Is Big Food really the next Big Tobacco?

stevo

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The article linked below talks about the big food companies being compared to tobacco companies and being held responsible for making us unhealthy. This is a US article.

I'm a bit 50/50 on the subject. Sure they make unhealthy food but bad food choices aren't the only problem. If you blame bad food you'd also have to blame Microsoft, Facebook and even electricity for making us inactive and fat. I do blame Microsoft and Facebook for making people inactive and fat, but in the end it's up to the people to make that choice. People know deep fried food is bad for your health and vegies are good. They know they spend way too much time on Facebook and joke about it.

Full article here: http://foodtank.com/news/2014/03/is...g-tobacco-new-proposals-want-to-hold-food-man
 

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That's a pretty long article and I have to say it draws an even longer bow :)

Suggesting big food companies are similar to the tobacco industry and open to litigation for making people unhealthy is ridiculous IMO.

For a start, everyone has to eat to live but nobody has to smoke to survive. Secondly, if the author P.K. Read wants to be silly, overindulging and becoming obese from food is not just a modern day phenomenon - people have been fat throughout history and it is possible to get fat by eating good healthy natural food if you eat enough of it!

No, I personally don't think big food is really the next big tobacco... Sure, there will boundaries and new laws for packaging, labelling, and marketing introduced which big food will have to abide by so society can educate people but I don't believe major food manufacturers or fast food retailers will become open slather to lawsuits by people because they can't fit into their prom dress anymore.

Think of the burden of proof - "So, which big food company made you fat Sir, Coke, McDonalds, Supermarket, Choc-mania bars, or all of the above?" These days, there is no reasonable way a person could claim they didn't know a diet high in calories and limited exercise caused obesity and in turn other diseases.

The only way I see big food getting into trouble is through food poisoning, deliberately including artificial additives proven to cause diseases (like cancer), misleading statements, or wrong labelling, etc and they can already be fined and taken to court for these things.
 

Tim C

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Too much litigation in society altogether and not enough focus on personal decisions through informed choice. Cofliction and bias reign supreme when vested interests monopolise any area where money is to be made. Greed is the reason for this. The health of the people is not even considered. Tobacco was promoted for years by the powers that be despite irrefutable bad health outcomes. Generations of people were misguided by government and capitalism and became addicted. Now those people are ostracised by "guvment" and made into pariahs. Another despicable and hypocritical connivance by those in power. Still they continue the genocide and disparity of the poor and less educated by stocking the shelves. Effectively making tobacco available to children through taxation and control, rather than putting tobacco on the PBS. Like all insidious, addictive and potentially life-destroying drugs it should be regulated by physicians. Not police. The UK recently talked about making tobacco illegal to purchase for anyone born after 2000. (Todays 14 year olds). All well and good. But that is also enforced regulation, which in itself is a major part of the problem. Supply and demand sees drugs of all sorts are worth big dollars on the black market. This is the area that needs to be addressed. By decriminalisation and education, not mandatory enforcement of more and more laws. Not further erosion of freedom, but rather informed choice and societal change in attitude through education. Decriminalisation may well see a minor spike in usage, but the long term result would be less damage to society in general, especially the poor. Drugs placed on the PBS would see a two-fold effect. The limiting of financial disparity, and maximising their dis-approval by stigma of the younger generations.
It would be one area where government hypocrasy could be controlled, if not eradicated. The Scandinavian countries are proof this works, but our illustrious leaders continue to counter-interperate the results of history. Abolition does not work.
Yes. Big food is the next-big-tobacco. Maybe the health outcomes are not as dire. In all probability, and wrongly, the litigeous claims will exceed the financial penalty meted out to big tobacco, which should have been wholly borne by government. That is where it is wrong. Government still refuse to accept the part they played in tobacco addiction, and despite their ongoing and exponential profit, they put the onus on those companies they still endorse. Sly and dodgy as always.
An American-style roll-out of Marijuana by government and big business will also see this go down the same capitalist road, rather than limit ill-effect. Litigation and criminal penalty(for personal cultivation-like tobacco) will be further increased. Supply and demand also. Big business and government need to be kept at arms length from all of these areas. I just want them to stay the hell out of my life.
 
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Tim C

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That's a pretty long article and I have to say it draws an even longer bow :)

Suggesting big food companies are similar to the tobacco industry and open to litigation for making people unhealthy is ridiculous IMO.

