It’s time to make food healthy for all of America’s children.

Last week, standing in the State Dining Room at the White House, Michelle Obama put the issue of food front and center in our national conversation on health and nutrition.1 It’s a move that has the potential to fundamentally change what Americans eat and how our food is produced.

The First Lady is showing real leadership, but it will take all of us standing behind her to make it happen. The change we need won’t come without a fight.
Join us in applauding Michelle Obama, and signaling to the food industry that we want to see real movement on issues like school lunches, food deserts, and a new food pyramid. And please ask your friends and family to do the same.
Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign seeks to “end childhood obesity in our generation.” It’s a critically important goal. Over the past 30 years, obesity rates have tripled, costing American’s more than $150 billion every year to treat conditions like Type II diabetes.2

Talking about childhood obesity, Michelle Obama said:

“It’s time we all had a wake-up call. Our kids didn’t do this to themselves…Our kids don’t choose to make food products with tons of sugar and sodium in super-sized portions, and then have those products marketed to them everywhere they turn.”3

The First Lady is right. The obesity epidemic is just a symptom of deeper problems with the American diet. For decades federal farm policies have subsidized cheap commodities at the expense of healthier choices like fresh fruits and vegetables. The First Lady’s new campaign proposes some important potential solutions, like:

    • Ensuring that our children have access to safe, healthy food at school
    • Making corporations label their products fairly and accurately
  • Building a food pyramid based on science and common sense, not politics
Michelle Obama is using her national platform to highlight the need to change how our country’s food system impacts our children’s health. It’s an important first step, but it will take all of us working together to make it happen. 
Please click below to send a message to our nation’s leaders and the food industry that we stand behind the First Lady, and we’re ready to see real change, and ask your friends and family to do the same.

 

Thanks for all you do,

Dave, Lisa and the Food Democracy Now! Team

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Sources:

1. “Michelle Obama on obesity: Time for a wakeup call,” The Washington Post, February 9th, 2010, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/all-we-can-eat/food-politics/obama-its-time-for-a-wakeupcal.html

2. “America’s Move to Raise Healthier Children,” Let’s Move, http://www.letsmove.gov/

3. “Michelle Obama on obesity: Time for a wakeup call,” The Washington Post, February 9th, 2010, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/all-we-can-eat/food-politics/obama-its-time-for-a-wakeupcal.html