And effective Death Penalty reform act which made it nearly impossible to use habeas corpus to free innocent prisoners. Despite all of the setbacks come 2002 was a blockbuster year for the Innocence Movement. 25 people were exonerated by dna testing. Still the highest number of dna exonerations in any one year to date. Teenage exonerations became part of the public consciousness and people starte are starting to understand that the system made mistakes. It also is a big year for mike mcalister. People have forgotten about him, but his mom wrote to frank green, reporter at the Richmond Times dispatch who began writing about his case. A new lawyer also signed on to help mike and defiled a partners petition within Virginia Governor mike warner. Virginia was no stranger to the problem of wrongful convictions and had seen its share of eyewitnesses but in 2003, mikes petition was denied. The governors staff said they would be one thing if my cat dna evidence, but he didnt. From 20032013, 187 people were exonerated by dna testing. That decade also saw a real change in the conversation about the criminal Justice System. With even more states passing laws that allow dna testing and some even starting to pass laws that would help improve eyewitness id procedures, prevent false convictions and regulate state crime labs. Even virginia passed a law in part because of mikes case that allowed people with newly discovered evidence of innocence to get back in court in very limited circumstances. Might eventually made parole but he had to register as a sex offender that had never gotten treatment for alcohol abuse. So we did a lousy job complying, begin drinking again and was sent back to prison. Norman bruce derr was convicted of two crimes during that decade. In 2006 and 2012, he was convicted of two, 1984 rates, one in virginia and one in Charles County maryland based on dna cold hits. I learned about the Charles County case because of a man named jerry jenkins. Jerry had been convicted of a similar Charles County rape based on the testimony of the victim who said he looked like the perpetrator, and jerry had always been adamant that he was innocent. Now he believes derr was the perpetrator. We began representing jerry, found the dna evidence and did the testing approved that jerry was right. He was innocent and derr was guilty. Jerry was exonerated in 2013. A few weeks later i got a call from that reporter, frank green, who would never forgotten about mike. He asked me what were going to do to get mike out how to we begin to represent him. Mikes innocence only became more clear the more we dug into the case and the more documents we received. But once again virginias criminal Justice System fell short. We had no remedy for mike. We couldnt prove how much police and prosecutors knew about derr because itd been so long and memories faded so we could argue that evidence had been withheld. We couldnt prove that mikes trial lawyer was ineffective. We thought he knew something about derr but we didnt know what or when. And we also couldnt prove the evidence newly discovered because its possible that everyone knew about it, but just could not use it. So we were stuck. To make matters worse, in early 2015 the Virginia Attorney Generals Office decided that is going to try to simply commit mike as a sexually violent predator, send him to prison for the rest of his life for a crime that no would involve in the arrest or prosecution believed he had committed. Defendants almost never win these cases. Guilt or innocence is irrelevant your time doing it is next to impossible, and normal remedies dont apply. So that meant our only remedy was an absolute pardon from the governor, which we had to file three weeks before mikes civil commitment hearing. Didnt look good. Pardon investigations usually take months. We had weeks. We still had no dna. Governor mcauliffe was a clinton democrat who had not been interested in criminal justice reform. Mike was a convicted sex offender with Substance Abuse problems, a history of indecent exposure, and history of poor a just and during his brief stint on parole. Elsewhere already been denied a pardon by another democratic governor, and the rules say you cant filed two petitions. So we were in a bind. But it quickly became clear that things ha have changed between 20032015. We filed our petition jointly with the elected prosecutor in richmond who we had convinced of mikes innocence. We had several legislators on our side from both parties. We also got to work hand in hand with the investigator for the parole board, and derr eventually confessed to her that he committed the crime. So on may 13, 2005 from just a few days before mikes civil commitment hearing, the governor granted the pardon. [cheers and applause] his first call was from governor mcauliffe who apologized to him on behalf of virginia, and welcomed him home. Thanks to the governor, mike got transitional funds and legislative compensation for his time in prison. Entity he is with his family for the first time in decades. And i focused on this case today because i think it makes clear why the Innocence Movement was so necessary, how far the movement has come, but also how far it has to go. Theres no question in my mind that without the Innocence Movement ability to free hundreds of innocent people based on dna, no one wouldve understood that an eyewitness could have made a mistake in mikes case. We would not have been working jointly with the prosecutor if it had not been for that work. And we would never been in a universe where it was politically palatable, and i think in this case is a politically necessary for the governor to do the right thing. But whats also clear is that we need to keep fighting to make the system itself more just. Theres been progress. In 1992, zero states allowed for post conviction dna testing for best practices for i. T. Procedures. Today, all 50 allow dna testing, and 15 require best practices in i. T. Eyewitness cases. 