"Gov. Pataki: Quit Weighing Our Kids Down
With Cheese," Urge Physicians in Albany Times Union
Ad
New York's "Ag Literacy
Day" Pizza Promotion in Elementary Schools Also Faces Legal
Questions
WASHINGTON—In an advertisement running tomorrow and
Sunday in the Albany Times Union, the Physicians Committee
for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) calls on Gov. Pataki to cancel “Ag
Literacy Day,” a March 20 event that will promote high-fat dairy
products like cheese pizza to elementary school students across New
York state. “Gov. Pataki: Quit Weighing Our Kids Down With Cheese,”
urges the ad, which features a cartoon lampooning the governor as a
cheese-obsessed lunch lady. The ad points out that New York already
faces an epidemic of childhood obesity.
Legal questions also surround Ag Literacy Day. The
program, which is sponsored by New York Agriculture in the
Classroom, features a reading of the book Extra Cheese,
Please! and a lesson in how to make pizza. In a letter
sent to school district superintendents across the state, PCRM
associate general counsel Dan Kinburn notes that schools offering a
public forum to the dairy industry or any other advocacy group are
constitutionally required to permit the expression of opposing
viewpoints.
The pizza promotion comes at a time of growing
concern about childhood obesity. About 28 percent of New York
adolescents are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight,
according to the New York Department of Health.
“The last thing kids need is their own school
telling them to eat more pizza and other high-fat dairy foods,” said
Susan Levin, M.S., R.D., a PCRM nutritionist. “Mozzarella cheese is
70 percent fat, and it’s also loaded with calories and
cholesterol.”
The ad also promotes NoCheesePlease.org, a new
mini-Web site that explains the Ag Literacy Day controversy and
details the reasons why cheese is not a healthful food for
children.
For a copy of the Albany Times Union ad or
an interview with Ms. Levin, please contact Patrick Sullivan at
202-686-2210, ext. 311, or psullivan@pcrm.org.
Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine is a nonprofit health organization that promotes
preventive medicine, especially good nutrition. PCRM also conducts
clinical research studies, opposes unethical human experimentation,
and promotes alternatives to animal research.
