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Food police aiming at new heavy - soda
Coca-Cola is guilty of something, that's for sure. Big Soda's new Splenda-flavored version of Diet Coke tastes like a cross between Moxie, Tab and Fresca. Yum. But it's rarely the crimes against good taste that get America's corporate icons jammed up. Despite decades of local control over what students eat and drink in school, the social engineering lab that is our nation's legal system is fixing to make big changes. The food police and their lawyers - led by Northeastern University's Richard Daynard - are targeting Coke, Pepsi and other soft drink makers for a series of lawsuits over the sale of soda in schools. The plan is just gathering a head of steam now. But it was hatched more than two years ago at an NU conference hosted by Daynard called "Legal Approaches to the Obesity Epidemic.'' Talk about a contingency-fee fantasy camp. You knew where these barristers were placing their bets when they had to sign a special waiver before gaining admittance to the June 2003 confab. The promise: never to serve as an expert witness on behalf of fast-food companies or other such enemies of the Nanny State. Now Daynard and other lawyers, along with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, are trolling for plaintiffs. The highly regarded Daynard - he was a major player in the takedown of Big Tobacco - said last night the purpose of the soft drink suit is simply ``to protect kids from unfair marketing practices. It's unfair for Coke and Pepsi to be putting their machines in the hallways of schools.''
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