10 states, said the wrongfully convicted back then, and 30 do today. We are having real conversations about other problems in the system like race and over criminalization that were made possible because people are not aware that the system is not perfect. But the work is not done. Its not clear to me that the outcome of mikes trial wouldve been different today. Because we dont require a better id procedure in enough places. Mike was imprisoned for far too long because of a system that prize find out over justice and did offer cases like is to be corrected. That was just as true in 1986 as it is in 2016. Mike was released in spite of the system, and because emmett extraordinary conflict of Public Officials and a reporter who came together to do the right thing. But with a different Public Officials, i fear that mike would probably still be in prison. So my message today is a positive one, that the conversation about wrongful convictions has changed because the Innocence Movement works bring innocent people and advocating for systemic change has help to get there. But its also a call to action. I hope you will join me in working to create a more just system that not only can fix fewer innocent people but can correct them before people are forced to spend decades of their lives in prison. The past 24 years has shown that it is possible, with the help of the people in this room i want to help finish the job. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you, shawn. Now ive got a special surprise for you. Karen friedman, longtime policy director executive Vice President of Pension Rights Center but shes also a stand up comedian. Thats pretty rare in the Public Interest will. Of course, dealing with these thieving Corporate Pension people, youve got to have some sort of comedy outlet at the end of the day i think and she for 25 years, karen has been fighting for consumers, retirees and particularly low and moderate wage folks who either shut out from pensions or literally had their pensions taken from the. I think of that song Woody Guthrie about outlaws, a first visit to this world i travel i see lots of fun in them. Some will rob you with a sixgun and some with a fountain pen. Its a fountain during the series did in our society day but luckily weve got Karen Friedman on our side standing up against these corporate thieves. Karen friedman. [applause] well, hello, everybody. How are you doing today . You know, i wanted to go back to something that jim said earlier about naked versus naked. I that definition i certainly want to be naked. What do you think . But didnt go to talk about the naked truth. I am so happy to be your on the opening day of breakthrough power. Its an amazing event, right . First id like to thank ralph nader and all the hardworking staff from the law who put this together. This is a really impressive event. So im here today to tell you about how that Pension Rights Center has been breaking through power for 40 years, and now it has paid off. And rolf before talked about rumbling. We have to do some rumbling here today. So what is the Pension Rights Center . Nature these are working. Hello. There it is, great. We are a National Consumer Rights Organization thats been working since 1976 to promote and protect Retirement Security for workers, retirees and their families. We have a vision that when people leave the workforce, they have enough money to pay their bills, pay their medical expenses and continued to be productive citizens. Because guess what, if people of adequate income they are more likely to be able to continue fighting for justice throughout their lives. So the Pension Rights Center really hasnt changed in our 40 years, that the challenges in some of our strategies have to. And thats what im talking about today. That Pension Rights Center was started 40 years ago by the amazing penchant attorney Karen Ferguson when the vision or ralph nader said karen, go make pensions and issue. And heres a check to do it. Karen ferguson is actually still working today. She still the director, has been working for years. I am Karen Friedman and the exec Vice President , and i noticed this guy known as turn number two. When people talk about the Pension Rights Center they particularly talk about the care and. Weve been working roughly together 25 after the 40 years and i think passion for pensions, and i hope you will by the time i finished his speech. So many of you in this room may have seen the new movie out, superman, dawn of justice, which is pretty awful. But the reason i bring it up is because we in this country are obsessed with superheroes who fly in, conquered evil and solve our problems. But heres the truth, folks. Theres never one person who does everything. Leaders inspire, but all of us are needed in the fight. So im here to say today that we are the superwomen. We are the superman who, together, can solve this countries problems. And out of this conference i propose that we write and produce our own movie super activists, dawn of justice, how ordinary people state of the world. That could be part of ralphs Civil Justice academy award. What do you think about that lacks. [applause] and that is exactly what this conference is about. So right now im going to tell you how the Pension Rights Center, with a strong mission, a small budget that kind of passion has helped change laws and regulations, and even in some cases weve changed how both companies and Pension Plans operate. So why was the Pension Rights Center start a . So put under time travel glasses and lets fly back to the year 1976. That was the year disco music was filling the airwaves, president carter was elected president and to put all in perspective, angeli Angelina Jolie was still in diapers. Most important albums from our perspective it was two years after the passage of the new federal private pension welcome the Employer Retirement incomes to get act, better known as erisa, which protects the reason the pension expectations of workers and retirees. The landmark law, erisa, was developed by a Bipartisan Congress and signed into law by republican president gerald ford, and was called by republican senator, senator javits, who is one of the lead sponsors of erisa, one of the most important pieces of social legislation since Social Security. Before erisa, tens of thousands of people were losing their pensions every day because there were few laws regulating Pension Plans, and companies could do pretty much whatever they wanted. They could require people to work into retirement age to get their attention, and then fire them two days before their 65th birthday. Byebye pensions. Employers could invest the money in those days in bogus casinos in vegas, facing the consequences. And if a company in those days, just prior to 1974, went bankrupt, workers could lose everything. So erisa created basic standards to protect pension promises including creating a pension Interest Program to protect people in bankruptcy, developing investment and funding rules, and setting minimu minimal on hg people need to work to earn the right to a pension. But like all laws that are duped out between different parties and stakeholders, erisa wasnt perfect at the remaining gaps, and congress could not envision all the problems that could occur. So step in that Pension Rights Center. The Pension Rights Center from its earlier, the earliest days help people understand their rights under the law, and we began hearing from people as soon as we started who were left out of the law. And overtime we documented those issues. Their widows and divorced spouses learned they were not eligible to get their husbands pensions, even if they had been married for decades. There were corporate raiders. Some of you may remember carl icahn of 1980s think about ways of losing the socalled surplus pension assets to finance takeover schemes. There were folks who worked nine years and eight months but lost their jobs before the 10 years they needed to earn the right to a pension. So to solve these and other problems come the Pension Rights Center did what we now consider our stock in trade. We did then, we do it now. We identified and documented problems. We use our technical knowhow to develop workable solutions. And then we mobilize effective citizens and womens organizations, labor unions, retiree groups in coalition for the passage of laws. We were and consider ourselves now to be the great catalyst for Retirement Income reform. So over our history that Pension Rights Center, and i will not go through all of these, we were instrumental in passing six federal laws in helping to of the numerous regulations to expand benefits and rights for widows, responsive, lowincome were earners, Short Service workers, stop pension rating and help create a legal Health Network here at but this is what i really want to talk about today. What are the strategies for change . How did we pass these laws . Well, want to start by saying you have to have the knowhow but you need to get creative, especially when you are small and underresourced, which i think every organization you hearing from today is. So i thought i would share a few stories of how we got laws passed in our few first decades. Back in the 1980s we got the widows and divorced spouses were left out of erisa featured on the phil donahue show, which in those days was the hottest talk show and generate all kinds of buzz. You could have heard a pin drop and Congress Passed the act. We delivered cookies to all of the members of congress saying stop companies from stealing from the pinching cookie jar and one of my favorites in the 1990s when ibm tried to cut its Older Workers benefits, employee is blue a blimp over a football stadium saying they stole my attention, is yours safe . Faced with a bad campaign, ibm actually changed its practice for a lot of those employees and congress ended up changing the law. Think the facts, the solutions, but think creativity. Today especially in this market its more important than ever. So now lets move to the present time and see what we are doing now. As you can imagine 40 years later the landscape has changed and there are more challenges than ever. Sorry about that i went the wrong way. Pensions are one of the largest sources of private capital. As taxpayers, we subsidize the private system of pensions and 401k to the tune of 240 billion so you are sitting here and listening to us and saying with that much in the system it must be doing a great job for people. Well it isnt. While policymakers talk about the budget deficit in this country, theres little talk about a huge and growing Retirement Income deficit which is now standing at 7. 7 trillion from 7. 