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Wednesday, June 18, 2025How the Nation’s Food System Can Support Healthy Eating Will Be Discussed in a Free Public Lecture March 13
The Center for Science in the Public Interest is the oldest independent, science-based consumer advocacy organization with an impressive record of accomplishments and an ambitious agenda for improving the food system to support healthy eating. Among its goals are decreasing junk food marketing to children, reducing the consumption of sugary drinks and soda, reducing sodium in processed and restaurant foods, improving food safety and diminishing the incidence of foodborne illness.
Peter Lurie, MD, MPH, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, champions consumer access to important health data. He is the featured speaker at Mini-Medical School on Wednesday, March 13, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix's Health Sciences Education Building Lecture Hall C104, 435 N. Fifth Street, Phoenix. The presentation is free and open to the public.
Dr. Lurie will discuss tactics used by the center to advance important public health issues. His topic will be, “Holding Government and Industry Accountable in the Development of Food Policy.” This lecture is presented by the Flinn Foundation Buffmire Lecture series.
The Washington, DC-based center has led recent battles outlawing trans fats and improving food labeling. It publishes the popular Nutrition Action Newsletter, which offers practical advice to consumers interested in nutrition, food safety and health. The organization led the fight for passage of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, which brought nutrition labels to packaged food. Its advocacy work also spurred restrictions on nitrite and nitrate in cured meats. A current campaign is pressuring companies to stop using food dyes.
About Peter Lurie, MD, MPH
Peter Lurie, MD, MPH, is president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and former associate commissioner for Public Health Strategy and Analysis at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Dr. Lurie began his career as a family physician after receiving an MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and an MPH from the University of California. Afterward, he began taking on leadership roles at the FDA, where he focused on leading the agency’s initiatives on antimicrobial resistance, transparency, caffeinated beverages, arsenic in rice, fish consumption by pregnant and nursing women, expanded access to investigational drugs and prescription drug abuse.
His current topic of concentration at the center is drug safety.
About the College
Founded in 2007, the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix inspires and trains exemplary physicians, scientists and leaders to optimize health and health care in Arizona and beyond. By cultivating collaborative research locally and globally, the college accelerates discovery in a number of critical areas — including cancer, stroke, traumatic brain injury and cardiovascular disease. Championed as a student-centric campus, the college has graduated more than 900 physicians, all of whom received exceptional training from nine clinical partners and more than 2,700 diverse faculty members. As the anchor to the Phoenix Bioscience Core, the college prides itself on engaging with the community, fostering education, inclusion, access and advocacy.