Meeting at the Treasury Department
On July 6, 2011 Shape Up America! President, Barbara J. Moore, participated in a delegation led by Senator George McGovern to the Secretary's Office at the Department of the Treasury to brief the Secretary's Chief of Staff, Mark Patterson, on our efforts to achieve labeling of alcohol-containing beverages. Sadly, Senator McGovern lost a beloved daughter to the ravages of alcoholism and was willing to share his story to open the meeting.
l to r: Michael Bertman representing Diageo, Chris Waldrop representing the
Consumer Federation of America, Sally Greenberg representing the National
Consumers League, Senator George McGovern, Barbara Moore representing
Shape Up America! and Nancy Glick representing Shape Up America!
Meeting attendees included representatives from the National Consumers League and the Consumer Federation of America who have partnered with Shape Up America! in the past to conduct consumer research on alcohol labeling. Those findings were published in Nutrition Today in 2010 and suggest that the majority (90%) of consumers support labeling of alcohol-containing products with an “Alcohol Facts” label. When presented with three different labeling formats, they preferred the most complete label that provides information about alcohol (by volume and fluid ounces), calories, protein, fat, carbohydrate and the definition of a standard drink in terms of fluid ounces of alcohol.
On July 12, 2011 Shape Up America! sent a copy of Moore's Nutrition Today article to Mr. Patterson thanking him for meeting with us and expressing the hope that 2011 will mark the inauguration of the long awaited “Alcohol Facts” label that will give consumers the information they need to make the right choice, the easy choice.
