In many ways, Pres. Barack Obama and his allies in Congress believe they know better than you do what is in your own best interest but, when it comes to policing the American diet, this Administration takes the cake (quite literally). In an obscure provision of the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act, Congress ordered Federal agencies to come up with a proposal for improving children's diets and stemming the tide of childhood obesity.In pertinent part, Congress called for an Obama Administration working group 'to conduct a study and develop recommendations for standards for the marketing of foods when such marketing targets children who are 17 years old or younger or when such food represents a significant component of the diets of children." In short, Congress, with the full support of the President, ordered Federal agencies to propose to Congress a regulatory means for altering the American diet. Regulators at the Federal Trade Commission, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, and Department of Agriculture convened an Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children, proposing measures that would deny consumers the freedom to access fattening foods and would deny producers of those foods the freedom to advertise their gustatory benefits. They invite the industry to adopt the measures voluntarily before the IWG makes its formal recommendations to Congress.
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