Socialism in food

Obesity Prevention Advocates Hail Illinois Fresh Food Fund

Members of the Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity hailed the establishment of the Illinois Fresh Food Fund on Monday.

The newly created fund was announced by Governor Pat Quinn, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), and IFF. The Illinois Fresh Food Fund will finance the creation of full-service grocery stores and, on a case-by-case basis, other retail models that will increase the availability of fresh food in low-access areas.

In Britain and Australia, the government wants your private property and business trade marks. The the US, the government wants your grocery stores.

"This is a major step forward for obesity prevention initiatives," said Illinois Public Health Institute's CEO Elissa Bassler. "While we know that having a grocery store does not guarantee healthy eating, it's one key component of a multi-pronged strategy. The opportunity to eat healthy foods is not distributed equally throughout our communities. When we recognize the social and economic forces contributing to the obesity epidemic, we can start to address this problem with practical solutions, like the 'Illinois Fresh Food Fund.'"

Bunkum. Being fat has nothing to do with social and economic forces. Businesses cater to the wants of the customers. If an area has a lack of fresh food then that is because the people in the area do not buy enough of it to warrant it's sale. Creating stores that sell products that people are not interested in buying is a very poor use of taxpayers money.

Giving people the 'opportunity' to eat healthy food will not change their lifestyles. They will continue to make their own choices as they have always done. All this initiative will do is create a number of government sponsored grocery stores that are not making any money.

"Being healthy is not just about individual responsibility," says the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children's Executive Director Dr. Adam B. Becker. "Substantial research provides solid evidence that where we live affects how we live."

Where we live affects how we live is the wrong way around. It's how we live that affects where we live. If a McDonalds opens in an area and everyone flocks to it, it will stay open and likely be followed by a KFC and such. If a grocery store offers a wide range of healthy and fresh foods but nobody buys them, they will quickly disappear or change their offering. Over time the foods available in the area will begin to reflect the tastes of the residents.

Darwen, my home town, has an abundance of take aways that do very well. It also has an unusually high number of hairdressers and beauty salons. A good percentage of the population are fat, wear a lot of make-up and have well groomed hair.

Take aways, beauty salons and hairdressers open on a regular basis and always seem to do well. Every bookshop that has ever opened in Darwen has failed, and there have been a few.

Taxpayer funded bookshops will not encourage the local population to buy more books.

"In many Chicago neighborhoods, particularly in minority communities, grocery stores are very inaccessible, while fast foods are much more prevalent," says Chicago Hispanic Health Coalition's Executive Director Esther Sciammarella. "Residents in underserved areas have little choice but to eat what is available, often foods high in calories and low in nutritional value at fast food restaurants or convenience stores."

They eat that stuff because it is what they want to eat. Fast food is more expensive than fresh food by a good deal. For example, a decent pizza can cost almost a tenner from a take away. I can make the same thing myself for about three quid.

If the people in these neighbourhoods will not change their eating habits in order to spend less, and it sounds like they are the poorer areas that are being described, then they won't change because a new shop has popped up selling stuff they don't want to eat.

The only way you could seriously affect change by creating government subsidised grocery stores is to also ban all the fast food outlets in the area, giving the residents no choice but to eat the healthy stuff or move away.

I worry that I am giving them ideas but this is probably in the pipeline already.

The Illinois Fresh Food Fund was established in the 2011 Illinois Jobs Now! capital budget bill, in which the Illinois General Assembly approved $10 million to help eliminate food deserts. 

So it's also a socialist, non-job creation scheme. And 'Food Deserts'? In the United States of America, one of the richest countries on earth?

Of course these so called 'Food Deserts' don't actually exist. Nobody has a problem accessing food in a country like America. The problem is that they are accessing food, through their own personal choices, that the government doesn't approve of. This cannot be allowed.

"While the Fresh Food Fund is a great victory, much work remains to be done to tackle the obesity epidemic," Becker cautions. "Policy makers should continue to look for innovative ways to transform our neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces into healthy places."

My God. I'm so sick of  these do-gooders telling people how to live their lives. Everything has to be approved and healthy. If they get their way we will soon have a western population of people living dull and boring lives until they reach a hundred, then living a further fifty years as a drooling vegetable.

I would much rather enjoy my time on earth, make my own choices and mistakes, and pop it at an age where I can say I have done enough but not where I can't remember any of it.