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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (52035)	3/6/2008 8:51:07 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 540859

I don't think people would vote on food. They would vote to elect people who would decide on food. If, because of our capitalist system, those people were captured by special interests, then we'd have the same old crap. And if you made people vote on food, and allowed "campaigning", you'd again get special interest capture, and the sugar industry would no doubt convince everyone that 156 pounds of sugar a year is optimal for good health. The way to approach the problem (imo) is to have public health professionals choose the healthiest products to subsidize (I'm thinking carrots, then good green leafy lettuces, avocados, brown rice, whole grain breads)- and that we punish, with taxes, the "bad" products- (like sugar, white flour, margerine). I would be for the state buying the good products for school lunches. I would want supports for farmers who grow non GMO crops and who don't use BST in their cows, and who rely on good practices rather than antibiotics. So that's how I think it could be different. People can screw up anything, but the way US children are eating is just sickening, so as part of health reform, we really need to look at American eating- and because the profit motive got us to where we are, I have zero confidence it can get us to a solution. Here's a thought experiment for you- when a capitalist food system gets to the point ours is at, where citizens are literally eating themselves sick, how do you fix it?