7 trillion. The deficit that was calculated by the center for Retirement Research is the gap between what people saved today and what they should have saved as of today to meet their basic retirement needs. So what has caused this retirement deficit . There is no savings to supplement Social Security which is averaging about 16,000 a year for the retiree in the bus for the workers. Employers are dropping and cutting back or freezing good old pinching plans oldfashioned Pension Plans but really havent cracked it for most americans. Half of all households have only 59,000 accumulated in their account and for people approaching it is closer to 103,000 which gives it enough to make it to retirement. For all households not just those with the retirement accounts theyve saved about 2,500 its worse for workers of color. Now, the National Opinion polls reflect americans anxiety. A recent poll Shows Americans are more worried about not having money for retirement than any other Economic Issues including paying for healthcare, their mortgage or their kids education. The Pension System is working to address this retirement deficit and protect against broken pension promises. The Pension Rights Center called for a National Secure system on top of Social Security and we strongly support the expansion of Social Security and we are also working for new Creative Solutions put in the state and national level. We are also ensuring that retirees and workers already earned pensions are protected. We are seeing new trends every day where consultin consulting s advise corporations on how to cut the pensions and other benefits by taking advantage of the loopholes in the law by offloading pensions to ensure the companies and we are even seeing something in recent years where nonprofit hospitals with a loose connection with say a church or synagogue have worked to convert their federally protected Pension Plans into unprotected church plans endangering the pensions of millions of workers and retirees and on this last issue was of the Research Done by the Pension Rights Center, there is now 12 lawsuits many of which have been decided by the workers and retirees pay for. Im going to spend the last part of my speech talking about two victories in 2016 where the center and our allies stood up to power and the one. And this is important for the winning part. So, these are all of the activists. This is about winning. Lots of people now say come on, its impossible to have victories now in this divided congress. With grassroots support and enough diverse stakeholders, we be certain legislative victories today are possible have seen also great things happen in the regulatory arena. We had a big success this year i want to share. The first is about stopping predatory practices in the Financial Advice industry. The Pension Rights Center and the Consumer Federation of america, they aflcio joined together in a coalition called save our retirement to stand up against the multimillion dollar body of the financial industry, and he won a great victory for American Consumers. For the last five years, brokers and Financial Institutions thought vigorously to stop the department of labor from releasing a Common Ground rule that ensures the brokers and the Financial Advisers who give advice on your retirement account have to do so in your interest not only to line their pockets. Pretty reasonable, right . [applause] this would cost to the American Consumer 17 billion in here. But of course the industry fought this because they are making big bucks off of getting conflicting advice. But heres the thing, we fought the industrthoughtthe industry. And how . By bringing together a question, coordinating technical comments for the agencies come the meeting with educational boards, doing twitter campaigns and being persistent. But that wasnt over because of course, the financial industry is lobbying congress to try to weaken the law. But we are confident we can overcome because this is the right result. Another huge victory for the retirees into the center in 2016 was to protect 270,000 retired Truck Drivers and workers in the states pension plan that faced pension cuts, ready for this, 40 to 70 because of a terrible law was passethat was passed in theg days of 2014. You probably dont even know about this. Congress an in the dead of the night in 2014 had a go kart at the multiemployer pension reform act to the end of Year Spending bill that allowed certain underfunded Pension Plans to the benefits in order to fit the underfunded plans. This was unprecedented and torpedoed the most fundamental protections of erisa. Suddenly the retirees whove done everything right had given a pay in exchange for a lifetime pension that these un breakable pensions that they earned were about to be broken into their lives devastated. We knew that these cuts had to be stopped. So working with thousands of Truck Drivers and thousands of widows and warehouse workers and others, certain unions, we developed a campaign to try to change the law and also to influence the treasury departmenimplement the Treasury Department which was given authority to review the cuts. We used the tactics i talked about earlier that h weve alwas used but updated. We analyzed the law in the summaries on the website and the retiree agrees contacted us and we helped provide them with information and they put it on their own Facebook Page and guess what, now all of these have organized themselves into 60 powerful committees in the states. In april the retirees themselves organized a rally outside of the capital 2,00 with 2,000 spousesd for those calling to reject the application and for congress to pass a bill that would repeal the bill that passed in 2014 to stop these cuts and an amazing victory for consumers, the Treasury Department after receiving thousands of comments from the retirees and the Pension Rights Center rejected the application for sound legal reasons so while Congress Passed the law in 2014 behind closed doors, the regulatory process protected them. This is democracy at work. [applause] and now we are pushing to repeal that terrible 2014 bill, and we are pushing for the bill was introduced coda to keep up promises act by senator sanders and congresswoman marcy captor from stopping these cuts. This is the thing that i think is really critical for this conference. The thousands of former Truck Drivers are now effective citizen activists. This is what they do every day they email me 100 times a day and theyve become the best lobbyists ive ever seen and theyve inspired the Pension Rights Center to work even harder so i want to say remembr my story from 1984. 