State Sen. Zellnor Myrie (left, carrot) wants to regulate how junk food is marketed to kids. Photo by Ben Verde
COURIER LIFE, NOVEMBER 5-11, 2021 21
BY BEN VERDE
It’s a game of carrots and
schticks!
Dressed up as a carrot,
State Sen. Zellnor Myrie attempted
to take a chomp out
of junk food marketing on
Thursday with his new bill
that would food regulators to
target corporations that advertise
unhealthy foods.
Myrie — who represents
parts of Crown Heights,
Brownsville, Park Slope, and
Sunset Park — discussed the
bill on Oct. 28 while donning
the big orange carrot costume
on Empire Boulevard
near Washington Avenue in
Crown Heights, a strip dominated
by fast-food chains.
“We have four fast-food
chains within a stones throw
of each other, and what you
can’t see is that there are two
schools right behind both of
these fast food chains,” he
said.
A Popeyes sits on the corner
of Empire Boulevard and
Washington Avenue, directly
behind a Wendy’s on the opposite
corner. Across the
street, consumers can fi nd a
Checkers, next door to a Mc-
Donalds.
The strip is traversed by
hundreds of schoolchildren a
day, Myrie noted, while reminiscing
about his own history
as a baby carrot in the area.
“I used to get the bus to go
to school right on this corner,
and I would walk back from
school right on Empire Boulevard,”
he said.
The bill, offi cially titled
the Predatory Marketing Prevention
Act, works by clarifying
that children are particularly
vulnerable to predatory
or false advertising of junk
foods — a provision to laws
that already prevent blatantly
false advertising.
The carrot’s bill also allows
the Department of
Health to work alongside local
school districts to promote
healthy eating, and
doesn’t prohibit them from
labelling unhealthy foods as
what they are — junk.
“At bottom, this stands for
one basic principle,” Myrie
said. “There is nothing more
valuable than the health of
our children, and our children
should not be sacrifi ced
at the altar of profi ts.”
The effects of the prevalence
of unhealthy foods in
communities of color has
been laid bare by the pandemic,
Myrie said.
“Obesity and the comorbidities
associated with obesity
are the second leading
cause of death in the United
States,” he said. “We saw during
Covid-19, our communities
died at a disproportionate
rate, not because there
was something uniquely defi -
cient with us, but because we
suffer from those very comorbidities.”
Health
The fi ght for healthy food options
State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, a carrot, targets junk food advertising
“There is nothing more valuable than the health of our children,
and our children should not be sacrificed at the altar of profits.”