i think words can mean a lot of think it keep up to make different choices, and to come and we've seen evidence of this, that when restaurants put those numbers on their menus, they have a look at some of those numbers before they put them up and do some reformulation to get some of those calorie counts down. and that is a role that -- just transparency in general plays that the menu labeling won't get the credit that it deserves for those kinds of impacts but we've seen that in different areas and i think, hopefully, you know, we'll see that now. we are hopeful. soon. >> so what happens, second to last question, what happens after the obama's leave? how are you guys going to institutionalize some of his huge effort that you've made?

>> yeah. it's a good question and something we think a lot about. i think, to fall. part of visits institutionalizing it but also, so we've done that through harder ships with different agencies. let's move! childcare, a partnership between hhs. when you have those kind of partnerships it adds that infrastructure and we tried to do that in a number of different places. but also it's about and working to have the issues transcend us and helped to spark action and activity and engagement in ways that are going to take off that we are not actually doing. and a lot of that is in the way we approach different partnerships. but also just the cultural aspect of it. that's why you see the first lady really trying to take this

issue to where people are as a post asking people to come to us. that's why she is on jimmy fallon and doing the dougie and all the stuff. it's important to present it and help bring this in a fund engaging way that can take off, that miami heat they do what she don't on lebron and then you're sitting there having apples. i don't know what the latest number is but 10 million hits in like a day. those are the kinds of things that start to percolate and peoples are taking it on and doing fun things on their own. start to become much bigger than us. >> the last question is about you. what are you going to do when you leave the white house? are you going to stay to the end or -- >> there's no way i am answering that question. >> if you do stay to the end and the obama's, when the term is up, what are you going to do? are you going to open up arrest on to everyone else can taste food, not just the white house?

>> i have not been asked this in public yet. [laughter] my honest answer is i don't know. i think part of, and this is what i said to my friends who ask, what's been most incredible about my role here at the white house has been that a circuit to touch -- i sort of geeky touch in a holistic all the corners of the issue, the cooking and food culture, policy and politics of food, and the private sector side, business side of food and how do we bring all that together but it's those pieces i think together can actually foster the change that we need. and so we will try to find ways to replicate that and continue to engage in all those corners of the issue. but this is the first ladies life work. this is my life's work. this is what we are passionate about and so we will keep

working at it. in lots of different and hopefully innovative ways. but i have no idea. if anybody has a good idea, i'm all ears. >> great. well, thank you so much for coming and being open with all of us. thanks a lot. >> thank you, guys. [applause] >> c-span to providing live coverage of the u.s. senate floor proceedings and key public policy events and every weekend booktv now for 15 years the only television network devoted to nonfiction books and authors. c-span2 created by the cable tv industry and brought to you as a public service by local cable or satellite provider. watch us in hd, like is on us ot facebook and follow us oner twitter.rning, >> a naked it is at her desk this point. she's here to talk aboutshe consumers right as general mills

put a policy in place and reversed itself recently. what happened recently. gener with the general mills last week --es reported general mills what they said on the website online you joined in an community, facebook page, --inic you -- a coupon, download a coupon, you were effectively as a consumer giving up your right to sue them in a court of law for a claim you might have against them. you are bound to forced arbitration. it is an outside of the court process to resolve disputes, which we think should not be forced upon consumers without their consent. quite a bit of pushback on general mills.

social media trend to get quite a bit of pushback. we claim some of the press they got, misunderstood their intent. they said clearly they stipulate for all purposes their previous legal terms were reinstated and the arbitration would not have legal effect. that was the right thing to do and we are glad to see that happen. host: widely reported general mills recently reported a wide set of legal terms on the website. those terms and our intentions were widely misread so we listened and we are changing them back to what they were before. we have disputes with consumers

and arbitrations streamlined how they're handled. many companies do the same and we felt it would be helpful but consumers did not like it. i want to focus on the part "many companies do the same." guest: it highlighted for people how many companies, how many of the contracts they signed every very fine print signing away your right to sue. forced binding and mandatory i think, is not right. it does not treat consumers fairly. it takes away the rights they have should they be wrong. >> when does the consumer enter into a contract with the company ? >> you would be surprised. anytime you engage in a company and you get the box that pops up before you join there, or if you

are downloading a coupon, the box pops up and it has tons of fine print. at it and there is a little box at the bottom. when you see the kind of fine print that comes up, whether in a contract in the store or online, you need to be on the lookout for it anything causing binding arbitration. companies thater have policies? .uest: nursing home contracts they are quite ubiquitous and harmful to consumers. >> starbucks, for example, has similar language.

guest: it is mandatory, you do not have a choice. let's say you saw a claim for a product defect or you have a congratulatory -- contractual they did notse treat your grandparents at a nursing home facility. you do not have a choice on whether you see them into -- in a court of law. mandatory arbitration forces you a court of out of law. what the binding part means is whatever judgment comes out of that, whatever a word in arbiter makes, whatever choice you make, you're giving up your right in a court of law. >> host: do these hold up? >> guest: unfortunately they have. in 2011 the supreme court said any case versus conception on, that california law that allowed

class action complaints by consumers were not, it didn't apply, the california state law didn't see. instead consumers were giving up their rights to go after a company for a group of legitimate claims through the court. they have to go through one by one arbitration. the problem, unlike the courts is these documents are different. you don't see what that award was. you don't see what the outcome was. not only are consumers individually may have smaller claims but together can speak with a powerful voice that can match the powerful voice of the company on the other side, but on individual basis that they are powerless and they are significantly higher for consumers. >> host: so there are specific words that consumers have looked for? >> guest: a lot of little words. arbitration, any references to dispute resolution, alternative

dispute resolution, binding mandatory arbitration, american arbitration association. went to so she should to provide arbitrators. be on the look out for those words in that fine print. sometimes you can negotiate out that oftentimes these are fixed contracts that come from headquarters and individuals are doing with with a credit card isn't going to be able to change it. what we been urging consumers to do and what we think the solution is legislation to take each kind of forced arbitration out of consumer contracts. >> host: any movement on that? >> guest: there was a hearing last december on the arbitration that was introduced in the senate and the house. nothing since december but we have been urging consumers to fight for their legislators to ask them to support the arbitration fairness act. >> host: we're talking about the consumers right to sue.

ami gadhia is the senior policy counsel for consumers union here to take your questions and comments about that. let's talk about role of social media. this adds a hold of the wrinkle to this. so are there new rules on the books when comes to social media? you going facebook and you like something that a company is talk about ari product that they have, and then is that evidence against you? >> guest: i think what this general mills case highlighted is the way that companies create social media and the way that we ordinary consumers could have far broader implications than we realize. you think you like a companies product on facebook or your tweet with them and you think get maybe a relationship or you've got a different kind of relationship than just the ordinary person product in the store. consumers have driven this is another tool to market the product to you.

be mindful of the fine print. be mindful of the fact this is marketing. consumers are interacting much more directly with the companies, but i think consumers need to remember who has the power? it's still not -- >> host: "the new york times," the abc news story quotes general mills legal policy and a statement from general mills has said this is probably mischaracterize. no one is precluded from selling us nearly a purging of products at the store or liking one of our brands facebook pages. this is just mischaracterization. >> looking at live coverage. the center for strategic and international studies hosted a discussion of this afternoon on iraq's upcoming parliamentary elections about a week away. that's live on c-span at 2 p.m. eastern. then at five agencies been will be live at the atlantic council as they discuss the foreign policy of russian president vladimir putin. tonight on booktv in prime time on c-span2, books on

exploring america. we start at eight eastern. >> i remember on saturday the first conversation i had with a group of people at the table come it wasn't about where you're from, what is your school like but it was about ukraine. it was about politics and our belief in education and religion and after that moment i was like this week is going to be intense. and it's been cool to see the evolution of all of our friendship, all of our bonds from just talking about politics and talking about our expenses, what we've learned, who we have met and this is an expense i'll never ever forget. >> i've been cynical about it, always thought i could never really go that far in politics.

