Tobacco-style regulation needed on 'unhealthy' foods
The usual suspects have written a letter to the World Health Organisation demanding a global treaty on food. They want the marketing, production and composition of food to be regulated by unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats in government agencies - which is convenient since the people who wrote the letter happen to work for government agencies or their sock puppets.
Needless to say:
This could be modelled on the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control which has already proved successful in reducing tobacco use.
If the FCTC is the model, it can only be a matter of time before our dietary decisions are made for us in a closed room in Moscow from which journalists and the public have been expelled. 'Big Food' will naturally be prohibited from participating in the proceedings.
The authors of the letter say:
The governance of food production and distribution cannot be left to economic interests alone.
Because the state has such a great track record of governing food production when economic interests have been excluded.
To achieve the necessary dietary improvements and to secure good population health, a set of policy options for healthy diets are required. This includes governments taking regulatory approaches to the operation of the market through, for example, restrictions on marketing to children, health claims, compositional limits on the saturated fat, added sugar and sodium content of food, removal of artificial trans fats, interpretative front-of-pack labelling, restaurant calorie labelling, fiscal measures and financial incentives, and public health impact assessments in trade and investment policies.
We used to use the term "food police" as a light-hearted insult. These fanatics want to make it literal. "Compositional limits on the saturated fat, added sugar and sodium content of food" means nothing less than the government banning entire recipes. "Fiscal measures" means fat, sugar and soda taxes.
The letter was signed by the likes of Mike "creative epidemiology" Daube, Barry "fruit juice is the new smoking" Popkin, Mike "Joan of Arc" Rayner, Simon "sugar is the new tobacco" Capewell and, of course, Simon "thin end of the wedge" Chapman.
These madmen must be stopped.
5 comments:
Shoot, I was sure that it was going to be cars next: http://antithrlies.com/2013/04/01/press-release-fctc-demands-governments-researchers-avoid-talking-to-automotive-industry/
To achieve the necessary dietary improvements and to secure good
population health, a set of policy options for healthy diets are
required.
I wonder if these guys realise quite how breathtakingly arrogant they are, that they appoint themselves as arbiters of what we are allowed to eat. Does it never occur to them that they might be (whisper it....) WRONG?
You are totally correct, Chris. These madmen must be stopped. And soon, before they do any more damage.
A 'set' is singular.
These madmen must be stopped. And soon, before they do any more damage.
Absolutely. What do we do though? Keep our fingers crossed that our government has the sense to reject all these barmy proposals?
If this stuff comes in at EU or WHO level then is there any way to fight it anyway?
Restrict the general public's goodies and sooner or later it'll bite back. Tobacco Control now largely thrives on the demonisation of a minority group and active encouragement of non smokers to despise and fear smokers. How are they going to achieve this if the vast majority is the latest target?
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