For a start, everyone has to eat to live but nobody has to smoke to survive. Secondly, if the author P.K. Read wants to be silly, overindulging and becoming obese from food is not just a modern day phenomenon - people have been fat throughout history and it is possible to get fat by eating good healthy natural food if you eat enough of it!

No, I personally don't think big food is really the next big tobacco... Sure, there will boundaries and new laws for packaging, labelling, and marketing introduced which big food will have to abide by so society can educate people but I don't believe major food manufacturers or fast food retailers will become open slather to lawsuits by people because they can't fit into their prom dress anymore.

Think of the burden of proof - "So, which big food company made you fat Sir, Coke, McDonalds, Supermarket, Choc-mania bars, or all of the above?" These days, there is no reasonable way a person could claim they didn't know a diet high in calories and limited exercise caused obesity and in turn other diseases.

The only way I see big food getting into trouble is through food poisoning, deliberately including artificial additives proven to cause diseases (like cancer), misleading statements, or wrong labelling, etc and they can already be fined and taken to court for these things.
Not such a long bow. The TGA were the ones who approved Thalidomide. Government and the pharmaceutical companies are in each others pockets still. Anti-depressants will be the next Thalidomide-type disaster. Don't say I didn't tell you so. Government rely on the short term memory of the masses to complete their connivances. Many people forget that the introduction of the GST was supposed to be on the abolition of payroll tax. Many more forget that income tax was a "temporary measure"introduced at the end of WW2 to get the economy back on its feet.
 

Tim C

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I will make 2 quotes from Midnight Oil, that Peter Garrett also forgot- "It's better to die on your feet than live on your knees" and "The rich get richer, the poor get the picture". I refuse to be complacent nor compliant in my future, nor my daughters. Complacency is just as evil as denial. There is only righteousness in questioning poor decision making or reasoning. I think that is what P.K. Reads overview represents. Despite the divergence or litigeous Seppo-based stance, his overall message is that if government and its law insist on absolute control, then they must also take absolute responsibility. Therefore my opinion is they deserve neither. It is not the place of government to dictate, only to enforce the will of the majority for the benefit of all, and with oversight to best inform that majority. Not to mislead, nor guide, nor rein, nor blinker for the governments vested benefit nor profit. The only Royal Commission should be one into the Queens liability an her representatives culpable neglect.
 
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Tim C

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That's a pretty long article and I have to say it draws an even longer bow :)

Suggesting big food companies are similar to the tobacco industry and open to litigation for making people unhealthy is ridiculous IMO.

For a start, everyone has to eat to live but nobody has to smoke to survive. Secondly, if the author P.K. Read wants to be silly, overindulging and becoming obese from food is not just a modern day phenomenon - people have been fat throughout history and it is possible to get fat by eating good healthy natural food if you eat enough of it!

No, I personally don't think big food is really the next big tobacco... Sure, there will boundaries and new laws for packaging, labelling, and marketing introduced which big food will have to abide by so society can educate people but I don't believe major food manufacturers or fast food retailers will become open slather to lawsuits by people because they can't fit into their prom dress anymore.

Think of the burden of proof - "So, which big food company made you fat Sir, Coke, McDonalds, Supermarket, Choc-mania bars, or all of the above?" These days, there is no reasonable way a person could claim they didn't know a diet high in calories and limited exercise caused obesity and in turn other diseases.

The only way I see big food getting into trouble is through food poisoning, deliberately including artificial additives proven to cause diseases (like cancer), misleading statements, or wrong labelling, etc and they can already be fined and taken to court for these things.
Misleading statements flow forth like a fountain of vomitous excrement at the hands of legislature from our government due to its conflicting and deceptive protection of its capitalistic crones, at the expense of small Australian Business. This is also to be considered a malignant and wholesale cancer of society in general, and should be treated as such. Free trade must be reciprocal, not the privy of the corporate multinationals, as is now by the disparity of over-inflated valuation of the AUD against others and the despicable profiteering that results for the few at the expense of the many. A level playing field is required before any such agreements should be put in place. Alas, it is too late for Australian industry. The parasites have already sucked us dry.
 
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Tim C

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Best now to guard your improvements and technologies from guvment exploitation forever forward by fierce protection and selective divulgance. They have forced suspicion and mistrust by their careless stupidity and whoring of hard-earned improvement.
 