is such a caustic environment but slowly with a different people i've met i've kind of chipped away at that opinion but it's been so ingrained in my head. maybe i do want to make a difference and one for something local and stay local in my community. because like president obama said yesterday, he told us don't get cynical because the nation doesn't need any more cynical people. that's not going to help us relieve the problems that we have. >> one of the things that gets brought up this or social media. we are able to express our opinions very easily. we can just send a tweet about what we think and i think that starts conversations and would like to talk a lot. so there is conversation, social media and we just like to get our opinions out. >> i think this will because been about learning to i come from a small town that is very politically homogenic, and

there's not much chance for people who don't think the same to get their opinions out without being ridiculed and being here with other delegates has given me an opportunity to learn other viewpoints and to get my ideas out without the fear of being shunned for speaking differently. >> high school students from across the country discuss their participation in the u.s. senate youth program a weeklong government and leadership education program held annually in washington sunday night at 8 p.m. on c-span's q&a. >> next, food pollsters take part in a discussion on national trends and humbling of are shaping the nation's food system. yesterday's panel was part of this years consumer federation of america food policy conference in washington. this is one hour 20 minutes. >> thank you, and good morning, everyone. welcome to our panel. this will be a time to explore how the millennials will shape

and even dictate the future of our food system. everyone i'm sure has heard a lot about this generation. millennials are generally in their '20s and early '30s. birth years can differ depending -- community to ask but generally they were born between 1980-1995. we have a great panel assembled here today who will share a variety of insights about this generation from social and religious views to health and wellness attitudes down to exactly what they are eating at any given point of the day. so allow me to introduce our panel. we will start with paul taylor. paul is the executive vice president of special projects at the pew research center where he oversees demographic, social and generational research. paul also is the author of a new book called "the next america" and the book examines

generations and the country's changing demographic he will give us a good overview of how to look at millennials from the 50,000-foot view. following paul's we have harry balzer from npd. that many people in the u.s. have followed americans actually eating patterns as long as harry. he is the chief industry analyst and vice president at npd. is a national expert on food and diet trends, and he's the author of the annual report on eating patterns in america, which actually celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2010. so he knows all about everything you are eating and, of course, what are millennials are eating. following harry we'll hear from marcia greenblum. marsh is a senior director of health and wellness communicate chance at the international food information council. i'm sure many of you know it as

cific. marshall help us understand how to look at millennials communicating about health and wellness issues. finally, we have kate wyatt. kate has touched virtually every aspect of the food scene, if you will, food and nutrition from working with commodities to national brands to restaurants to retailers. she's going to share with us some information about millennials at a brand level, at a very specific attitude and behavior perspective from research that edelman has done. and interestingly she will take us a step further and introduce us to generation z so we will understand where we are with jen whbut where things are headed as we look to the up and coming generation. so each of our panelists will speed and share some insights and they will have an opportunity for questions. we will have a good amount of time for questions o while askig hold any questions while they

speak and once we are concluded with our remarks we will open up the floor and we hope we'll have a freewheeling discussion so please, armed with questions. so i want to introduce begin paul taylor and he will share with you some insights from the pew research center. >> thank you, kathy. delighted to be here. i think i'm your only speaker who will not mention the word food because i'm not an expert and there are plenty of people who are. the pew research center does a lot of social science research, public attitude research and we express our stories in numbers and going to throw off lots of numbers that you in a pretty short period of time to look at this generation, demographics, economics and political and social values. as kathy said, its distinctive demographically. whcally. when we first are looking at millennials 10 years or so ago i

thought, they are tenured, young adults. guess what? the oldest is now in his or her early '30s. there in the workforce, into the electorate and they're forcing around distinctive path into adulthood. it starts with who they are. more than four in 10 millennials are nonwhite. in this sense they are, as compared for example, to all this generation, only two in 10 are nonwhite. in the sense they are transitional generation. the census bureau tells us within 30 years the majority of the country will be nonwhite. that's one thing that's quite distinct about. another thing there are large generation to baby boomers were famously large. we're not crossing the threshold into old age. this is also a very large generation that's moving in to the workforce and the electorate. let's find out about how they're moving into adulthood. i apologize for this, it's a little compensated but these are two charts come one of which, the one on the left is the percent of people of all ages

and the darkest line of millennials and then the next line of the gen xers, the green line are the boomers and the light green light ideas are the silence. we are looking at the same age cohort moving through time and what we see politically is interesting because we are learning a little bit millennials in terms of the voting patterns and political attitudes are quite liberal and quite democratic. if you ask them to identify with the democratic party, republican or independent, 50% of millennials site independent. we've never seen numbers that high. we see a similar pattern if you go over to the same chart on the right with what religion are you, we see through the cycle we've been tracking them for the last seven years they are about three in 10 say i'm not affiliate with any religion. doesn't mean there a these are added agnostic. the united states stands out in the world for advanced

countries. where the most religiously devout affiliated people in the world but millennials are not as devout or affiliated as their elders have been. and interesting data. there's another social institution of society that millennials at least so far are not attached to and that is called marriage. if you look at millennials today, in 2013, 18-32, what share of the script is married? only a quarter. if you look at the older generation moving up in time, now in the '30s and '40s, the boomers, '50s and '60s, the silent generation. these are the shares to america back when they were the age that millennials are today. this is a dramatic change and there's a mix of economic and attitudinal data to explain the change. about seven in 10 unmarried miners say yes i'd like to get

married one day and women ask them why not, why hasn't it happened, they say i'm not a good marriage partner. i don't have a job. i don't have a career. under heavy economic foundation. a lot of this is reflection of the difficult economic circumstances but some of it quite frankly is reflection of the value they place on marriage and children. and again if you ask, we have questions like this and we see millennials place that marriage a little bit lower on the scale of what's important in life than the older generation did at the same stage of the life cycle. this is a very important part of the life of this generation. they had the bad luck of coming into the workforce. we know what happened then and we know what's happened since. deep recession. haven't fully recovered. a lot of kids have struggled to find a way. five and 10 have at some point in their young lives boomeranged

back home to live with mom and dad, maybe some of them are living with you. that turns out to be a pretty good place to hang out if you can't find a job. they have been slow to pass all of the traditional milestones of adulthood, finding a job, finding a spouse, buying a home, a car. millennials do this alone of those in older adults did back when do the same age. they are the first generation in history to have a lower standard of living any way you measure, measure by an opponent, buy property, by wealth, but income and older adults had back in their age. the are not attached to traditional anchor institutions but how do they organize their lives? they are the first generation of digital natives. these are maybe things we all hold in your hands, people like me, my jaw still drops all the things i can get with two or three clicks and, frankly, it annoys me if it takes three clicks. but for them it's all they've ever known.

these smart phones and digital technology, mobile technology is there indispensable platform for engaging with the world, for information acquisition and for building networks. so while they don't have some traditional anchor's affiliation with institutions boy, they build networks and these things allow you to build your own networks. someone described them as -- the world can revolve around them because they can organize their world in a way that place themselves in the center of it. some people have given them -- it's unfair to them. i suspect any generation that grew up with this allows you to play shows up at the center of the world would take advantage of that. to decide among yourselves. these are people who use facebook and these are the networks. either there's been quite a leap in human feminists over the last generation or so, or do

something about the nature of these technologies the younger adults are able to use and organize. i suspect that's the case. i apologize, there's a lot of data but here's a question we asked people of all generations, here are some ways you might think of describing yourself. we see the interesting data. are you supportive of gay rights? a darker green is the millennials. they stand out very much different from the older generation. do you think of yourself as a patriotic person was millennials here stand out less often old of those. a religious person myself and older adults. this one a bit of a surprise come an environmentalist where again there's a gap. we know from other data that millennials aren't sensitive to issues like climate change and the environment but i suspect what we're picking up is resistance to identify with the cause, with an institution.

on a couple of social issues there have been dramatic changes in our society. the pew research center surveys this kind of issue all the time but it's fair to say over the last decade the change in public opinion towards same-sex marriage has been breathtakingly fast. here you see support for same-sex marriage, how it has moved over the last 10 or 12 years and you see it's got up among every generation but you see millennials start at a high level and have gone to a higher level still. saw some of the change here, and you see this on this issue and the next one as well is the story of generation replacement or i'll tell that story in a moment that this is part of the drama of demographic of generational change. the young come in, they become part of the electorate, they become part of the economy. the old move on and as those happened it is the value of the young to become more important

in more a sending. you see this in growing support of marijuana legalization and we know that that is an issue that's changing now around the country. this is hard to read and to go back all the way back in 1969. the timeframe is different so the millennials on a sort of coming at the very end and they are that sharp line with much higher levels of support. some of you boomers, back in the '60s and '70s, they are all for it. they go into a big dip come me because their kids at home, who knows? kids are out from under and they have rebounded and returned on that particular score. to our thumb social and legal issues come hot button issues that in the news a lot such as abortion and gun control where we don't see generational differences. while it is the case that on the classic question of do you

support big government, and i think one of the -- chris asked me to give details on support for programs of the poor for example, there's no question of the nails are more supportive of big government. ..

the votes of all 65 and over in every presidential campaign since 1972. so what you see is throughout the 80s, 90s there was very little age gap between the way older and younger adult voted but as the millennial coming to the electorate for the last two or three cycles particularly the last presidential elections when we had a barack obama on the ballot, you see the biggest age gap in the way that young and older have voted in any time in history, so this is part, and again if you think about the generational churn, here is the statistic that seems to be every political is. so in 2012, the millennial was cast a team% of all votes and

they were heavily for barack obama. they were, however, 27% of the electorate. through history, the younger vote had lower rates than the lifecycle you get older, you do get married, you have kids, pay taxes, have a stake in the system and you are more likely to vote so the millennial's have not aged into that. 27% of the eligible electorate at 2020 but is only six years from now they will be 38% of the eligible electorate. so if you think about who they are in the economy and in the electorate they are the future anand the attitudes that they carry with them there is no assurance they are locked in and i don't necessarily want to call myself a democrat were republican but it's clear that they bring a pretty liberal --

this is my last slide and i am not sure that i know quite what to make about it but this is a classic for decades and decades for social trust and the question goes something like this. generally speaking what you say people can be trusted or you can't be too careful when you're dealing with other people. by generation people can be trusted, and again the millennial's go back 25 years the millennial's are coming into the last four or five administrations and they start out with very low levels of social trust. it may comfort with the correlations of social science that has been made about a finding which is that minorities and people below the socioeconomic scale tended to be less trusting than others because they often feel they are invulnerable situations and they are less fortified to deal with

the consequences of misplaced trust. this is doesn't necessarily mean that they are alienated from society. we have other ways of measuring that. it doesn't necessarily mean that they don't think things are going to work out. we have a lot of measures that state in terms of their own economic futures and in terms of the country's economic futures high they are actually extremely optimistic, more optimistic and their altars. maybe this is just the invincibility of youth they don't know any better. maybe they don't realize someone my age looks at their economic circumstances and this is they have had it rough. someone their age doesn't have that to compare with. so it's a complex generation. i will close with what i was amused by week we put out the findings among or six weeks ago and i think it was the new york daily news headline that said something like millennial's.

no jobs, no spouse, no money, no future, no problem. [laughter] so that's who they are. they are a fascinating generation and i look forward to listening to what they think about food policy. >> nice job, paul. thanks for inviting me here. it's not often that i get to speak to this group ended up talking mostly to the people that feed us, the restaurant worth to the supermarket, the food manufacturers, the agricultural groups. npd is a marketing research group that has been -- we've been doing this since 1978. we put out a report in our 28 year i've done every one of these myself. i've looked at every piece of data because you can't talk about how people eat in the country unless you know.

this is my passion and this is what i've done for the last 36 years now is watch how americans eat. we have a number of services we collect information on and there are two that we want to talk about here today. the first one is national eating trends and that is to consumer marketing research service that has 5,000 people that keep a record of all foods and beverages consumed for 14 days. everything you eat come everywhere. attitudes, ingredients. there's three things i ask, and we started this at march 11980 and ever since, i've had people give me information. even know how people eat on tax day? yes, i do. i think i want to see people get drunk on tax day. that's what they wanted me to tell them area dot every day since then there's only three things i don't want to know about since 1980 didn't think

they would be important. we don't want to change because the most important thing in the trend is to change what you're collecting. three things. i don't want to know anything about your pepper or salt consumption. i wish they would change that. i don't want to know anything about your water consumption. i thought all three of those would run's broke and nobody would be interested as time went on i wish they had the salt and water one that we will change that. that's not for this discussion that we will talk about that later. the second one is crest a research service where we started collecting information on how people use restaurants and what foods and beverages they buy. we have people every day telling us all foods and beverages they buy at restaurants. the purpose of all of the data is to have good information on how people eat. and that's a very tough commodity these days. we hear in the news -- we have powdered alcohol. did you see this box that's going to go over big.

there are people waiting in line for cronougts. i get to the good fortune of bringing them together for eating better in america. i want to share a couple highlights from this report. every six months there is a new food of the decade and i know this because i get questions and i have data. i'm going to go through the last two years of questions. this is my own. what was the year for frozen yogurt? 's 1992. that was the peak year. we have new yogurt shops opening but that's the new super food. i wouldn't disagree with you on that. that is one of the things that we consume. cupcake shops. that's the new cupcake.

that is the food of the decade. i was anointed the food of the decade because it had the highest sales. on the product you can just say this word. and then forget quinoa, there is chia seeds just don't eat too much because it will grow out of your hair. but the population at this point in time these foods reflect who we are. this is the newest one. so i went back looking into the questions came to me. i understand americans are eating more weird vegetables. do you have trends on these? give me some vegetables that you think are weird. here is the trend in that two-week period at least once in

their diet. 1984 to today. it's amazing. 1984 through today. it's exploding. it's up to 3%. [laughter] we sol saw this probably 15 yeas ago with spinach. it went down the same task. i know one thing about researching bible and this meeting. here are the top that troubles americans consume. onions is number one, what is kale? we are looking for new versions of things we already know. it is a new lead -- lettuce and that is one of the top of the troubles we consume. the top one that we consume that we see that as an ingredient, not that we put on our plate is

corn. it's not broccoli? no, it's corn, the number one vegetable consumed that you see. the country is looking for new vegetables. give me a new version of the onion, tomato, let us, that is the item that we will talk about in the future and how we impact what we eat in this country. i went and i pulled -- if you are interested in millennial's and what is it that they eat. as an end -- consumed by 18 to 30-year-olds last year through november of 2013 which should also impress you through november of 2013 how people eat in this country. [laughter] just yes and no in that course of the day. the most popular thing in the diet, juice.

here we go. coffee. number nine on the list. so many changes the last 30 years i've been doing this. who is comparing it and where are we getting it from. how much space is dedicated? salty snacks on the list, chips. potatoes can i trade them separate from all that troubles. the troubles. i treat them alone in such a big category with potatoes are mashed and thrives. milk is the fifth most popular thing to consumed. fruit, fruit not as an ingredient, but third on the list, vegetables. not that b that is what tomato t the vegetables that you see. number two on the list, soft

drinks. you may not like it, but that's life. that's what we do. and the number one thing that we do come as a matter of fact it's the number one food in america. any idea what it is? who said pizza? that is wrong. good answer but that is wrong. [laughter] know, the number one thing is i can make an argument that what changes have occurred in the last ten years and sandwiches than anything else including carbonated soft drinks or juice which are two things that are defining. three of the five fast foods do only one thing, prepare fresh sandwiches for you because it is the number one thing consumed by this age group. what did this look like ten years ago? here's the list. carbonated soft drinks has dropped and it is moving downward.

