Nanny staters hardest hit.

(Human Events) — Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R. –Missouri) who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on financial services and general government, says her measure already moving through Congress would defund the panel’s work.

“I’m very concerned that the voluntary guidelines being promulgated by the Interagency Working Group would lead to extraordinary pressure from the federal government to restrict efforts to market healthy foods to the American public,” Emerson said.

The government says these are not regulations, but suggestions written by the Federal Trade Commission, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The intent is to combat childhood obesity, and if the guidelines are not followed to radically reduce sugar, sodium and fats then food companies should stop marketing their products to everyone under age 17, the government says. . . .

Industry officials say that marketing icons such as Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam would become endangered species, that restaurants could no longer sponsor softball teams, and even advertising targeted at adults such as NASCAR sponsorships, would be eliminated, all at a loss of millions of dollars to the advertising as well as television industries.