Food Regulations
Average consumers enjoy eating what they want when they want. But all of that may come to an end soon; due to the government regulating our food. Some may agree with this decision while others may provide a negative attitude. If regulating our food will please the government let them, it will only upset them in the end. This notion will cause stores to lose money, it will cause children to stop eating at school, and in all out reality, it is not their choice to choose what people eat.
However, regulating our food is not the best option; banning certain food from stores and restaurants will only bring harm to their businesses. For example, “The ban would prevent retailers who sell prepared food from also dispensing sugared beverages, including sodas and sweetened tea, in cups of containers larger than 16 oz,” (Park 3). Illustrating, why it is harmful towards stores and restaurants because if you take away something that makes you money, you will not make any more money once it is gone. Nobody is going to eat at a fast food restaurant and order a meal with a large soda, then be told that they are not allowed to have soda. they are not going to eat there again. Soon nobody will eat there because of not being able to drink soda. This is not the only effect the government's food regulation will have.
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Children will stop eating at school.
There should not be a limit to what they can or cannot eat; they are growing and need food to do so. Children that are obese require more food due to them being bigger. You are not going to reduce a child's meal to one chicken nugget, just because you think he should eat less (Fell). It is not good for their health to underfeed them like that. Knowingly, they will not be fed properly, there is no reason for them to get their food from school anyway. Why would anyone want to be told what to eat
anyway? As a free country Americans should be able to eat whatever we want to. The government should not have the right to say otherwise. For instance, “Supporters of the legislation say that even if menu labeling does not inspire people to eat better, they should be told what they are putting in their mouths,” (Rosenbloom). People shall not be told what enters their mouths; if they want to know then they could look it up on the internet. Any customer would not want to be informed that your burger is a dead cow before you eat it. It becomes unappetizing and highly obnoxious when informed of such distasteful things. In conclusion, there is a boundary that the government should have when they want to tell people what to do. Do not give they the ability to limit children to when they can or cannot eat, or cause your favorite restaurants to go out of business. This is supposed to be a free country, so why would you let them control what you eat?
Regulating what the government should control and what they should not was one of the main arguments our founding fathers had to deal with when creating our nation, and to this day this regulation is one of the biggest issues in society. Yet, I doubt our founding fathers thought about the idea that the food industry could one day somewhat control our government, which is what we are now facing. Marion Nestles’ arguments in the book Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health deal with how large food companies and government intertwine with one another. She uses many logical appeals and credible sources to make the audience understand the problem with this intermingling. In The Politics of Food author Geoffrey Cannon further discusses this fault but with more emotional appeals, by use of personal narratives. Together these writers make it dramatically understandable why this combination of the food industry and politics is such a lethal ordeal. However, in The Food Lobbyists, Harold D. Guither makes a different viewpoint on the food industry/government argument. In his text Guither speaks from a median unbiased standpoint, which allows the reader to determine his or her own opinions of the food industries impact on government, and vise versa.
The 2009 movie Food Inc. describes the major role that food production plays within many lives. This movie revealed that there is a very small variety of companies that consumers purchase their food from. These few companies actually control what is out on the shelves and what we put into our bodies. These companies have changed food production into a food production business. Many of these companies experiment with ways to create large quantities of food at low production costs to result in an enormous amount of profit for themselves. Some of the production cost cuts also result in less healthy food for the population. Instead of worrying about the health of the population, the companies are worried about what will make them the most money.
This concedes that now America is creating health issues from consuming unhealthy foods. According to, “The battle against fast food beings in the home”, by Daniel Weintraub, “Kids eat unhealthy food and sit in front of the television or computer for hours at a time”. The article states that now obesity has affected many kids in America. Due to obesity affecting many kids in America the argument here is that, parents are not thinking about their child’s health and how it affects their body. Their main worry if the food is cheap and that it’s reasonable to buy for their family; which is understandable. Thus, many kids health are in danger from the lack of a nutritious diet. At the same time, fast food companies believe that it’s not their fault. According to Daniels Weintraub’s article, it states that “ It’s the parents, not the government, not the fast food companies who are responsible for teaching kids unhealthy habits” (Weintraub 1). The argument here is that parents need to try to feed their kids much healthier diets such as vegetables. Feeding them fast food is going to wreck their health. For this reason, fast food companies should try to sell healthier food for a reasonable price. Having produce companies sell more affordable fruits and vegetables will clear this problem. This will allow people who don’t have much money be able to provide a healthy dish
The Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 amends the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act and
...nced by politics, much of it in the dance between sugar and corn taxes and subsidies which have riddled our food with sugar substitutes like high fructose corn syrup. It finds its way into everything, including many products sold at fast food restaurants. Personally, I tend to lean in the direction of less regulation, however when so much of the government is run by lobbyists dealing in the currency of influence, you have to wonder if anything can be changed without participating in the same system. I think a lot of America’s problems can be solved with better and further reaching education. When a relatively unhealthy, full meal at McDonald’s or a similar fast food place can be bought for the same price as a small amount of healthy fruits or vegetables we put the uneducated and poor in a difficult position when it comes to choosing where to get their daily calories.
The government plays an important part in our safety, but many people think they take it too far. Recently, people have thought more and more about how much involvement the government should have when it comes to food regulations. Some people think the government's involvement in regulating food would greatly help obesity rates, and others think the country's obesity rates would show little to no improvement. Although no one cause of obesity exists, and no government regulations will likely alter someone’s lifestyle choices, the government should implement some regulations by implementing programs to educate and encourage citizens to lead a healthier life and by requiring companies to list a full disclosure of ingredients on their products.
