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Big Food is eager not to repeat the mistakes of Big Tobacco, and it knows that self-regulation is one way to keep the government from stepping in. What worries the food industry most are the lawsuits that have begun to move through the courts, often going where politicians fear to tread. One key question is whether public-health advocates will succeed in sticking the food industry with one of the charges that damned the tobacco business: that its executives knowingly harmed the health of the public--especially children--with their marketing tactics. Of course, Big Tobacco had the additional problem that its products are clearly addictive.
Plaintiffs against food companies have had some initial setbacks--in courts of law and in the court of public opinion. People snickered when two New York teenagers--one whose regular diet consisted of two Big Mac or Chicken McNugget meals a day and another who usually ate a Happy Meal or a Big Mac three or four times a week--sued McDonald's, claiming it had made them morbidly fat. A federal judge tossed out their case in 2003. But last year an appeals court revived it and allowed discovery, an unsettling development for food companies because it could open up their marketing strategies to public scrutiny. Around the country, state attorneys general, encouraged by their success in wringing billions from the tobacco companies, have the food industry in their sights, says Rogan Kersh, a Syracuse University political-science professor who argues that the political forces arrayed against the two industries show striking similarities.
The food fight seems certain to get bitter, whether it is ultimately fought in the courts or the legislatures or on the floors of Congress. But there is one thing on which all sides can agree: nothing will work until Americans are persuaded to change the choices they are making for themselves and their children. While some will say the government shouldn't have to pick up the tab for what people are doing to themselves, Huckabee insists that everyone should recognize that it already is. "It's not just about coddling people," he says. "It's truly about making good business decisions. The return on investment is significant when you put the focus on health and wellness as opposed to putting the focus on treating disease."