juice is moving downward. have you picked up the one thing that fell off the list? it's replaced by coffee. that is a good trade, isn't it? as a matter of fact, salad has been declining in the peak year in the restaurant when do you think that it occurred. what is the peak year for having a main dish at the restaurant was? 1989 when 10% of all lunches and dinners out at a restaurant included a salad, today is about 5%. you think you know america by what they say. what do you think this list is going to look like ten years from now. this is 48% of everything the group consumes. but we continue on. i was told a number of times

that they want it real. what was i looking for when i was that age? can you prove they want it real or they don't want it real when you look at frozen food what is the likelihood of a millennial -- a frozen item as their main dish as opposed to the side dish of desserts or bread, from 1984 until today, so 1984, 6.5% of all of the dishes served to the 18 to 34-year-olds at the time, which was me when i was that age. my daughter, her main meals are frozen. do they want it real or easy and i mentioned the sandwiches being made at restaurants? you are so lazy you can't make a sandwich at your house? i wanted real. let them worry about fresh him i don't want to deal with that fresh stuff. not just easy but easier as

well. you want a single difference between me and my daughter when i was 18 to 34 come in the single biggest difference when i was her age and my daughter is now her age and this generation versus the boomers anybody have any idea what the item might be? it is pizza. that is the single biggest difference. the difference between the biggest i will show you here in 1984, 36% of my age group back when i was 18 to 34 would have pizza at least once in a two-week period today my daughter is 67%. the gap of 31 percentage points, there is no other food. what does pizza say about us and about the millennial? one last thing this is doubly the single biggest thing affecting the millennial studies and affecting anybody else right now. it's the use of restaurants. the group is going. here are the number of meals

they bought at restaurants. even though the group is growing the number of meals is less. this used to be the heaviest restaurant user in america. they define what the food world would look like for the next 30 years. this group isn't having that opportunity because that is the reason? it's got to be income. in my mind this has to be income area i want to go but when i do go out, and i still go out quite a bit. i'm changing the landscape because you know who's growing right now, fast, casual restaurants. they get to lunch and breakfast. at place like panera or chipola -- chipotle. they've expanded with fast food can be. do you know what it can be? you can relax and have a good quality meal without a waiter or waitress and casual dining restaurant o are having the

problem because of this group. the boomers my age i'm going out more than ever before to be i'm going to leave you with one last comment. what is the purpose of all of the research that you do? i came across this about 20 years ago from the nobel prize winner of the purpose of all research. and i will leave you with this to see what everybody else sees. sometimes just seeing it is the hardest thing that but then you can think about it in a way not thought about before. there is my e-mail address. if you have any questions feel free to give me a call. i probably have looked at it in one way or another. thank you so much. ' hello everybody.

i'm a registered dietitian and i work for the international food information council, and a lot of this discussion became really important to me and it really hit home when i signed is currently 24 got his first job when i moved away, lives on his own. this is somebody who would, you know, never scheduled classes in the morning and would sleep until 2:00 in the afternoon. you know that type. he calls me after working for a couple of weeks and he says to me i'm eating cottage cheese for breakfast. and i thought to myself he's going into the protein world. i said why are you eating cottage cheese and he said because you ate cottage cheese and that must be healthy. so i'm realizing that when this age group thinks about what foods are healthy foods and how to eat healthy, they are

thinking on what they know and may be the role models or their parents and maybe not. maybe if somebody they consider a healthful eater that they are trying to get this information and they don't have very many sources getting this information. they don't have a set of references it became obvious to me that as part of the challenge. there is the economy as well and time constraints. but i think one of the other things is that they also need some help to try to put together all of the messages that are probably in their environment that is becoming very overwhelming for them. so, why are we addressing the eating behavior in the first place? well, the journal of the business psychology of 2010 had a quote that said the millennial generation has worked eating

habits including inactivity, poor nutrition, which can contribute to the early development of overweight and obesity. so, that's one of the reasons that we need to consider their eating habits and also that two thirds of the adult population and a third of the children of this country according to be iom developing obesity. and it's contributing about 190.2 billion costs to our economy. so it's important that we help them try to understand what healthy eating is. the majority of americans do understand that they have some control. according to the food and health surveys as we did last year how many do recognize that they have control over what they eat, but they are very unable to take back control.

the challenges and what is a healthy food or what isn't a healthy food, but understanding how they can promise those influences into challenges that would help them to change those eating behaviors. q-quebec why are we looking at the eating behaviors? one of the questions you have to ask is what is the evidence that there is a problem, and also our millennial's unique in some ways and what about the millennial eating behavior in the first place, and what challenges are they experiencing, what are the resources, where do they get this information, and when they do eat, watch help do they need to try to figure out what is the most helpful for them to eat and how to do it how do we empower them to eat better and eat more healthily.

these role models will be the next generation. we need to try to help them to understand what healthful eating is so they can teach their children. the childhood obesity will then be good because they will be teaching the right things to their children because children watch more than they listen. they observe and a model after their parents. so, here's what we learned from some research that i will discuss in a moment. it's the millennial's acknowledged that healthful eating is important. so already we have the biggest obstacle that they do think it's important that they eat. but they do say that they don't always eat healthily and they readily admitted that it eats too many fried foods. they don't eat enough produce, they don't eat enough vegetables. as a, we are seeing that there is an opportunity there to help.

so, looking at the literature, what is known about the millennial eating habits? in 2010 there was a report by the genitals, the retired generals did say that the percentage of 17 to 24-year-olds that do not qualify for the military service was 75% so these people were not able to defend the country, and mostly it's because of obesity. so, that was a major concern for the country. also, physicians according to a report in 2012 and the journal of adolescent health do not address obesity and excess weight gain with young adults. they are just not even seeing those physicians but they do not seem to address it with these young people. the food and health surveys said

that they don't get targeted messages that are directly related to them. they do see themselves as eating less healthily. they do recognize that there needs to be something that they can do in their diet, but they are not doing it right now. and that they are concerned about other things which may actually persuaded them because they are worried about so many of the other issues that are in their environment, they are in the food safety, concerned about the ingredients in their food, and perhaps they are not really focused on just eating a healthy balanced diet. so i think that they are also vulnerable to certain issues with people's agendas and they do lack certain skills that their parents or grandparents might have had and that is a lack of meal planning skills. they generally skip breakfast which causes the need for

additional snacking later on in life, and there is susceptible to emotional triggers and that is that they cry every time they see food, but when they are tired or when they need a break they are using their emotions to guide whether it is time to eat or looking out for their body needs are. understanding the millennial eating habits is what we decided to look at, and we want to learn more about what the millennial's current eating habits are and what are their views towards nutrition that will help them balance their eating habits. we want to focus more on what influences their decision about what they do eat and whether there are barriers to choosing foods that they think are healthier. where are their sources of information coming and who do they each rest? as we mentioned, there is a difficulty in establishing trust. they are the group that has the

least trusted the messages that they seek so understanding their trust factor is a very major part to understanding how to communicate with them so what we did is we looked at six messages that we tested with parents of young children in 2010 to try to see if some of those also resonated and motivate young people today to eat more healthily. so, that was our mission in understanding more about eating habits. we conducted six focus groups in two places around the country. we selected one in arkansas because he had one of the highest rates of obesity and we chose maryland because they had one of the lowest rates of obesity, and we did different levels of education to see if education had something to do with their eating habits and their knowledgebase as well as whether they are male or female and their location obviously we chose to different locations as they mentioned.

