Uncle Sam, Nutritionist?

Here's one! How about stopping the food industry from putting steroids and hormones into the food, or addictive substances, and see if that helps.

Government should support organic farming and stop subsidizing powermongering super-lobbying food corporations. How about a fair business practices law governing the food industry.. fair for farmers, fair for consumers, profit comes last, because food is the core of human existence.

Chris

Yeah, what he said!!

ga

Amen. It's time to get out of the socialism sickbed and stand on our own two feet again.

So you're all in favor of ending all subsidies or other government favors to big agribusiness, big pharma, big oil? That is the system we have today, and that is why it's cheaper to buy a Big Mac than a locally-grown grass-fed hamburger patty.

Yes... take all that money and give it to organic food growers. (I live in one of those damned socialist countries. )

How about not taking money from any group in the first place, and not giving any to some other group in the second place?

but...but....that would completely defeat the purpose of government.

Our local county government decreed that fast food places must list calories of items on their menus. This was later followed by others and now is included in our recently passed National Healthcare Bill.

Last month the same county group outlawed the use of toys as prizes in Kid Meals at those same eating places. No more toys with your chicken nuggets !

Dear ADM, Tyson and ConAgra:

I would like you to instruct your highly-paid lobbyists to influence my Congressman to revoke the laws you indirectly had imposed that provide substantial market incentives to your current business practices and therefore, your quarterly profit reports.

Thank you,

Lynn Wallace

Quite frankly, that's the best way to be ignored and marginalized as a whacko. But, if it makes you feel better, so be it. You don't have to be nasty to have your message heard.

I think his point is; what would you actually say to these organizations, when their purpose is evidenced by their inhuman behaviour, that might sway them. It is to some degree rather like pleading with satan for mercy. Can you please provide an example. While I found the 'letter' inciteful/inspiring, I could think of nothing to replace it?

Chris

Sir Knight,

Methinks you're not getting it. These large companies gradually re-wrote the rules to make their way of doing business the most profitable. The laws need to change (back), not their behavior. This is difficult, because they are so huge that entire industry segments if not entire industries rely on their operations.

So maybe you are right, in that consumers need to lobby not our government, but the corporations, in order to re-balance the market. Of course, any change benefits the corporation - they'll see to it.

Right or not, we have a system that is not organized the way I want it to be. I want the laws to be written with more priority on my health and the health of the environment than on the bottom line of any corporation.

It all depends on:

1) How representative the sample was (scientific or not)

2) How the question was phrased - with correct phrasing you can normally get most any answer you want

I agree about the fishing expedition comment!

IMHO the obesity problem will only be solved when there is a complete ban on trans fat. The artificial fat product does not nourish, because we are not biochemically equipped to break down and use it, or even to easily detox and get rid of it. It seems the biochemical default is "store this stuff in fat cells till we figure out what to do with it. Oh, and send another message to the brain complaining that we haven't eaten yet". Sounds like a recipe for obesity, to me.

Trans fat shouldn't be in food, and that's the sort of thing that might as well be a law for public protection. Regulation, and monitoring, for non-food additives, poisons, foodborne pathogens in our food is a good service for the government to provide. Sure I wash and inspect my food when I prepare it, but I don't mind if the govt inspectors have already had a crack at it before my turn...

No tax on food! They should never be allowed to tax anything with a caloric or nutrient value, and it would never solve the "problem of obesity" either. No one is going to consume less than they need to feel satisfied, just because the leprachauns tax man is scarfing off a share of the profit. Taxes that "help" us to consume less... what a scam that is. If it's a toxic additive or food substitute, ban it outright. Otherwise, hands off. Helping to inform our decisions is okay, but making them for us is not.

Maybe the best solution would be to simply label every food with the words "Moderation is the key to healthy eating." I think that about sums up the health risks of food.

artsmith for Prime Minister! or GA.