1) Consumers are repeatedly lied to, either directly or through omission, by junk food makers about the nutritional merits of their products. The USDA and FDA are complicit in this.

2) There is evidence that shows that several key ingredients in junk food, alone and in combination, cause people to exhibit classic addict behaviors in order to get them. The junk-food addicted rats study is a good one to mention. In other words, an addicted person’s decision-making abilities are compromised thus making them easier targets for #1.

3) Junk foods are some of the cheapest you can buy.

4) Junk foods require little to no cooking skills to make edible. Let’s ignore raw fruits and veggies for the sake of the argument.

If you believe any the above then it doesn’t make sense to tax the consumer. That is in effect punishing them for being ignorant, manipulated, poor, addicts. Instead let’s punish the junk food makers by taking away their ability to advertise and adding a tax to the producers. It was done with cigarettes and to a limited degree with alcohol. Sure, it hasn’t stopped people from drinking too much and smoking cigarettes but in the case of junk food children and teens are being targeted more heavily and directly than practically any other age group. Kids usually can’t purchase food themselves but they can demand that it be bought for them.

If processed foods were more costly to produce then they would be more expensive in the store and healthy whole foods would become more competitively priced. The revenue could be put into better food education and direct subsidies on whole foods.

Getting together with your folks for dinner tonight…….

Max scored……he is working as the set designer for a new Miranda July movie (“You, Me and Everyone We Know”-2005) in L.A. right now. He will be in production through all of March. If you are not familiar with this director/actress/performance artist, Google her. She is fascinating. I’m so excited for Max!

Rooting for your cause!

Gail

You can rent “Me, You and Everyone We Know”……Jared, you will love this quirky movie that took major indie awards……it has an element of “Mr. Shitty Hands”)

A person keeping a total of three or fewer chickens, ducks, doves, pigeons, pygmy goats or rabbits shall not be required to obtain a specified animal facility permit. If the Director determines that the keeper is allowing such animals to roam at large, or is not keeping such animals in a clean and sanitary condition, free of vermin, obnoxious smells and substances, then the person shall be required to apply for a facility permit to keep such animals at the site.

For more information, check out this site.

Just checking your blog out for the first time as a mutual friend referred me to your site. First off, let me say that I appreciate your work and your voice resonates with me deeply. I, as well as many Americans, are in the same boat when it comes to the decisions we make every day concerning where our food comes from. It sure IS conflicting and also down right frustrating that we must compromise our family’s health because of the all mighty dollar. I agree with Dana, and in fact just seconds into reading your post, heard the words “sounds like a conversation to have”. This may indeed be a powerful and intended moment to bring to light the many decisions we must evaluate when our family’s health is concerned. Bring the knowledge to the people and rally them together to be forward-thinking and empower them to, at the very least, be conscious of the current situation and what it means to “vote” with their dollar. It is similar in the way that when someone decides to quite smoking, one of the powerful motivators for many is in understanding the sinister functioning’s of the tobacco companies. The only way we are going to get people to change the way they eat is to expose the realities to them, while simultaneously inspiring them to be conscious eaters. You have the power to inspire, use it brother!