry criticism of using private lawsuits to control industry marketing excesses. Mr. Gardner describes why private lawsuits that target this type of conduct and seek redress for consumers are complementary, if not superior, to regulatory action.

Focusing on marketing of junk food to children, Mr. Gardner incorporates knowledge of the physical and cognitive development of children into litigation-based approaches to obesity, diabetes, and other health problems caused in significant part by Americans' excess consumption of junk food.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Understand the reasons why health and nutrition advocates are turning to litigation as an additional tool.
• 2. Recognize the developmental underpinnings of the legal theories.
• 3. Identify at least three industry practices that could be the subject of litigation.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation