The Politics of Food

[junkmale]

Every now and again, the mass hysteria we usually reserve for riots after sporting events and dramatic forecasts of the impending death of life on Earth takes a tilt to the left and instead tries to save us from our eating habits. Recent examples include NYC's band on trans fats and Chicago's recently repealed ban on foie gras, but America has a

Comments

[zastrazzi]

I'm sure there are a plethora of examples of lobbying being a good thing, but... just ow. All of the above makes me want to resign the human race.

And then I remember there are still tasty things like bacon and butter :)

Looking forward to the brioche pictures and recipe, and you have my thanks in advance for doing that. Way above the call of duty, and I appreciate the effort you and your mom went to.

[junkmale]

Lobbying gets to be a bad thing when it's either too responsive to the masses (who are beings of limited intelligence) or not responsive enough to the masses. Most food legislation is an example of the first one. People stranded during Katrina would be an example of the second. The trick of modern democracy is to set up a system where the people have a voice, and the decision-makers can be smart enough to ignore it most of the time. And to the extent things aren't going well right now, it's because the people are too loud and the government is too dumb.

Left-wing nannies are banning trans-fats, but they're the ideological cousins of the right-wing stem cell opponents. The U.S. has gotten so used to yoking science and industry for its own gain that it's forgotten that these things come from somewhere.

As long as we have people banning useful substances, that "somewhere" is elsewhere.