we didn't choose people that were parents because once you are a parent you would establish different eating habits were home more often and obviously you have maybe arrived at what you already established as eating habits so we are looking at those people that are between the ages of 20 to 30 that are living on their own and are now preparing food for themselves or trying to eat from the foods that they have chosen. the eating habits include its is important to eat healthily as i mentioned and they know also that they do not eat as healthily as they should. they have opportunities to eat better and so they rate

themselves as their healthfulness of their eating as a c+. they consider more of their diet made up of red meat and fried food and fewer vegetables or fresh fruit. they have things they would not know enough about and they find it helpful and one i wanted to w about what appropriate serving size is to them. we do a lot of messaging on the packages but they recognize that they are not the subject of that information. they don't know how many of the sizes are appropriate for them and frequently they do feel hungry after eating. they are wondering what is the right size for them personally come and they also want to know how many calories per day is appropriate for them for their size, for their nutrient needs. for behavioral challenges they

say that they lack time as we heard they are working very hard and they don't have time frequently. convenience to them doesn't just mean as in cooking because cooking is something they definitely don't have time for. and he is eating something in one hand while you are driving or operating something to read that's convenience and that's why it's not surprising sandwiches are number one because you can wrap something up and go with it. that is wrapped were another thing people find very helpful because anything that you can use in one hand and then keep on doing something else is a convenience for them. they also do not have a lot of money is so a lot of the things they think are helpful they do not recognize are available to do at a lower cost as we were talking about frozen foods and other things they could beat but i don't think they recognize that they do have nutritional value and it is as good as the fresh foods and they are social

survey likso they like to eat ao each other and so sharing information among themselves is probably a hallmark of their group. but also it affects how they are seen so they try not to be outside of the peer group and eating healthily is something they may not find as socially acceptable so that is a part of what we could help them with their challenges. where are they getting information from? we have already mentioned that they are very involved in the internet and they use a lot of different sources. but they do say that if they hear information from a health professional, they would accept that as something that they feel has some merit and they do feel that they would like more information, but it's hard for them to know who to believe, so they are having those challenges.

>> although they are skeptical of messages, so understanding how to communicate to them is very important. they try to reach them with something that's very relating to their needs as important. they want to know somebody that has been successful that is like them is somebody that they will be leave. their trust is what am i going to get out of what you have to say. tell me it relates to me something i already know, something that i believe in something of a visual because it is the way that they like to operate. they also don't like to be told from the authorities. it's something through peers. so giving them something that has been successful that short and to the point is probably a message that would work as better for them than others. so, this is the group as i said that rates their diet as the

least helpful of all generations, so they do recognize that they have some challenges. looking at some of those messages that i said that while resignation with this group, testing the messages that we had with younger parents, these are the ones that res that res. that with them and also they added some ideas about what they felt would help clarity. they wanted something that they find motivational. they want something that's very positive. they don't want to be told don't do because they think that is an environment that they grew up in. and they want a goal they can achieve and they want to be short and to the point. i don't think this is just millennial's.

i think that is the way that we communicate in general. as of the two messages that we found to be the most successful about helping them to eat healthily is that fun stuff counts. they like that encouragement and they like the fact that they can go from there to find out more information. they don't want you telling them everything. they want you to say if you want to know more, go here. so you engage them to find more information rather than telling them exactly what it is and they also like the fact that to take charge of the weight gives them a feeling that they can do something. it's encouraging that they can do something that will help th them. they like something that makes them think and realize that they are in charge. some of the quotes that we have got there is always someone

trying to sell something. nothing is ever purely unbiased. we really don't understand they are surrounded by so many messages that they recognize all these messages have some kind of plans to sell something. so they have a point of sifting through those that are the ones to help them and which ones are the ones that have more value. i think when looking at the program, we were pretty shocked. when looking at it, this is what i heard that somebody in baltimore say i guess i would trust it if the government source but it just sounds really boring to me. i wouldn't be interested in hearing it if that's what they had to say. i like to stick to something that is going to catch my attention more and i think that is the challenge. i think we need to catch their attention and engage in them cognitively so that they feel like they have some control and

that if we address the challenges as far as time and money that they are challenged with. thank you for allowing me to be here today and to the panel for sharing some really great insight. i hope i can add some interesting layers to what we have already heard based on some information that edelman has gathered. primarily what you will hear today is the data we have gathered are the 8095 projects as mentioned to the millennial spore and 80 to 95 but also it is more of a snapshot of attitudes and behaviors that we

have gathered from studying this group for quite a few years and i think it's supported by what we have heard today. one of the takeaways is that they are not a monolithic bloc they are what we call a tribe of individuals so you will see that supported. before i die then i would like to do a fun exercise with some millennial stuff i work with. the group i lead is mostly made up of millennial sent hundreds of them work in the office and obviously the network so i ask them what is your food philosophy, and i think the answer that you see here absolutely is represented of the dichotomy that we see in this group and the panel has talked about. some of the ones i'm organic

except the days i'm busy it's cheeseburgers and pizza. i thought that it sounded cool so this is literally just sent to me last night among the millennial's out there in the world so i thought that was kind of interesting. we have heard a lot of this today so i will quickly move through this. that's why they matter is that they are the largest generations. in ten years and they will make up 75% of the workforce. so come if you don't already work with the millennial, you will. we had edelman refer to them as influences because they are absolutely influencing both their parents and their peers purchasing decisions and 74% said that they be leave that they influence the purchasing decisions of people around them.

like any generation before and after them, they aren't unique. paul and harry spoke to this page to during troubling times. they are an incredibly diverse generation and the most diverse generation but i think is a mix of traditional and nontraditional values really means that they are a new kind of consumer. so, beyond statistics and what we found in the study again years of studying demand counseling them on how to resignation with millennial's. they are smart and curious antisocial, flexible, moral, hedonistic cadre value centric which makes them certainly supported by think what we heard

today they value the community and they have a deep sense of framily so this idea of friends and family. as we heard today they face a lot of challenges and statistics that share the average millennial has over $28,000 the student loan debt. unemployment age for the group have nearly doubled. the national average. the median net worth fell 37%. so it is no joke that they are facing tough economic times. surprisingly though, they remain optimistic. it's a surprisingly traditional values. in fact, when we asked them specifically what the most important goals are it's a little harder to read hard to rp three answers are having a job, owning a home, getting married

and starting your family. really traditional values. but i think that as we have all indicated is that more traditionalist with a twist if you will. they want a job that matches their personal passion. they want the role of the job to be individualized. i think that was supported by some of what was just shared that they really want individual attention they defined a career as a collection of experiences adding to my personal value versus something that i think maybe the older generations could define as security or longevity. and as i think they do want to get the areas and start a family pushing back to those decisions a lot of times they are committed by cohabitating northward of seeing this trend of mortgages replacing the role of marriage licenses in some cases. and i think this dichotomy

translates to what their hopes and fears are. they want to settle down without selling. they want to make a difference in the world, but they want it to be theirs. they have a fear of having an average life. they worry about money, no surprise, they worry about not having enough, losing it, their parents going broke, and they really can't stand the thought of being alone. in fact, that fear translates to their shopping patterns. so, as marcia mentioned, they are social and we found 63% of them view shopping as a social activity. succumbing you know, we are here today to talk about how they shape the systems to consider that statistic for a second. a 63% of millennial's are going to the grocery store for instance with a friend or their family. we have said that they are influencers, so they are absolutely influencing the decisions that are being made at

the grocery store. and because often times they won't even make the decision without the approval of their friends or family, this is all coming into play when they are shopping. our survey showed that they are willing to pay a premium, not just purchased but pay a premium for the health related goods and services that fall at the top. 81% said they would be willing to pay the premium for the health related items followed closely by electronics within the dining halls at 73% so 73% said they would be willing to pay the premium for the food and dining. maybe what we saw earlier they don't have the funds to do that but they would be willing to pay the premium. so, their attitudes about health and wellness and food and dining i think that 73% statistic