We make personal choices about what and where to eat. The government is not going to eliminate the unhealthy food because we think it is the cause of obesity. Ultimately, we must decide to either stay away from unhealthy food or eat them in moderation. Despite all the efforts of education, media and guidance it doesn’t prevent us from grabbing that cheeseburger with fries on the way to work. In his essay “What You Eat Is Your Business,” Radley Balko argues that society should take full responsi...
The federal government has a huge amount of power over America’s food and monitoring food safety. They have many rules and regulations that are required to be followed nationwide. The Delaney Clause of 1958, the regulation of genetically modified organisms and organic agriculture, and the Healthy and Hunger Free Kids Act are just a few of the many ways in which the government regulates the country’s food and the citizens that purchase and ultimately consume it.
The fact is that in our country, any government intrusion looks undesirable. We are so used to making free choice and to having access to everything we need and want that we have already forgotten the value and usefulness of the government control. No, that does not mean that the government must control everything and everyone. What I mean here is that the government control should be balanced with the freedom of choice. Unfortunately, plentiful foods do not lead to improved health conditions. We cannot always make a relevant choice. Our hurried lifestyles make us extremely fast, and eating is not an exception. We eat fast, but fast does not always mean useful. I believe, and in this essay I argue that the government must have a say in our diets. Because there are so many obese people, because obesity is an expensive disease, and because very often it is due to poverty that people cannot afford healthy foods, the government must control the amount and the range of foods which we buy and eat. Healthy foods must become affordable. Poor populations must have access to high quality foods. The production of harmful foods should be limited. All these would be impossible if the government does not take active position against our diets.
The truth is sad when we recognize how food is failing us today, and we can only rely on ourselves to avoid eating it. Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Newman once said, "We live in a world where lemonade is made from artificial flavoring and furniture polish is made from real lemons." Over the past decades, our understandings of food flavoring have dramatically changed. Today, many food flavoring can be found in most products to enhance foods and drinks, however, people need to smarter and more aware of the food we consume, due to the lack of regulation for Food flavoring by government.
Americans should be able to eat what they want regardless of what the government says about it. The government would like to place bans on certain size drinks. What that means is you will not be able to purchase, let’s say any sugary drink that’s above 16 ounces. Yet it still would not stop you from purchasing as many as you desire. The entire rule they want to enforce is the size limit of our sugary beverage. Still see many more flaws with the government being able to do this and they should have no right to choose this for others. It’s your life and well you only get one so my recommendation is eat what you want. Americans should have the freedom to choose what food they eat and the lifestyles they choose regardless of the impact on
We live in a free society, and have the freedom to make our own personal choices daily. This freedom is afforded to us in our Constitution and its Amendments; they protect our rights and freedoms as American citizens. Currently, as American’s continue to struggle with poor food choices and health related issues, the question remains, should the government have the control to dictate what we eat? That type of control is an infringement on our rights, “More than two-thirds of the population (69 per cent) say it’s not the government’s job to tell us what we should and shouldn’t eat” (Holland). However, people continually struggle to make the right decisions when it comes to what they consume, and do need a unified way to make better food choices
There should be a class for them free of charge and explain nutrition labels to them. Maybe be offered in community centers, hospitals, clinics or many other places. By offering these opportunities we could start changing things little by little. As well, for the kids in school PE should also be a mandatory class not just get the credits and be done with PE. Also, have mandatory cooking classes to show them how to prepare a healthy meal and then they can show their parents on how to prepare a healthy meal. This could be one of many bonding times with your child. We don’t require much from them, but when we start to notice them gain weight we start questioning where we went wrong. We start to see kids be declared “obese, diabetic, high cholesterol and many more” at such an adolescent age. As mentioned in “Stop Being afraid of the Food Industry,” “I regularly see children as young as five years old with high cholesterol, high triglycerides, and elevated liver enzymes.” (Maria, 303) The age of this is where we decide to be a concern and start watching what they eat. This could be a little too late when it could’ve been avoidable to being with. Partially they may not know much about how to be healthy. Kids are being detected obese as young as eight. Which is a lot sooner than in the past. In the 1960s, it would be in adults where you would start seeing
It would not make any sense to have food regulations, because honestly people could just easily get unauthorized food. Like instead of having underground casinos there will most likely be underground illegal restaurant; they will be serving fatty foods and sugary drinks, because of customer satisfaction. Yeah, obesity is a bad thing but still the government does not need to put regulations on what we eat, but to encourage us to eat healthy. So if the ban does go through people will find ways to get a hold of their favorite food. This supports my claim because the crime rate will rise and the police does not have time to be apprehending people for having food they like to
To survive in life we need to consume food whether it is for nutritional value or for the pure enjoyment of its savory taste. Individuals, not the government, have the right to choose what and when to eat; but good nutrition is important to maintain health and live a long and happy life. People need to make choices everyday about what they put into their bodies. Without proper nutrition, our bodies may not be able to function correctly. Most adults know what is good and bad for the body. We all know that diets rich in fruits and vegetables fuel the body in a healthy way and that protein gives us energy. Although we know what food is best for our bodies, each individual has a personal choice of what they put into their bodies and that should not be dictated by the government, even though