Exporting obesity: U.S. farm and trade policy and its impact on diet-related health in developing countries

U.S. farm and food policies have contributed to an "obesogenic" food environment where the most prevalent, most accessible foods are highly processed, energy dense, nutrient poor foods in which added calories, fats and sugars are overrepresented. These latter foods are implicated in worsening obesity. Via bilateral and multilateral trade policies enacted over the last 20 years, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), critical elements of obesogenic food environments have been exported from the U.S. to its Latin American trade partners, including Mexico. They are an important factor in helping to explain the "nutritional transition" occuring there. This presentation will review work on the topic performed by IATP staff and their research partners under a grant from the Healthy Eating Research Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and with support of the WK Kellogg Foundation.