illustrates that there are -- we heard todahave heard today a vey well-educated group. they are very sophisticated in their views on food. but again, we hear some of that contrast come through. they want to look good, they want to feel good. they are concerned not only with how they feel but how they look in their appearance. they want to indulge every as we saw in the quote at the beginning of, you know i eat mostly organic and healthy until i have pizza and cheeseburgers because i worked out really hard. so they want to indulge, they just want it done their way. they want to control that we heard today. we see them as really enthusiastic. they absolutely see food as a badge of their values and disorder factor. so all that said, kathy alluded to this when she introduced me,

but why do the millennial's really matter and what's interesting is they are not kids anymore. they are growing up and so they are the here and now consumer but who is the consumer of tomorrow? so edelman has actually been looking at the next generation. i don't know that we have necessarily landed on the name for them, but to me it is fascinating how much the generation of the teens differ from the millennial's an set hoy are added to the perceptions that will shape the food system in a perfunctory different way. so i thought that it would be fun to spend a few minutes going through. so, quickly, why they matter and maybe not as big as millennial's, but they are estimated to be nearly 90 million strong by the near 2030. they are also highly influential. interesting to point out, they are existing in the family

centric households, said they are absolutely influenced by and influencing parents have a friend, grandparents were the communities that they live and like any generation they are unique but i think what makes them particularly unique is that they are the first ever truly global generation. for the first time in history more people are living in the cities or suburbs in the rural areas and so that is the impact on how they view the world. and as i said, i think what makes the most unique is how much their attitudes and values differ from the limey holds millennial's. i hope to do more quantitative studies of generations. like millennial's they are not only technically savvy but they are into it. so not only have they not known

the world without computers and the internet and mobile phones and smartphones but they haven't had to. it's all that they know. they are aware, they are influential, reckless, they are fiercely individualistic. maybe even more so than millennial's. social, smart, socially conscious, extreme multitasking. but this is the generation that i have heard the woman put it this way if they are doing their homework with their ipod, earphones, tv on in the background is sitting in the kitchen as mom is making dinner and they are totally focused on their homework and they are getting it done but this is a completely different world and the one i grew up where i wouldn't be able to concentrate with these distractions but these are multitask are. as i said they are influencing an equal proportion.

if anyone in the room knows what those words mean you are either that have kids that age or are super cool. what are the generations hopes and fears? again, these are teens and tweens said it is in their hopes and fears. i think what is interesting is that you can see that social consciousness, through. they want to understand the role in the larger world. they want to make a difference. they appreciated being able to share it. issues that matter to them and their peers batter and they want to raise awareness about this issue. they want to experience new things and explore and discover, that they want to do it in the comfort in the familiar things that they know. what worries them, amazingly they worry about not feeling a part of something bigger and not understanding that they are a part of something bigger. they want to be heard, they want

to be taken seriously. they don't want to wait until adulthood to realize their dreams come and i think if you were even a casual consumer of news these days you can recall a story that you have read or a piece that you saw on a 14-year-old entrepreneur. surprising that waiting to realize dreams as they fear is something that we have seen. one that i will call out here is the scare tactics don't work on generation z.. so the messaging isn't going to resonate. i think marcia eluted to this but the positive messaging works and i think given the time and the uncertainty that they have grown up in keep in mind these are kids that school shootings and violence at school has become commonplace which is incredibly sad. but certainly, sort of shaping who they are. so how do they differ from the millennial's when we compare

millennial set the same age which like i think marcia may have talked about this. so, the millennial set age eight, 17 to 19, 9 97 they were more optimistic that they would be better off than they are parents. they are less likely to think that it's cool to be smart and i would argue that they would probably answer that it's cool to be kind. they are more likely to day dream about running their own business and help others traveling around the globe into being a great artist, musician, individualistic expression of creativity, something that is important to this generation. and they are far more influenced by their parents and the millennial's and certainly, you know i think millennial's care more about the influence of their friends. but all of that is to say i think this is an indication of a really shifting mindset when we are talking about the consumer here and now no one deals and

the consumer of tomorrow with generation z.. so that was a lot of stuff. my e-mail is there if you have questions or if you need more information i would be happy to provide it. ' >> thank you to all of the panelists. we have a few minutes for questions from the room. christopher ideally will be walking around with the microphone and we already have the first taker so fantastic. >> chicago consumer coalition. i know there's been discussion about a particular age group but we've also talked with the geographic location, the health status and other parts. not one speaker has spent much time breaking this down and in the income distribution the rich versus the poor who can't afford to eat and who cannot and why is

that? >> [inaudible] you can see it very dramatically in this generation and in the report two months ago it was a little bit counterintuitive [inaudible] one of the reasons this generation is having a tough time getting started they are likely to have student loan debt and those that have gone to college -- about one third -- we looked at 25-23-year-olds. they are beyond their education and let's take a look at their economics. it divides those that have gone to college and those that have not gone to college.

first of all, they have gone about 33%. two thirds of them have student loan debt that average average t 28,000. it's a very hard way to get started when you have that. but you compare their economic circumstances with the economic circumstances of the 60 or 65% that have not gone to college and you see the bigger gap than you saw 20 or 30 years ago so in the knowledge-based economy if you haven't for example the unemployment rate of 25 to 33-year-olds for a college graduate is actually not that bad. it's 3.8%. for those in the same age group that have not gone off to college, 12%. the jobs are not out there for them into the world is collapsing for them and you see that in their income into wealth

and on their desk. succumb it is a very good question and the economic divide within the generation is quite large. >> i would answer the question this way because you could ask -- if you asked me what is the difference between the two i would have been happy to do it. but you talked about millennial's, that is not an easy -- talk about how people eat in this country that is not an easy answer but the question is often asked there at the uppeare theupper income of mills behaving differently than the lower income and there is no question. we may have the same aspirations, the same desires, but the money is a different factor in what you are going to do. if you ask me the question i would have had to answer. >> i work for a wellness focused

nonprofit in new york city and i used to work for the new york city council on food policy. my question is on the panel about how millennial's are shaping the food system, there is a shocking lack of millennial's on the panel and i don't think that today we could get away with having a conversation about women's issues or african-american issues without having a single one of those people on the panel. and as someone who i feel like is very engaged and does eat while i found some of those comments may be a little insulting. so i guess i'm curious how we can engage millennial's in a thoughtful way and really bring them to forums like this because it wasn't as if the baby boomers just decided to start eating different. it was the push of young parents and young people, far associations. i guess the question is how can we engage them and bring that baby to the panel to actually talk about their own experience?

>> again, invite them. it's not my fault that they are not here. watching the millennial and watching how people eat, invite them. we have people in our position that our millennial's work with us on how people eat. it's not a very difficult thing to do. >> i would add, you know, certainly the 80 to 95 project at edelman is what we call a living and breathing focus group of millennial's. so we are capping the community for inside information on behalf of clients and general knowledge all the time. so all this stuff i've gathered we -- shared we have gathered from the millennial's and i mentioned 4200 employees i think that edelman has across the world and i would venture to say at least half if not more. so i think that they are informing all of would certainly invite role in what we do on a

daily basis, and i think it was reflected in the research that we have seen and shared. >> the last comment is i did report on the focus groups that we did with the millennial, so it was a reflection of what they were saying. >> director of food safety for cspi. i'm interested i didn't hear much on the issues of local, natural organic and farmers markets. in this generation have you tested the issue of how many of them every two weeks are shopping at farmers markets were eating organic or natural? i'm just interested whether they are part of the driver in that direction. thank you.

