Can the food industry regulate itself?

NPR’s All Things Considered has a week-long series about soda/pop/sodapop/Coke-Cola.

They started with the effort to implement soda taxes in states around the country.  We’re familiar with Governor Paterson’s proposal to do so in New York (which looks to be going nowhere in Albany).

Yesterday, they talked with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack about removing high-sugar products from schools and with a healthy foods activist about getting children to stop drinking so much soda.

But this note at the end of the story got my attention:

In the next few weeks, we hear that Coke and Pepsi, along with other food and beverage companies, will be announcing another voluntarily agreement, this time to reduce calories in the marketplace. They’re talking about reformulating their products and their portion sizes and coming up with some new products.

There are countless examples in American society of corporations policing themselves to avoid government regulation.

But there are  high-profile examples of that approach not working – BP in the oil industry, the entire financial industry, and the airline industry (which led to a passenger bill of rights that took effect a few days ago) are just a few.

Much of the food industry is largely self-policed, from E Coli testing to advertising for children.  But that hasn’t stopped dangerous E Coli outbreaks or highly sophisticated commercials for kids that even adults would have troubled defending themselves against.

Coke and Pepsi’s mandate isn’t to lower caloric intake in children; it’s to sell units of soda.

Former food corporate exec Hank Cardello argues legislating the food industry to death will only lead to layoffs and lawsuits.  He says food companies need a carrot and stick approach:

One initiative I am advancing is the “20 by ’20” program, designed to reduce the supply of calories 20 percent by the year 2020. It would offer all packaged food marketers and restaurant chains a straightforward quid pro quo: keep your tax deductions for advertising in exchange for lowering the number of calories per serving you sell. Specifically, food manufacturers and restaurant chains must lower their calories sold by 2 percent each year for 10 years in order to retain their deductions for advertising. And those deductions are formidable, with $15 billion spent annually.

Do corporations have a responsibility to act in the interest of the public good?  Or is that government’s job?

I know a lot of you say it’s an individual’s responsibility to mind their own nutrition and that of their children.  But the childhood obesity epidemic – and its huge health care costs – tell us that’s not working in America right now.