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"Pogo Wisdom"
June 5, 2006
3 Min Read
"Pogo Wisdom"
Its open season on the food industry once again.
Now that the hoopla over Morgan Spurlocks documentary about McDonalds,Super Size Me, has subsided and Eric Schlossers book, Fast FoodNation, is no longer topping any of the best-seller lists, along comes thefictionalized movie version of Fast Food Nation, which debuted last monthat the Cannes Film Festival along with the publication of Schlossers latestdiatribe, Chew On This, a thinly veiled rehash of Fast Food Nationedited for a younger, junior-high-school audience.
As there is really nothing much new in either the Fast Food Nation movie or the Chew On This book, and since the food industry isresponding strongly through letters to newspaper and magazine editors, protestsat book signings, and even their own website, www.BestFoodNation.com,Im not going to devote any more space to Mr. Schlossers endeavors.
It really frustrates me, though, to see our industry singled out as the bigbad wolf of the childhood-obesity discussion. After all, while we do play a partin the drama, there are plenty of other players that make up the Why Are OurKids So Fat? cast of characters. Perhaps the Morgan Spurlocks and EricSchlossers could give us a rest and cast their publicity machines in otherdirections.
School system administrators. Perhaps there has been a conspiracy amongthis group of sinister bureaucrats who have used their students desire forunhealthful foods to squeeze money out of food companies to fund their petprojects. Have all those funds been used properly? Shouldnt there be an audit?
Boards of education. In their quest to create the next generation of mathand science geniuses, they have killed off a wide variety of extracurricularactivities and most physical-education programs, citing lack of funding, therebyrobbing their students of at least some exercise to help combat the effects ofthe abovementioned school administrators plot.
Video-game manufacturers. If food manufacturers are being heldresponsible for the effects of their good-tasting products and for theiradvertising of the same, shouldnt the video-games industry be held to thesame standard? After all, its the lure of their products and theiradvertising messages that are largely responsible for turning our kids intovideo game addicts and couch potatoes.
Parents. If a whole generation of kids is obese or near-obese, donttheir parents bear some responsibility for allowing it to happen? Severalresearchers predict this current generation of children will see a decline inlife expectancy. Perhaps a class-action lawsuit is in order ...kids vs. parentsi.e., how much is each year of lost life expectancy worth?
OK, I know Im a little over the top with these examples, but thereis some truth to each one of them. The bottom line is there are many factors that have brought us to thisepidemic of childhood obesity, and yet the one I feel is the main culpritcontinues to get a free pass from the media, the politicians, the writersand the public-interest groups, and that is each and every one of us and theeveryday choices we make.
Epidemics are conquered when the general population voluntarily takes theappropriate action to eliminate the root causes. Simply put, we all have to eat less, eat smarter and exercise more ... one byone!
When I was a kid, I read the comic strip, Pogo whose title character would often say, I have met the enemy, and he is us.
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