>> i will start us off. is this working or not working? >> i will try that. we watch everything. again it was time constraints. i was glad to stop within 13 minutes. if no question about it, the generation will define the future of eating in this country. i was also defining -- i was looking for how to avoid sox did this to my diet. let's worry about things you should avoid, not things you should add because that is what the discussion was. they are coming to what can i add to my diet, so they are talking about antioxidants, dietary fiber, things that he would add tyouwould add to maket better. clearly, on the organic there was a wonderful run where we had

a 13% of the population consuming and organic item at least once in 2003 and by 2006 a double to 26%. in a three-year perco you don't have anything move that fast but since 2006 it hasn't moved one iota. it's about a quarter of the population. population. that number come important. can you afford to have organic? again, money, this issue comes up more and more often that it's natural. do i wanwhy won't natural, no qn about it. a i know what unnatural is. but if i ask you that you have a natural product it's almost everything is natural. i would say to you it is 18 to 34-year-old group is going to be fighting for their parents and for the next generation what we are going to talk about until a new generation comes on and does the same on a new different than the baby boomers. >> anybody else?

>> i'm also at cspi in the nutrition policy department. i'm wondering if any of your research experience sheds a light on whether millennial's are more likely to make impulse decisions in the supermarket and food choices, and if so, how that affects their health. ..

it is to fill a recipe for a specific event rather than as a long-term, what do i need to happen my cupboard for the entire month or week. so those are skills that i think we could help them with, but i do think that it is impulse when they walk down the supermarket aisle they might pick up things that might not be as affordable and beneficial for the long-term. >> the one thing i can say i'm not as they are somewhat risk-averse than their consumer behavior. part of it is they don't have the money to take risk or if you look at the share of cars sold for 18 to 20 years old, sales of cars to this generation has gone back. if you read the reports from the financial agencies, the fidelity is about how young adults handle

their 401(k)s, and they are conservative in their investing habits. they're not taking on a lot of debt and they started with a lot of student loan debt. and i have a rather risk-averse view. by that i translated to impulse buying, that not my area of expertise, but maybe that can be sent sense of their consumer behaviors. >> let me add one more. let's do a thing where they go into 2000 households every year to look at the picture you. just what is in there. what do you have that affects eating habits. cooking utensils, we are about to watch the 2014 will start another one of those three years. up until 2111 thing you notice as we are less likely to have things in our house. the pantry is being devoted. we are buying as needed. i don't show that examples, but the p. entry is being shrunk in the american household. i believe this is the new

generation coming to foresight. you don't have six cans of soup in the house. get the three with a bottle of salad dressing you are according consume. >> yes, and jerry from the national report. to go back to a couple of things regarding race. in addition to the question of income inequality commie talk about the generation been diverse, but you didn't say anything about differences among whites, blacks, hispanics, any other groups. also differences between men and women. secondly, on the question about organic, wal-mart recently announced that they are going to try to provider can act products more cheaply. do you think that is the major issue? people really want organics but they can't afford them?

>> it may take a crack at the demographic diversity. it's a fascinating story and really has distorted the future future of america. i've imagine, this generation is 43% nonwhite. it is not so much the black share of the population you go back 50, 60, 70 years, we're mostly a white country by minority black population. the black population share hasn't changed much. what has changed in the last 50 years has been a huge immigration wave. a third-grade immigration wave in our history. the first or late 19th and early 20 century and they were nine and european. this wave, in absolute numbers has brought more immigrants than the first two combined. this way this half from latin america and now three and 10 from a show, although the last few years asian immigrants have actually surpassed hispanic immigrants. about 43 million immigrants have come to this country the last 40 or 50 years since we opened our doors in 1965. what you see in the millennial

generation is the children of this wave. most are the u.s.-born children of this immigrant wave. and they are the future. the immigration is likely to continue. the immigrants tend to have a lot of kids because they are strangers. they believe in the future. so we are going from a white and black checkerboard, which most of our history to much more of a rainbow. to summarize very briefly, that minority groups, all of themcome other whether black, hispanic or asian, at least the last couple of elections have at it very demographic. if you look at social and political values, they skew more liberal, although many immigrants have traditional family values, traditional work ethic values. there's a belief in the importance of government. last question was about men versus women. there are gender differences on political and social attitudes and economic circumstances. they are very similar with gender differences of all

generations. to summarize it very briefly, women tend to be more liberal and sympathetic in their political and social values than men. this generation of women, fast point i will make, guys, if this generation of women, six and 10 undergraduates these days are women, nearly 68%. if you look into graduate school and beyond, this generation of women is starting in the workforce better prepared economically than their male counterparts. and at the starting line, that wage gap, which reared a lot that it has been a part of our economics at the starting line, this generation of women, the wage gap much smaller. we reported this a month ago. it's 93 cents on the dollar rather than 78 or 81. we've also look at how the oldest generation progress is through their economic circumstances and that gap,

which starts narrower widens back up as women and men moving to the late 20s and 30s and it is likely that has to do with starting a family and the differential experiences that men and women have once they had to balance work and family. >> i will add one thing. we did a study last year called america's kitchens where we look at has been analyzed, moms and dads in the same households. talk to mom for 20 minutes or literally had had her hand the phone to die so we could ask the same exact questions. what we found this may be surprising that and dads values and food behaviors in particular, how they feed their families, what they think is important to feed their families didn't differ that much of my gender. moms and dads share a lot of the same values and a leafs.

i'd be happy to share that study, but i thought that was kind of interesting. don't quote me on this, but i think i was also held true in that particular study among multicultural groups and not as well. so just one piece to add. >> i don't even know where to begin with that question. there's so much research we could do one the differences between all of us. let me answer the first one, organic and wal-mart. i have no doubt in mind this country wants cheaper organic food. give it me, buy it. this is again something that boomers started. how do you feel about additives and preservatives? is one of the top concerns the country had. we call it organic. that is naturally produced. it's just a matter of money in my mind. on the differences between -- i've been asked the difference

between canadians and americans. the difference between people who live in florida and don't let of florida. young, old, mother, father. i'll answer with this life lesson. i try to teach my children from watching how we all eat. if you want to find differences between words, you can. give me two groups, offering you the difference if that is what you want to know. i can also guarantee you i will find more things to like that are different and we tend to strive and focus on differences and we forget we are more alike than we are different. trust me on this, i have the data to prove it. i try to teach my children is. >> thank you. i think on that note we will end the session. thank you are your much to the panelists. [applause]

>> above the independent scientists around the world in 40 countries, they all agree whether they are against gm knows or for gms, doesn't matter, they all agree is really strong before the science is ready. based upon economic interests and political interests. and the process itself i don't agree it's a relevant because the process of genetic engineering causes massive collateral damage, hundreds or thousands of mutations up or down the dna. far more than conventional reading and they don't evaluate it. some independent scientists look at corn after was on the market and found a cheap normally silent was switched on. you may have an allergic reaction, someone who may have died for me the corn genetically engineered. the process of genetic engineering crew did a search on a german jan in the changer 43

other genes. >> as for gm gmos, australia, american medical association, no problem. rlv is part of the conspiracy that a person with no scientific training has just uncovered? and is telling us all about? if that is enough for you, here are a whole bunch of other organizations. these are not organizations for scientific sounding names. these are real medical and protective organizations. in europe, which is very anti-gm though, all over the world, here is the epa, which we pay attention to when it comes to global warming or some like that. they say would not pose a reasonable risk to human development and the environment. i could come up with dozens of these. yesterday in new zealand food safety group was identified no

safety concern furnishes really fast. is this reasonable that something is extraordinary poising here, this is just fear mongering. this is nonsense about his organizations are just ignoring it? >> you can see the entire two-hour debate tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span and hear on c-span2 at 8:00.

