“You know whose problem I think the public health obesity crisis is? It’s [HHS Secretary] Tommy Thompson and [Agriculture] Secretary Ann Veneman and the president of the United States and the U.S. Congress. They have got to show the leadership to help us tackle this problem as a society,” said Tom Stenzel, president and CEO of the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association.

Stenzel cited the $3 million to $4 million budget of the government’s “5-A-Day” program to encourage fruit and vegetable consumption. “The amount of resources that our federal government is putting into tackling this challenge is abysmal. We’re going to tackle this when government gets serious and looks at the cost of what we’re really dealing with here,” he said.

Sandy Beall, president and CEO of the Ruby Tuesday chain of restaurants, suggested that the federal government “create something of great importance that people might rally behind,” like a Presidential Healthy School Certification program.

Schools also need to teach healthy living each year throughout the curriculum, he said. “That’s so key, because then you’re causing change and you’re creating habits instead of just one-time information, I think.”

Several of the participants mentioned the importance of adding more physical activity to American lives. People should “recognize that exercise as we talk about it is more than just calisthenics and joining the gym,” said Michael Suk, special assistant to the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, who encouraged Americans to be more active on public lands.

Others mentioned the influence of agricultural policy on the obesity epidemic. Aiding farmers is “a worthy objective,” Stenzel said, “but we really haven’t looked at what impact those billions and billions of dollars have on public health.”

Tufts professor James Tillotson, Ph.D., said some fixes like a presidential blue ribbon committee or consolidation of all nutritional issues under one government department might be among the solutions that government considers as it faces the obesity problem.

But in the final analysis, “it’s the individual taking responsibility for the diet -- what they eat, their behavior toward food and their activity,” he said.