Has used to sort of convinced folks, their customers, to do things that arent good for them. And so the work of the investors at iccr and the challenge is that on the one hand we are investors. We have pension obligations and, in fact, when you think about investors theres always this tension about shortterm versus longterm. As faithbased investors i would argue we actually have the longest time horizon of eternity. So we take this stuff very, very seriously. And we are trying to not only encourage corporations across a number of mispriced externalities to change how they operate, but we are also absolutely convinced, and i think that the record bears this out, that by paying attention to these mispriced externalities, by sitting down with companies and talking about something that may not look like a profit oriented conversation, that we actually anticipate problems and opportunities in the marketplace. One of the reasons that Corporate America lets us into the boardroom, into the conference room, to raise some of these issues that can be uncomfortable, that can be challenging and that can be on the surface threatening to their business model, threatening to their ideas about profitability, one of the reasons they do that is we are investors who need good returns but we are also investors who represent organizations that are working for the social good. And we want them to do well and do good at the same time. So what does this all have to do with food politics . At iccr we have a group known as the access to nutrition group. We have the odd situation in modern society, of both wrestling with obesity and having lack of access to good, healthy food. We believe very strongly that Corporate America has a huge role in this. In the very same way that in the 70s, folks who made, manufactured and marketed breast milk substitutes in countries where breast milk was the clear best choice for infant morbidity and mortality, that by helping companies to see that their investors might have a different point of view on issues like how they report their political contributions. So the kind of lobbying that marion talked about, right now theres absolutely no requirements for corporations to report to the sec where they are spending their money to support political candidates. And all by the way, corporations are not a whole bunch of things, but one of the things they arent is people. So no matter what Citizens United had to say about the right of corporations to spend public dollars, the reality is shareholders see this regularly so we are Encouraging Companies to report their lobbying expenditures. It if you are a shareholder, if you either own individual shirt or if you have a Retirement Plan with tiaacref are you on mutual fund shares, we need to do one simple action to encourage the kinds of activism at iccr represents in this area. Write a letter to Mutual Fund Company and say, could you tell me how you voted on corporate lobbying disclosure . It will be annoying and troublesome for them, but the good ones will write back. They will give you the answer, let you know and they will say, we voted for disclosure. So first, corporate lobbying, political expenditure disclosure in the world of food politics is extraordinarily important because regulations are shut down time and time again because of this. Investors are looking to companies to improve the nutritional balance of their product portfolios. Whether you are an advocate of ofun foods are better for you food, or whatever, the reality is that in the marketplace, higher nutrition foods are more profitable. It can be shown by some unlikely suspects, and using that this is the case is very, very important as an investor, while youre also trying to accomplish the role of getting some of the less Healthy Options out of the marketplace. Strengthening commitment to responsible marketing. Companies are very, very clever about how the market unhealthy product for photos but again, around the idea of choice, and theyre trying to sell the product and make a buck. But there are practices and standards that are being developed. Marion works very hard on some of these things, and as consumers we can make our voices known by what we buy but we talk to and how we advocate. Expanding access to healthy choices. One of the things that a valuesbased investors do is not only look at the companies they buy in their stock portfolio, but also start to look at to whom they lend money. And so, for example, in many, many urban neighborhoods where there are food deserts, there are more and more companies, there are more and more investors particularly in the community in which i work that are aggregating money to fund high quality agribusiness, to find nutritional stores, to fund all kinds of development i think in detroit the city of detroit which is my hometown, you see particular emphasis their, and then finally, and this is something that is very familiar to the Public Health community, labeling. How our products labeled . How easy are they to decode . If youre going to make the argument that were in the business of Consumer Choice and someone wants to buy a soda and what did like 47,000 ounces of it in one cup, we should at least help them make the decision. So good front of package labeling, things like the Healthy Heart check, the american heart associations heart check labeling. These kinds of techniques Encouraging Companies to take them on is part of what iccr and its members do. So i will end with there are huge limitations as investors to engage a company, but what i will say is that if you have a pension plan, if you invest in mutual funds, if you have a bank account in any of those areas you have a second place to let your voice be known. And there are lots and lots of techniques