A Time for Action:
An Obesity Agenda for the Next Administration.

The Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) along with Public Health Law & Policy (PHLP) proudly sponsored the Fifth Conference on Public Health, Law, and Obesity on September 19, 2008-September 21, 2008 at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, MA.

View the Agenda (pdf) and full List of Speakers (pdf).

Advocates, public health practitioners, legal scholars, researchers, and policy makers came together to discuss legal approaches to the obesity epidemic. The conference helped stakeholders collaborate in developing a public health legal strategy with a foundation in environmental change that empowers communities and populations to tackle the public health implications of a broken food system and built environment.

Topic included economic and social aspects of dietary behavior, the farm bill and its implications for food reform, food marketing and potential regulatory strategies, menu labeling, and regulatory solutions to increase physical activity. The conference also discussed major policy implications between childhood and adult and family obesity prevention, as well as important disparity issues to be considered when making any policy recommendations.

Speakers, representing a wide variety of backgrounds and specialties, included Marion Nestle PhD, MPH(New York University), Kathryn Henderson PhD (Rudd Center for food policy and obesity), Frank Chaloupka PhD (University of Illinois at Chicago), Neville Rigby (International Obesity Taskforce), and Paul Simon MD, MPH (Los Angeles County Department of Public Health).