by Jeff Stier, June 5, 2013
A major schism has developed among left-of-center food activist groups who influence food policy.
On the left, are the liberal Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the First Lady's Let's Move campaign who believe that a business case can be made for industry to offer consumers healthier and lower calorie food options. They are trying to foster an environment where portion-controlled snacks, healthy frozen entrees, and alternatives to sugary soda will be good for Big Food's bottom line. They figure that if consumers demand healthy options, industry will respond to meet the demand. Sure, there's a subtle threat when "encouragement" comes from the White House, but the focus, literally, is on the carrot, not the stick.
On the far left, however, are the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), self-styled food lawyer Michele Simon, and a cadre of strident activists who believe sticks, in the form of aggressive government interventions, are the way to fight obesity. In their world-view, food companies acting in their best interest can't be a part of the solution, because they are the problem. The far-left voices are influential; their fiery rhetoric gets them rewarded with plenty of media....To Read More......
My Take - As a conservative I have chosen to avoid Coca Cola. I drink Diet Coke! I don't insist that everyone else drink Diet Coke. I don't care if they drink that stuff or not. I don't drink if for the lo-cal aspect either. I just like it. Mostly I drink iced tea....no sugar.....aspertame. I don't insist everyone drink iced tea....or use aspertame. However, if I were a liberal....not only would I not drink regular coke I would demand that no one else drink it either because I don't like it, and I would be outraged that someone drank anything with aspertame in it, and the reasons would really be immaterial. Liberals just can’t mind their own darn business.
I would like to point out that there are far more diet drinks available now that there ever was in the 50's and early 60's, so people have choices. So why can't we just let them choose? In fact....I don't think diet drinks even existed in the 50's. So then, if that's the case, and Coke, RC, Pepsi, and all the rest had only sugar filled options, why is this a problem now? I have the answer.
Did you ever drive past a play ground baseball diamond? I'm on the road every day and every day I drive past a playground, and every day the baseball diamonds are empty. When I was a kid we played baseball every day in the summer and football in the fall. Every day! And we drank Coke....regular Coke. It's calories in calories out. If the kids are not running, throwing, catching and generally burning up calories they will get fat. Get over it lefties and try for once in your mean, self righteous interfering lives to mind your own business. But then they would have to blame the kids and their parents for making choices they like and the lefties don't like. That leaves the soda companies and all the other food manufacturers. They just love to find deep pockets to blame and in the end they will accept donations for promoting stuff that no one likes and no one wants. But big business will fund them to shut them up and big activists will take their money while giving them a kick in the ribs every once in a while so that they won't forget to keep feeding that till.
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