>> next come a discussion on russian politics and regional influence, could any intervention in ukraine, the event featured heritage foundation russia expert, arial cohen and state department cia paul global. voice of america. this is just under two hours. >> we welcome all of those who are joining us on our website and other networks broadcasting today. i ask everyone here at house of your check if your cell phones have been turned off. it will be appreciated as we prepare to begin. of course, internet viewers are always welcome to send questions or comments by simply e-mailing us@speaker@heritage.org. will post on the homepage for your future reference as well.

posting our discussion today is the helle dale commit senior fellow and douglas for foreign and national security policy. she focuses on the u.s. government institutions and programs for strategic outreach to foreign countries as well as diplomacy. she's a media fellow at the hoover institution. she also serves on the board of visitors at the institute of political journalism and the center for free inquiry at hanover college in indiana. please join me in welcoming helle dale. [applause] >> thank you, john unwelcome today to our event on the russian trade and campaign we have seen in full bloom in recent months, relating to specifically russia's efforts to dominate and control parts of the former soviet empire. as we look at i have the

unstable situation in eastern ukraine and presidential elections coming up in may, the staffers by russia, i think we can all say, can be trusted to intensify. the russian actions against crimea and eastern ukraine have worked in the world to vladimir putin to determine efforts to re-create past russian influence. for this he is used to mean at his disposal, going well beyond the literary power. the new russian propaganda ministry has ran up anti-american rhetoric to a fever pitch. new services are being blocked by russian ngos are being established throughout the former republics and russian ethnic minorities in neighboring states are provided with russian english media for moscow. beyond that, and crimea and eastern ukraine to russian

special intelligence unit at night in entries. meanwhile, from the american goods, and they should say it all, we have secretary of state, john kerry and vice president joe biden spearheaded u.s. support for ukraine. if you don't find that terribly confidence inspiring, than i am with you. we have today with those three truly eminent experts on russia and the soviet union. keen observers of russian behavior past and present. our first speaker will be john lenczowski, the founder and president of the institute of rural politics. from 1991 to 1993, he served in the state department in the era of european affairs. 81 to 83 and from 83 to 87 he

was director of european and soviet affairs at the national security council. in that capacity, he served as the principal soviet affairs adviser to president reagan had he has been associated with many academic research institution, that he assert me here best known as the founder of the institute of world politics on 16th street, an eminent school of foreign policy studies, graduate school, which has spearheaded many efforts of strategic communication, public diplomacy and studies of foreign propaganda. so welcome to john. we are thrilled you're here with us today. >> thank you very much, helle. it's a great pleasure to be with you and to be with my colleagues, ariel cohen and paul goble. i have great admiration for them and maybe too much of a society adoration appeared.

anyway, helle has asked me if i would give a little bit of a background about russian propaganda or perhaps also soviet propaganda and how some of the themes and ways in names of this propaganda relate to what is going on today. there is a long tradition in the 20th century by the soviets perfect day to a science and they had an entire spectrum of activities that went from ordinary conventional public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, sports diplomacy and all sorts of conflict that that were designed for purposes of psychological disarmament. to ordinary information policy,

which was heavily manipulated mixing the truth with lies and using the troopers served their purposes of twisty net and classic propagandistic fashion. this factor when nondigital whole field of active measures, which was the kgb term of art referring to disinformation, forgeries and covert political influence operations. mds involved all sorts of things such as provocations, front organizations of influence placed in foreign newspaper heiress, and foreign parliaments and foreign governments. there were a number, given that the kgb may have been split up into a couple of different

organizations, but never really reform and given that the kgb was heavily involved in these types of active managers of operations, there's a tremendous institutional memory but then russia today about how this was done during soviet days. unfortunately, we have stopped traffic of these kinds of things in the u.s. government. in the 80s, when i was serving there, we had a soviet active measures working group, which collected were not only our intelligence community, better diplomatic community collected information about soviet disinformation themes and how they were related both to covert influence operations and to ordinary propaganda. we studied what we had picked that. we declassified the information, which we analyzed and disseminated it to other

government agencies, to editorial boards, foreign governments desensitized people of what the soviets were doing and the exposure of this activity that raises people's consciousness and enabled them to realize the degree to which perceptions were being managed. one of the great problems -- of the influence operations and therefore they don't know the history or the techniques by which perceptions management can be accomplished. i simply ask, how do you know you are perceiving reality correctly if you don't know how perceptions could be managed by

any number of years, friends or foes. this is an essential subject for the study of international relations and i think it is a sign of huge, both professional and academic malpractice that this is a subject so systematically hard except in a few corridors around the country like ours at iw peter studied these things. i wanted briefly to review a couple of classic methods of soviet propaganda and disinformation which have been carried on by the russians at the modern era. let me just say, we in the united states, not having collected information on this or having studied a n. n. a systematic fraction -- fashion are blissfully unaware to the degree to which this has affected our perception, but

there are others in neighboring countries, not least of which is ukraine, or people who living there are very familiar with soviet active measures, not russian active measures and who were in the business and who actually exposed some of these things, charge the russians for doing these things. we were hearing ukrainian accusations against russia concerning act of measures back in the early, mid and late 1990s. one of the most essential element of russian strategy and soviet strategy is to define the terms of debate. any good debater knows that he who defines the terms of debate is halfway towards winning. and what has -- the soviets did

this analysis of classic fashion. they were for peace. we were for war. they were for disarmament. we were for arms race. they were for security. we were aggressors creating insecurity, et cetera, et cetera. well, they are doing the same thing today by identifying the ukrainian government as fascist. of course lacanian the image of their opponents is a standard operating procedure in saying this is ultimate aim is battled between them, the good guys, the anti-nazis. in the crimean referendum, there were signs saying basically lane this conflict out as russia

versus the nazis. a large part of the absurd and buzz distracting people's attention from the issue at hand. distraction is a huge element of propaganda and one of the ways russian propaganda is doing this, especially as far as the united states and god has been passed to accuse us legally invading iraq, attempting to co-opt all sorts of people around the world who questioned the legality there other things like that, but suffice to say this is a major element. they accuse their adversaries are doing what they do. namely covert action.

the covert action in the east with it is precisely their provocateurs and engaging these types of driving up demonstrations and so on and so forth, stage protest. semantics are another key technique in all of this. i can only say one of the elements in this and there are many different dimensions. he may have seen recent reports about the use of no mercy as a region of southern and eastern ukraine as it was called during czarist times, which they claim to be russian territory. then, there are certain other scenes. one of them is moscow is

paranoid. this is a classic soviet strategic two k. everybody in the west to believe we have to handle moscow with gloves. we cannot provoke them too much. we cannot resist what they were doing are all civil provoke them into make things worse. and then, there is the expert to try to co-opt sympathizers among the enemy. what is remarkable is the degree to which putin's cynical defense of christian nuns and traditional moral values, anti-lgbt campaign and all of this has managed to attract all sorts of social conservatives, not only in the united states, but particularly in europe. let me just make a couple --

there's so much more of these things that can be said and i'm sure my colleagues will say a them -- will address a number of them. i would like to deal briefly with what the united states should do. as i've mentioned before, it is essential that we as a government i academic institutions, think tanks do more analysis in this field. i am absolutely delighted the foundation has seen fit to have this for a two cast some light on this issue. this is a classic issue that shouldn't just be raised her for crisis moments that some and that goes on all the time and so many different conflicts around the world, whether it's the middle east and the radical islamism, china, these are fertile fields for analysis. the next thing the united states

has to do is have a voice of truth. we have shut down the so many public diplomacy capabilities in this country. we shut down the united states information agency in what i call the right person fit of absence of mind in 1999. i think it was all supposed to be very efficient and we folded a shadow of usia former capabilities into the department of state where it remains an orphaned child. yes, we do some public diplomacy at the state department, but it is ignored. it is not something that is your ticket to becoming an assistant secretary of state. we have a diplomatic culture in this country and not a serious soft power culture. i would venture to say that the u.s. army has a greater sensitivity to soft p