Soft drink industry possibly pulling out of public schools

• The American Beverage Association is expected to vote on the matter shortly, and any voluntary ban would mark a significant departure from the industry's previously tough stance on school vending machine restrictions.
• This perceived change of heart comes after intense lobbying from health groups to kick out soft drinks and junk food from schools in America as a means of fighting the obesity epidemic.
• The issue has become front page news: 38 states considered school nutrition bills last year, most of which included a vending machine component.
• In Louisiana, for instance, the governor supported a bill that would ban carbonated soft drinks in all schools, but lobbyists representing Coke and Pepsi successfully negotiated a compromise.
• State Senate president Pro Tem Donald Williams, who sponsored the legislation, estimated that soft drink and vending companies spent more than $250,000 lobbying against the bill out of concern that it would set a national precedent.
• "The more soda you drink, the less of those you get.
• "If school systems spent half as much time trying to get more fruits and vegetables into schools as they did trying to keep soda contracts, our kids would be much better off."
• The latest state to attempt to ban soft drinks from schools is California.
• Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing ahead with legislation that would extend the ban on soft drinks in elementary schools to high schools.
• "California's children are facing an obesity epidemic," he said.
• During the day, schools would could sell water, milk, drinks that are at least 50 percent fruit juice with no added sweeteners, and sport drinks designed to replace electrolytes.
• It is against this background that the soft drinks industry is considering passing the voluntary ban.