Food Czars

It seems that in recent days, the cause du jour of the left is nutrition and obesity. This has become the bugbear over the past several years. It seems to have started with the silly documentary, "Supersize It." But it has come to the forefront most recently, when her highness, Michelle Obama chose "obesity" as her cause to pursue as First Lady of the United States. She is, in a phrase, the national "Food Czar"...if not de facto...


This cause has now spilled over into a whole host of areas, but most significantly on the restaurant industry. First, trans-fats were banned from use. While that isn't wholly a bad thing, it does spill from the public sector into the home. Most importantly, it has altered how many restaurants cook as many of the oils that contain large amounts of trans-fats are those that are the cheapest.

At its worst, this is nannyism (or statism if you will). Because the state has begun to heavily regulate not just what we eat, but how we eat. It has become fashionable for municipalities and counties to appoint "Food Czars"...as if in this time of floundering economic means, installing yet another layer of bureaucracy is not something we can afford.

Locally, here in Baltimore, the City Council, decided that we too need a "Food Czar" regardless of whether or not the ridiculous salary being paid to Holly Freishtat, as well as her newly created staff was a necessary expense.

City officials said they are going into senior high-rises and to neighborhood associations to actively promote the service, which was launched with $60,000 in federal stimulus money.

After all, the Mayor has been forced to close at least one precinct and lay off several dozen police officers as well as reducing the numbers of firefighters. Yet, we MUST HAVE someone to tell us how to eat, RIGHT NOW!

It's not just Baltimore, Maryland that has jumped into the fray. Mayor Bloomberg of New York City has recently forced nearly all food manufacturers to change not just recipes, but manufacturing processes because of a City mandated reduction of 25% in the use of salt. This is where I draw the line. Worst of all, Mr. Bloomberg has forced Heinz to alter its justifiably world famous and iconic brand of Ketchup to meet the new city guidelines.

Enough is enough. Mr. Bloomberg get out of my kitchen and KEEP YOUR DAMN HANDS OFF MY KETCHUP!!!