32 years later a widow from ohio testified before the Senate Finance committee and changed the hearts and minds. Her late husband was injured in vietnam and then drove a truck for 40 years and testified how 40 of the proposed cuts of the survivors pension would force her to sell her house and stop her from taking care of her dad that had stage four cancer. She was so effective again, you could hear a pin drop. Her testimony was called the most powerful members had heard in the kennedy and led to a commitment from senators of both parties to work towards Bipartisan Legislation and the democrats all wrote a letter asking for a bill. So this is democracy in action. And i want to end by saying this go back to my first point. We are the superman, we are the super womesuperwomen of the citn movement. So please come and join the Pension Rights Center for the Retirement Security for all for todays and future retirees to protect pensions made it to people in all Pension Plans, protect increased Social Security and work to repeal the multiemployer pension reform act, wor, work with us to help e a universal at the Pension System for all people come and lets keep fighting. Thank you very, very much. [applause] think you cathank you, supert job. We both started in the Public Interest movement roughly the same time in the 1970s he stuck with it and of course i fell off in the Central World of politics. But he has been a giant in the Public Interest as the head of the center for science in the Public Interest where he has done Health Advocacy and 700,000 subscribers and has engaged in obesity fight and hes taken on coke and kellogg and all the rest of them and he drives an absolutely crazy, of course it is a short ride for a number of them if you think about it, but he does it through education, legislation, litigation, agitation, to back. Remember the agitator is the central part that gets the dirt out. We need more and he is one of the best in the country. [applause] thanks very much, jim. Congratulations to ralph nader for organizing this nice party. [applause] you know, i came to washington and volunteered with ralph nader and my first day on the job i sat around with him and a few of his aides and he says okay, what are we going to do with this guy he has a phd from mit, is that a good enough imitation . [laughter] one of the people sitting there was jim turner who jus just that week wa is publishing a book cad chemical feast about the food and Drug Administration and its various failures and inadequacies. So he said okay, why dont you write a book about Food Additives. So i had just come out of graduate school studying a virus and i knew nothing about writing books and no idea even about a food additive was. I said well okay. Im glad to do it but how do you write a book and what is a food additive effects they said just go and do it. It seemed like everybody on the staff was writing a book of the year. So i scurried into the library, looked up the food additive was. I dont think there was a book on how you write a book, but i put my nose to the grindstone and wrote that book, which was lawful back then because there were other books on Food Additives but its like they came out of the 1930s or something. They had to prove every food additive was dangerous. So i wrote what i thought was an intellectually honest book and my conclusion was that Food Additives like the Sodium Nitrate and the artificial flavorings were not nearly as big a problem as the food themselves. All the sugar and fat and salt. My grandmother, unlike jims mother would say they are all high in the food. So i wrote the book eaters digest and meanwhile a myth to other scientists, Jill Sullivan and al finch and you hear him talk this afternoon. We decided to split off and start our own organization, the center for science in the Public Interest. We had no connections, no money, and is somehow though it worked out. Al was a priest said he had free rent from the church and jim and i lived in group houses and managed okay. We gradually wrote a book and articles and pamphlets and got little grants that kept us goi going. As the previous speaker, caring, mentioned, the idea of using mass media, and is different from now, phil donahue who might be on the Program Later in the week was just a an angel invitig Public Interest people into the show and letting them advertise their products, their memberships and newsletters. We have posters back then on the Food Additives and nutrition and to be on a show and so are thous and thousands of posters and newspaper columnists would write articles talking about the issue and then saying that this pamphlet for 1. 50 or whatever. And so thousands and thousands. Another speaker in the series wrote a column about one of the things we wrote and we literally had a mail sacks of orders for publications sitting outside our door. We lived on that sort of thing. Then we started the Nutrition Health action letter as a giveaway little newsletter for nutritionists who were somewhat progressive. Then after a year, we decided we couldnt afford to give it away for free anymore so they started charging and gradually built that up into a powerhouse of a newsletter, the largest Circulation Health newsletter in the country now with about 700,000 subscribers. And thats been the basis of our existence. And weve been so fortunate because we are lousy grant getters, but wev we write a pry good newsletter. Subscribers donate extra money and thats been the backbone of the Financial Support and its very satisfying to have it under our control rather than having to beg the foundations but if any of you are here we would love to have your money all so and you have a Free Newsletter subscription if you donate. So now we have 700,000 subscribers and about an income of 15 million a year, much of which goes to the post office and printer. But as i was thinking, you solve ralph naders side of executive salaries. 