Ecobreves – MEXICO: Manufacturers Push Junk Food Ads

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

MEXICO CITY, Apr 14 2007 (IPS) - Mexican manufacturers of “junk food” are exerting heavy pressure through the governing National Action Party so that parliament will throw out any bills intended to regulate advertising of foods with little or no nutritional value, say activists. “The government (of President Felipe Calderón) and his party have ties with the junk food companies,” Alejandro Calvillo, director of El Poder del Consumidor (The Power of the Consumer), a non-governmental organization, told Tierramérica.

An initiative for regulating such advertising has been in circulation for several weeks, but has yet to get much response from lawmakers.

Although a number of factors can lead to obesity, the activists say fast food and junk food play an important role. According to official figures, between 1999 and 2006, the number of overweight Mexican children increased 40 percent, and the average waist size of women of child-bearing age increased 10 centimeters.