Food Influencer in Chief...Forbes magazine has reaffirmed the centrality of food and nutrition issues on the world stage by naming First Lady Michelle Obama #1 on its 100 Most Powerful Women list, in part for her efforts with the Let's Move! campaign. And two CEOs of multibillion dollar food corporations join Mrs. Obama in the top ten: Kraft Foods CEO Irene Rosenfeld is #2 on the annual list, and PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi is #6, ahead of an array of world leaders, media moguls, fashion designers, authors, business women and entrepreneurs. Mrs. Obama, Rosenfeld, and Nooyi are critically connected to each other through the Let's Move! campaign.
Kraft and PepsiCo are both part of the coalition of multinational food giants that pledged to partner with Mrs. Obama's campaign in May, in the first major private industry commitment for Let's Move!, with an agreement to voluntarily make major healthy changes in their extensive product lines, which account for about 25 percent of foods sold in the US.
Mrs. Obama was #40 on last year's Forbes list, and this year the magazine's editors have changed the way they rank honorees, basing the list less on wealth and power and more on creative influence and entrepreneurship. Forbes rightly lauds Mrs. Obama for being far more than just President Obama's wife, dubbing her "a true change maker" as First Lady, thanks not only to Let's Move!, but also to her powerful advocacy for improving the lives of military families. Mrs. Obama also gets a thumbs-up for her fashion sense; Forbes calls the First Lady “Jackie Kennedy with a law degree.” (Above: Mrs. Obama with the President on Tuesday, during a reception for the Foreign Diplomatic Corps)
The rest of the top ten: Oprah Winfrey (No. 3), German Chancellor Angela Merkel (4), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (5), Lady Gaga (7), Gail Kelly (8), Beyonce Knowles (9) and Ellen DeGeneres (10).
Mrs. Obama's influence is evident in the food giants' commitment
Rosenfeld's Kraft and Nooyi's PepsiCo are multibillion dollar global food entities, and their commitment to join Let's Move! was one of the first big wins for the First Lady's campaign. That alone speaks to the major influence of Mrs. Obama: Her ability to get Kraft and PepsiCo, as well as Coca Cola, Campbell Soups, Kellogg's, ConAgra, Sara Lee and a host of other companies to voluntarily commit to what amounts to perhaps billions of dollars in changing product formulations and packaging is astonishing.
"This is precisely the kind of real private-sector commitment that we need," Mrs. Obama said when the partnership was announced. "So I am grateful to these companies for stepping out and being among the first to make this happen."
The companies agreed to include more lower-calorie foods in their product lines; change recipes where possible to lower the calorie content of current products; and reduce portion sizes of existing single-serving products. There was a commitment to overall calorie cutting that is equally large: The food giants set a goal of annually eliminating 1 trillion calories from the food chain by 2012, and 1.5 trillion by 2015. The commitment also has a first for the Let's Move! campaign: It's not just a promise. It comes with a big dose of accountability, because the changes will be tracked and monitored by the Partnership For A Healthier America, with the results publicly reported.
Last week, Nooyi was named the most powerful woman in US business for the fifth year in a row by Fortune magazine.
Global media giant Disney just announced its partnership with Let's Move!, and one of their top execs is on the Forbes power list, too. Anne Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks, is #69.
Forbes: Mrs. Obama different than Mrs. Clinton...
Forbes notes that Mrs. Obama is a distinctly different kind of presidential spouse than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (#5) was during her White House years: ...unlike Hillary Clinton, who championed a secretive (and ultimately unsuccessful) health care reform, Obama has stayed away from hard policy. Stayed away from hard policy? That's open to debate, because food and nutrition issues are hot button topics these days, impacting everything from global security to the global economy, as far as the White House is concerned. And Mrs. Obama currently has twelve different federal agencies involved with her campaign, which includes a legislative component and potentially dramatic regulatory impact. Perhaps Mrs. Obama is just doing a far better job of soft gloving her efforts than did Clinton....
Other Obama administration women on the Forbes list
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi comes in as #11 on the list--but she's currently not scoring any points for Let's Move!, since she failed to bring the House's pending child nutrition legislation to a vote before lawmakers left town for the Autumn recess. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius--whom Mrs. Obama has referred to as "my partner in crime," thanks to all the time they've spent together working on Let's Move!--comes in as #23 on the list. Celeb chef and talk show host Rachael Ray--who has also joined the Lets Move! campaign, gets a nod as #78 on the list.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is #19 on the list, while just-minted Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan is #25, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is #31. Elizabeth Warren, newly in the Obama administration as a special adviser to President Obama and the Treasury, is #37 on the list.
*An interesting post on the Forbes blog: How the 100 women on their list are interconnected, and impact each others' platforms. Forbes notes: "Many worked together once upon a time; many more were rivals. Some, like Oprah Winfrey and Anna Wintour, have given platforms to other women. Others, like Michelle Obama, have changed the way women like Irene Rosenfeld run their companies. Coincidence? We think not. Power begets power, and with women the effect can be viral. The spheres of influence of the Forbes Power Women intersect in incredible and inspiring ways.
*Reuters photo
