Summary: This week we have the pleasure of hearing from Michele Simon. Michele is a public health lawyer who has been researching and writing about the food industry and food politics since 1996. She specializes in legal strategies to counter corporate tactics that harm the public’s health. For 4.5 years she served as research and policy director for Marin Institute (now Alcohol Justice), an alcohol industry watchdog group. Her groundbreaking 2007 report on alcoholic energy drinks led to a federal ban on these dangerous products. Michele Simon has taught Health Policy at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and lectures frequently on corporate tactics and policy solutions. She has written extensively on the politics of food, and her first book, Appetite for Profit was published by Nation Books in 2006. She is also president of Eat Drink Politics, an industry watchdog consulting firm. Simon has a master’s degree in public health from Yale University and received her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