that are available. I encourage you to look at a website to see some of them. There is a wonderful tension between investors, movement people, and the corporations in which they engage. And we can do a lot together by mobilizing capital, mobilizing investor voices and advocates. Thank you for your attention applaud that. [applause] thank you, laura. Thank you, mary and. And thank you all for coming. It such an honor to be with all of you tonight. In Public Health weve learned that every Society Faces a Health Threat that are distinct, political and economic range. The United States and increasing the whole world, that threat comes from chronic diseases and injuries. Just a few numbers tell the story. Chronic diseases cost seven out of every 10 deaths in the United States, and 49 of americans have want him or chronic diseases which account for three out of every 4 we spend on health care. Thats nearly 7900 a year for every american with chronic disease. By 2030, chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes will cause more than three quarters of all deaths in the world and their cause for the World Economy over the next two decades is estimated at 47 trillion. Injuries are the of the leading cause of death and visibly both in u. S. Globally and especially for young people. Global annual road traffic crash deaths are projected to increase from 1. 2 million in 2002 to 2. 1 million in 2030, primarily due to increased Motor Vehicle fatalities associate with Economic Growth and low and middle income countries. Road crashes injure up to 50 Million People a year and children are frequent victims. In the second half of the 20th century, violence and suicide became increasingly important causes of death in young people, contributing between a quarter and a third of deaths in young men aged 10 to 24 in all regions of the world. By the early 21st century injuries especially from cars and guns were the dominant cause of death among young women and men in most parts of the world. The conventional explanation for these increases is growing affluence, and changing lifestyles. And, of course, in part thats true. In epidemiology our task is to uncover the cause of the causes, to go a little deeper so we can find more effective prevention strategies. In lethal but legal i make the case that the fundamental cause of the rising burden of chronic disease and injury is the emergence of what i call the corporate consumption complex, borrowing from president eisenhowers 1961 warning that the militaryindustrial complex that emerged after world war ii posed a danger to our democracy and well being. I show in the beginning of the 1970s a network of consumer corporation, banks, trade associations, Public Relation firms and bought scientists and politicians coalesced to reassert authority over our politics and economy. The corporate consumption complex solidifies in response to changes in the Global Economy and the consumer and environmental movements of the 60s and 70s. In the next two decades the complex became the dominant voice in american society. Whats its relevance to health . To advance its agenda and ensure continued Economic Growth, a complex develop the ideology of what i call hyper consumption to buy this item in the promotion of lifestyles, health behaviors, social environments and policies that encourage consumption associate with premature death and preventable illness and injury. In the book i describe how the alcohol, automobile, firearms, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and Tobacco Industries developing marketing, Product Design, lobbying and other practices that have created our current burden of ill health. This analysis offers both bad news and good news. The obvious bad news, if this assessment is right thing in order to achieve the most basic national and Global Health goals, we are going to take on the worlds mightiest economic and political institutions. If we simply want to leave our children and grandchildren a world where they can expect to be as healthy as our generation, if you want to shrink the growing socioeconomic and racial ethnic inequalities in health that characterize our cities, our country and the world, were going to change how corporations design and market their products, how to use science, how the integer with democratic processes and how they damage the environment to sustain life. Heres the good news. Only a few thousand corporations produce most of the worlds goods and services. Shouldnt it be these your to change how not so Many Companies do business that helped the billionaire or so people are overweight to lose pounds or two of the 1. 3 billion smokers in the world to quit and to prevent more young people from taking up the habit, or to the 140 million alcoholics and the many more problem drinkers to cut down the drinking thats killing them . The conventional thinking says that if only people are educated and more responsible, our health would improve. But sadly the empirical evidence doesnt support that you could there are no data to suggest that global increases in tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy Food Consumption results from growing ignorance and irresponsibility. No evidence that global increases in gun and auto deaths and injuries come from new generation less able to drive or shoot. No evidence that the growing rates of harm from inappropriately used prescription drugs, from more ignorant consumers. There is, however, ample evidence that the relentless marketing of these products, the ubiquity of the ability and their makers political manipulations have contributed significantly to the increased use and harm. In Lewis Carrolls through the looking glass, the white queen urges alice to imagine six impossible things before