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The CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute will host an online forum event on February 12, 2026, from 2pm – 3pm ET, examining the high-profile lawsuit brought by the City of San Francisco against manufacturers of ultra-processed foods and its broader implications for public health policy.
Featuring legal, public health, and policy experts, the forum will explore how litigation may shape future approaches to regulating ultra-processed foods at the local, national, and global levels. The discussion will consider accountability, regulatory authority, and lessons from related policy efforts in the United States and internationally.
The event will be moderated by CUNY SPH Professor Dr. Jen Cadenhead and will include San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, Professor Jennifer Pomeranz (NYU), and Mikateko Mafuyeka (GHAI).
Moderator:
Jennifer Cadenhead, PhD, RD, Assistant Professor, Environmental, Occupational, and Geospatial Health Sciences, CUNY SPH
Panelists:
- David Chiu, JD, MPP, City Attorney of San Francisco
- Jennifer L. Pomeranz, JD, MPH, Associate Professor of Public Health Policy and Management, NYU School of Global Public Health
- Mikateko Mafuyeka, LLM, Legal Advisor, Africa Global Health Advocacy Incubator
This forum builds on the Institute’s ongoing work examining the health and political impacts of ultra-processed foods and related prior online forums such as “Junk Food Politics: How Beverage and Fast Food Industries Are Reshaping Emerging Economies,” “Targeting Ultra-Processed Food to Improve Nutritional Health: The Value and Limits of a Framing,” and “De-normalizing Predatory Marketing of Unhealthy Food,” and ”Ultra-Processed Foods: Their Role in Dietary Health and Disease,” among other events.
