§3179 Research on Strategies to Promote the Selection and Consumption of Healthy Foods

Summary

The Secretary of Agriculture, working with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, must set up a research, demonstration, and technical help program to promote healthy eating and lower obesity, especially for children, by using ideas from behavioral economics in schools, child care, and other places. The program must study how the way foods are shown, placed, sized, labeled, and made convenient affects what people choose and eat, test promising approaches, and push the most effective ones out through outreach and technical help. The Secretary can fund work by contracts, cooperative agreements, or grants to states or public or private groups. Applicants must apply when and how the Secretary requires, and projects should be coordinated with the Food and Nutrition Service. Within 90 days after each fiscal year ends, the Secretary must report to the House Committee on Agriculture and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry about program goals, results of evaluations, and efforts to share successful practices. Money as needed was authorized for fiscal years 2011 through 2015, and up to 5 percent of those funds may be used for federal administrative costs.