breakfast. Atlas response, theres no use trying. We cant believe impossible things. I daresay you havent had much practice, replies the queen. When i was your age i always did it have an hour a day. Building a movement that can successfully challenge the corporate consumption complex and its practice of hyper consumption will require imagining and then carrying out for tasks that many today would consider him possible. So for the next five minutes i want us to practice the impossible thinking. First, we need to provide what past successes in changing corporate practices and extract the lessons, the practical lessons that can guide the creation of a more powerful, cohesive, and successful movement. Our success in creating the food and Drug Administration in 1906, thank you, upton sinclair, for your expose in the jungle and cutting Pesticide Use in our food in the 1960s. Thank you, rachel carson, are two examples of how scientists, writers and social movements force government and corporations to act differently. From these and other successful campaigns we can extract lessons for picking up a successful movement. These lessons can guide practice for an emerging movement to engage peoples minds and emotions, to invite new partners and prepare leaders to take on the task of confronting Corporate Power. Impossible task and number two, we need to construct and popularize an ideology of health and democracy that can successfully compete with the corporate consumption ideology and its prescription of hyper consumption. For many people around the world, hyper consumption is the norm. The very definition of modern society. Alternatives are seen as primitive, undesirable or at best utopian and unattainable. In this view since few would choose to give up this lifestyle voluntarily, the only possible route to a different future is a dreaded nanny state in which governments, hectors its citizens and deprive them of lights publishers pledges but its a tribute to the corporate consumption complex that these beliefs are so common, to persuade people that they lifestyle that brings many of its inherent premature death, painful illness, horrible something, dependable entries, is highly desirable is really a remarkable achievement. Any movement that wants to mount a successful challenge to hyper consumption must offer attractive alternative patterns of consumption. Creating alternatives to hyper consumption requires two simultaneous processes. We need to reduce the demand for unhealthy products and reducing the supply and also reduces the support and promotion of these products. Movement organizers often debate which should be primary, working on the supply side or the demand side. But in my view the most effective approach is to pursue both, reducing the demand and the supply of unhealthy products. And to do those things simultaneously with successes on one front reenforcing advances on the other. Impossible task number three, we must weaken and then dismantle the corporate consumption complex. That powerful alliance of corporations and their supporters that dominate politics, the economy and society. This most impossible dream hits up against Maggie Thatchers famous dictum, that there is no alternative to corporate capitalism. Inevitable as the air we breathe. That is as long as corporations occupy our mind, our media, our shopping malls and our political processes, they will have an advantage in shaping patterns of consumption and discouraging healthier, more sustainable alternatives. Dusts depicting corporations from their privileged position is an essential task. And how can we serve eviction notices in place with the corporate consumption complex now exercises its power, our consciousness, our communities and our political processes . In the book i describe some of the ways that activists, Health Professionals, governments and movements have reduced the power of corporations to shape the environment, behaviors and lifestyles that influence our health. These responses are as varied as the Africanamerican Community group in philadelphia that forced Reynolds Tobacco Company to end test marketing of a new cigarette, uptown, marketed to black. They did it by organizing a coalition of civil rights, health, religious and Community Groups to say no, not in our community. We claim the right to say no for our community. Another example, the California AirResources Board standing up to the global Auto Industry to set more stringent standards for air pollution and fuel efficiency. To the recent apparent success of a coalition of labor and environmental and Health Groups to end fasttrack approval of a transpacific partnership, corporate written trade deal that would give me rights to the Tobacco Industry and drug companies, and a very important victory that they seem to be successful in stopping congress from giving fasttrack approval for the. Each of these campaigns led to one small victory. Woven together they can lead to a Tipping Point of change. The antidote to, there is alternative, is the message another world is possible. As Public Health professionals, as researchers, as public intellectuals we have to use every ounce of our imagination to bring that message to wider audiences, in practical, respectful, and maybe even entertaining ways. The final Impossible Task is to weave these strands of activism into a whole movement. To do so we need to forge in practice a policy agenda that offers a vision of a healthier, more democratic future and unites diverse individuals and organizations working to change the role of corporations in our society. And to provoke an ongoing dialogue on this, i suggest six possible planks for such an agenda come and, of course, go into more detail in the book. First, expand consumers right to know and co