15 million is what the president of cocacola got last year, and that was after a 40 pay cut. He was making 25 million but hes down to 15 million. And the president of pepsi makes 26 million. But getting back to the substance of, one of my conclusions from the buck is nutrition is more important than the Food Additives. Though they are significant and very interesting and he kept working on those ever since. Back then, the mantra of the nutrition establishment, the department of agriculture, the american diet association, the Food Industry and others was a very convenient selfserving all food is good food, just eat a variety of food and youll be okay. So, when i began looking into this and i really knew almost nothing about nutrition, i began looking into i that and that clearly wasnt the case. There was a shift going on from some professors, the American Heart Association a little bit, recognizing that the saturated fat and cholesterol and salt and other things in food are major causes of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, and there was controversy that the whole conversation was shifting as they shifted in many other fields that you hear during the Conference Series from the deficiencies of micronutrients to access of certain nutrients in our food. And thats what he has been workinwe have beenworking on evo improve quality of the american diet. Partly by educating the public which i think is essential but more by focusing on the kind of Garbage Companies were producing into the government was defending. Remember we used to get out of the memorial award given to the biggest junk Food Producer of the year and he would give it out at the convention at the institute of the technologists who predate all this junk and so im outside the convention and the award was a beatup old garbage can so i had been interviewing me and im saying all processed food is junk food as only a committed young man can say with such fervor so right after im doing the interview, somebody from general foods rushes up to the reporter and says thats not true, thats not true. The reporter gives him the microphone and says tell us about the good Healthy Foods that General Mills is marketing. They said we are working on one right now. [laughter] that made it easy to end the debate. A couple years later i had the idea that too much salt is harmful because there is a lot of evidence a young woman just started work for us in 1977 and i said lets write a petition to the food and Drug Administration about salt and how the government should lower the sodium levels and put warning notices on canisters of salt and a couple other things. Back then and now, salt is considered generally recognized as safe. Companies can use as much as they want. So bonnie and i and Georgetown Law School wrote the petition and weve been working on it ever since. The government has done virtually nothing on salt. Researchers have been busy discovering that if we could cut sodiuthe sodium from salt and or Food Additives by 50 that could save as many as 100,000 lives a year and a 20 billion or so every year in medical costs. Just an issue of enormous importance and meanwhile, salt is generally recognized as safe and its one of those issues everybody here, all americans know its safe. We wouldnt have anything dangerous on the table if it wasnt safe. So, weve been working on it and the petition to the Fda Committee sued them in 1982 for not taking any action. He lost in 1983 and went on to other things like getting the nutrition facts label and then we thought maybe sodium would be listed on the label. Maybe that would get companies to lower the levels and consumers to choose less. But in 2005, we discovered that people were consuming as much in 2005 as they were in 1978 when we started this campaign. So we went back to court and they said you have to petition then again, which we did and we waited for a response and got the institute of medicine to do a study that said the Food Industry said it would reduce the sodium levels voluntarily. They urged the reduction in 1969 and for the past 40 years, there was no progress whatsoever and the food and Drug Administration should set limits. So they immediately said we are not going to set limits basically because the Food Industry would have let it but it would set of voluntary targets. So weve been waiting for these voluntary targets and we finally sued the fda again to respond to the petition and that was last october. We expect a response in about ten days so keep your eye on that and i think the food and Drug Administration will probably announce, will probably propose voluntary targets, not mandatory and then we will go through a long phase but its the first time theyve taken any action to lower the sodium levels and hopefully the Food Industry will go along with them and thats typical. Every food company uses salt. Every restaurant has salty foods. These issues take a long, long time. Theres a tremendous industry resistance. One of the things that happened quickly in the scheme of things is trans fat. Back in 1990, there was almost no evidence that trans fat is harmful and then careful research showed that it raised the bad cholesterol and in our blood and liver to the good cholesterol, and that was the first human study done by the department of agriculture and it comes from partially hydrogenated oil which like salt has been