My dad sent me an interesting article from The Washington Post this morning. The author discusses the effect of the food industry’s marketing campaigns on society (particularly the obesity epidemic that we are facing). The article points out the strength of the food industry, their massive budget, and concentrated effort to manipulate people’s behavior with highly targeted advertisement, portion sizes, fat content, etc. Finally, the author calls for increased government regulation to protect the consumer by “…making sure that what is available is healthy, and that the contents of foods are transparent and easily understandable, even to those who are illiterate”.
While I do place a great deal of the responsibility for this epidemic on the food market, I think that the author is a bit light on the individual’s responsibility. Of course, there are many circumstances where the odds are so stacked against the individual that they are insurmountable, but I do think that there are actions that people can take to begin living a healthier lifestyle. Thankfully, this issue is becoming more prevalent in the media and in our culture and people will begin to see that there are options for them and actions that they can take.
So what actions can we take? The obvious answer is to work to improve your eating habits and those of your friends and family. Those that want to go further can:
- contact their representatives
- donate to support, research, and advocacy groups
If you know of more resources, please include them in your comments on this post.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Katie // Feb 22, 2007 at 5:56 pm
A few thoughts..The food industry’s lobby IS powerful and does restrict the abilities of the people in the federal government who are working to write good policies. Both The Food and Drug Administration and United States Department of Agriculture work diligently to provide sound nutritional policy and programs to ALL people in this country. But they fight an uphill battle.
As is the case more often then not, we see low income people are affected the most by these policies. Organizations like the Food Research Action Center ( www.frac.org) work hard to provide good nutritional advice to families across the country who are facing difficult financial decisions every day,. Never mind planning healthy meals, they are working to keep a roof over their heads.
The fact of the matter is healthy food tends to be expensive food. If you visit a lower income community you will more often see McDonalds, Burger King, than Health Food Stores and Cooperatives. Visit a grocery store in a low income community and you will see much less offered in the fresh vegetables and fruits section. It is more expensive for the store owners to bring these in, so canned and processed foods are much more prevalent.
Statistics show us that there are links between low income families and obesity. (Obesity Battle Starts Young for Urban Poor, Boston Globe, December 29, 2006). Not only do we need to fight the food industry’s lobby for ourselves and our health, we need to ensure that all people have access to healthy, nutritional food for themselves and their families.
2 Katie (also) // Feb 22, 2007 at 8:22 pm
I agree with Katie number one on the frustration of how much cheaper it is to eat miserably unhealthy things. i heard the owner of WholeFoods (aka Whole Wallet) questioned about that issue once and he answered “it’s a matter of priorities, you notice that even the poorest of families own TVs” gimme a break dude. there has to be a way to address the problem without hoping for a sudden utopia where people forsake x-boxes for edamame. but i do think a lot can help with increasing understanding of why it should be a priority. it’s hard to stand in the grocery store and want to spend more for a box of organic spaghetti when there is a perfectly good box of regular spaghetti for cheaper! there are so many conflicting reports about diets and nutrion, people don’t know what to believe! so surprise surprise, i think it should start with education!
as far as what “can we do?” resources -
I’m a fan of micro-lending, which is like ebay for investors, you get to pick which small entrepreneurs you want to invest in - i’m sure there will be a number of agricultural businesses included. http://www.accion.org/
just an idea - i have several friends who work in this - for non-profits and lobbies, will pass on to them to see if they have ideas.
great idea guys for doing the blog. though i think you’re still way ahead of me. last week i had a can of creamed corn and some toast for dinner one night!
kt
3 Katie (also) // Mar 14, 2007 at 2:46 pm
OK, slightly off-topic but there are 2 great site that i frequent that are in line with “the cause”
http://www.grist.org/ - is about all-around environmental responsibility. I love it because it is funny and light and realistic. i firmly believe that if we are going to change and improve, we have to also accept that we are human beings and furthermore human beings that grew up in a culture that has definitely influenced us. rome wasn’t built in a day, and i hate preach sites that act like we should all eat organic every single day even when we’re late for work.
2nd site is: http://www.newdream.org/
a great site for overall simplified, responsible living. one of their mottos is “less stuff, more fun” amen!
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