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    A Pioneer Of Food Activism Steps Down, Looks Back

    Michael Jacobson invented a new style of food activism. For four decades, he led the fight against "junk food." He's now stepping down as president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
    by Dan Charles Sep 07, 2017 5 minutes
    Michael Jacobson (right) and Bonnie Liebman, CSPI's director of nutrition, launching a campaign against over-salted food in the late 1970s.

    If you are the kind of person who picks up a box of food in the store and studies the label to see how much sugar or salt is in it, you can thank a man named Michael Jacobson.

    Those labels with nutritional facts are a part of Jacobson's legacy, one of his many victories in a four-decade-long battle against "junk food." He has also had a hand in halting the marketing of many sugar-filled foods to children, reducing salt levels in packaged foods, and banning trans fats. Next week, he's stepping down, after 44 years, as president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C.

    Jacobson is a paradoxical character. When he's quoted in a news story, he typically sounds ferocious. Butin person, he's soft-spoken and chooses his words carefully. He'll break into friendly, wide-eyed smile while insulting the

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