considered generally recognized as safe. Thats been an interesting issue that went on in 1994 we went through the usual Public Meetings and hearings and debate and lawsuits and finally the fda required trans fat that spurred a lot of the companies to remove it and finally last year they banned partially hydrogenated oil and trans fat with a deadline of 28 team. If 90 of trans fat [applause] think he 90 is out of the food supply. More than 7 billion pounds of partially hydrogenated oil has been removed and i think everybody from the food manufacturers, the developers, farmers, everybody deserves credit for the enormous change in our food supply. The next one is sugar. I should say trans fat was causing upwards of 50,000 deaths per year. None of those had a label that said trans fat which makes it difficult to deal with it hard to get the victims to be a spokesperson. Soda pop is killing about 25,000 americans each year. And its something the battle lines have been drawn. Soda consumption is down by 27 since 1998 when we first started working on this enormous change. [applause] and the president of pepsi, 25 million a year, pepsi sales have declined by 50 since 1998. [applause] and i would say its a lot to drive the sales down further. So people see what happens. I see my time is running out and i just wanted to mention a couple of the challenges. We are not eating more fruits and vegetables despite all the farmers markets and propaganda its ridiculous. We need to develop effective campaigns to improve the consumption of fruits and vegetables that are protecte pre and health and more broadly the Citizens Movement needs to do what its doing in other areas, keep the pressure on the industrys. They will respond whether it is over the web and newspapers or with your shopping dollars at supermarkets. And i think they deserve applause from time to time for doing the right thing. So thats kind of the challenge in all of these Environmental Health workers rights and other issues. Weve got to use diverse strategies from creative publicity to lawsuits and legislation. The greatest strength of the Citizens Movement is facts and credibility and then persisten persistence. Youve got to keep at this forever because they will come back its kind of like the ocean and building sand castles. They will continue trying to come back and remove what youve done. But its very gratifying to work on Public Interest issues because you can have an impact. Youre really protecting the public. And not only is it gratifying to do that, but its also a lot of fun. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you, mike. The next speaker is jamie love who is the director of Knowledge College international and that is a fancy phrase for saying making pharmaceuticals among other intellectual property subjects affordable to people. If anybody thinks that citizen action may be important but it doesnt have much drama, listen to this story. Hes in alaska in his early 20s and he is producing these policy papers on the oil industry and comes to our attention and my colleague said whos putting this outcome its brilliant. Some High School Graduate moved from seattle to alaska. He was so brilliant he was admitted to the Kennedy School at Harvard University skipping four years of undergraduate and then he went to get a phd in economics from princeton but he was too busy seeing how he could save lives. Heres the story i want to relate very quickly. Thousands of people dying of aids in africa every week. The price of the cocktail drugs by the u. S. Drug companies, 10,000 per patient per year in other words, pay or die, and they died. Jamie love went all over the world and met with ministers of health and aggregation, aggregaf patients, advocate. He was in the air half the time. He had help from people, john richard, bill experienced Drug Companies abroad. But he was a singulair dynamo that connected with the drug company in india and showed the Drug Companies here that were backed by the Clinton Administration that that could be brought down to 300 per ye year, and it continued to go down. This is huge. He never got any press coverage to speak of, he never got any upwards. It didnt matter to him. He was driven. The combination of powerful knowledge and being at the right place at the right time everywhere in the world. Hes heading for geneva tonight. Needless to say he was helped by groups like act up that stands for aids coalition power. They demonstrated it to any announcement running for president in tennessee they demonstrated everywhere to begin changing the federal government attitude towards ignoring Necessary Research and the price controls that were necessary to avoid the pay or die monstrosity system of health care. Anybody who wants drama, i introduce to you the very modest jamie love. [applause] thank you very much. I would like to thank ralph for inviting me to this event. Im going to talk today about this issue on pharmaceutical drugs im going to talk about the way that things i was involved in early on in this debate and also the current state of play where people are interested in changing the relationship between people and medicine around the world. He already talked about some of the early issues. I was asked in 1991 to look at the pricing of a drug for cancer is a drug that was invented and was being licensed to do a Pharmaceutical Company and there was a clause in the agreement but said it should be priced at a reasonable price so i was brought in to evaluate the claim. The congressman at the time was interested in the issue. I started working on this and then that lead to taking a look at the role of the federal government and funding all drugs that have been put on the market
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