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Mark

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I agree with most of what you're saying (and the sentiment) - geez, you certainly don't like the government he he... :D

However, government have to regulate something because there are way too many stupid and dangerous people to open everything to self-regulation. You mentioned the recent laws allowing whacky tobacky in some states in the US and whilst I think regulation a BIG mistake I still wouldn't legalise it because it sends the wrong message as there would be many people who then assumed marijuana was safe just because it was legal. We have enough problems with smokes and alcohol!

Getting back on the original thread subject of food though, I will concede food can be addictive in a similar way tobacco and alcohol can be but just like drink drivers can't sue Fosters for their behaviour, people who are unhealthy through eating Maccas will never be able to sue the company - it's just not going to happen.

What we have to do is somehow change the culture of some people eating fast food 7 days a week... And, I'm not sure government education commercials/programs are the way to go either.
 

Tim C

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No probs Mark. I do think people/sheep need someone to steer them in the right direction....and that aint this system of governance. Legalising pot would be a big mistake if it meant capitalist control, like what happened to tobacco. But food, i.e Maccas/Coke has already gone down that path, and yes the sheep need to be herded away from them. It reminds me of the Simpsons episode with Tomacco-addictive tomatoes. I crack up now just thinking about it. But the old adage "many a true word spoken in jest" also comes to mind. If there's a buck in it for the guvment, they will slit all our throats, including their own grandmothers,...or worse.
They have not an ounce of foresight nor hindsight in their insatiably greedy collective and God-forbid, if there was a worldwide famine/disaster, they would no doubt herd the sheep off the cliff, (not me jack!).
Them community vege patches are a bloody good idea-healthy food and socialising. Just like a traditional/proper-one society.
On a brighter note, I've been out planting today. Kangaroo Apple (Solanum Lancianatum) , not the poisonous one!!(saving them for the guvment!) More seedlings sprouting in the mini-greenhouse-capsicums, chillis and tomatoes. A couple of direct sewn Purple King(or Broad) beans poking their heads through too. Most else is very slow still. Only 13c here today and down to zero overnight. I have Kiwiberries in but scraping out some Kiwifruit seeds tonight. Have various Passionfruit/Grenadillas on my watchlist too, but will check the veg aisle at Woolies first. One is a red-flowered, with yellow fruit with red pulp. Noice, Kimmy.
More goodies in the mail-seeds,e-juice Black Cherry flavouring(I mix my own), guitar strings(10 sets for $21.95-good for bribing mates!). Got a heap of brass fittings for my steam quadracycle from the local shop-they are having a cleanout and GAVE them to me!! Also got 4 complete bikes from the dump-shop on sunday for $10-parts for the quadracycle. I nearly had to force the dump-man to take the tenner. Scrounge,scrounge,scrounge.
Roasting coffee tomorrow - I drink gallons- I get $80 worth at a time(for free postage) from beangreen .com. Hopefully one day I will grow all my own. I roast in a frypan with a slightly smaller glass lid, on the companion stove outside- it's a messy job-husks everywhere. Roast,shake,roast,shake - constantly moving the beans.:coffee:

Mmmmmmm...... Tomacco..........:cowmoo::hysterical:

Mums little freezer was running constantly, we suspected a buggered thermostat, but instead of replacing it I pulled it out, sprayed it with crc, turned it down and put it back in. Today it's going fine, so she turned off the big one and transferred all the frozen food. No $80/hr tradesman needed. You can pay up to $80 for a thermostat, or get one through ebay for $7 from China/HK. Re-gassing can be done with LPG or LPG/Propane at 1/3-1/2 rate by weight. The fitting costs $6 off ebay, then adapt it to gas bbq line. Illegal in Qld, apparently. All the guff can be found online. Read between the lines.

There's always more than one way to skin a cat. And many ways to avoid sodomisation.:focus:. Well, maybe that's not a good one....
 

Mark

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I have Kiwiberries
Ohh, if only I could grow some of them! Paid a fortune for a punnet of them a few months back and tried to strike some the seeds but no joy.

Roasting coffee tomorrow - I drink gallons- I get $80 worth at a time(for free postage) from beangreen .com. Hopefully one day I will grow all my own. I roast in a frypan with a slightly smaller glass lid, on the companion stove outside- it's a messy job-husks everywhere. Roast,shake,roast,shake - constantly moving the beans.

I have two small coffee plants in pots given to me by my uncle - will plant them soon and see how they go...

There's always more than one way to skin a cat. And many ways to avoid sodomisation.
Very true.
 
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