Keep Your Self-Righteous Hands Off Of My Processed Foods!

"Demanding that other people impoverish themselves, especially these days, in the name of your pet cause — goes way beyond Marie Antoinette saying 'let them eat cake'" explains Charlotte Allen in the LA Times. The piece argues against Michael Pollan, "food snobs" et al, demanding everyone "keep their self righteous fingers off my processed foods." Allen explains that we can afford to eat whatever food we like, so she suggests we enjoy it! But can the earth afford it? Can future generations afford to inherit our bad habits?

Creating a sustainable food infrastructure isn't about limiting personal freedoms or snobbish left-wingers getting their way. Smarter food production can benefit everyone. It's about reducing emissions and cutting farming practices that harm the environment. It's about healthy children having a healthy diet — healthy for the body, and healthy for the planet. This isn't just a question of freedom to eat Häagen-Dazs and not eat plants, but ensuring Häagen-Dazs and plants are grown in a way that can be sustained and enjoyed by future generation.

Schools are increasingly moving to meals that don't rely so heavily on highly processed foods — doing it cheaply as well. Rochelle Davis, founder of the Healthy Schools Campaign in Chicago, who has support from the White House, explained to the New York Times that "this is not a nice little niche issue anymore.” With the U.S. spending "$147 billion a year on diet-related illness," Häagen-Dazs and processed food may be cheap, but the long-time effects of bad childhood nutrition may become even more costly if we continue to let kids eat cake everyday.

[Photo credit: Clean Wal-Mart]