Head to the library for this one: Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back by Michele Simon.
The book has been around since 2006, but the issues are still very relevant. Simon, a public health lawyer, gives Big Food no mercy in her book- the information is seriously damning. Her tactics on how to fight back are controversial, but they will get you thinking and that’s the whole point.
The United States is currently embroiled in a national debate over the growing public health crisis caused by poor diet. Many people are starting to ask who is to blame and how can we fix the problem, especially among children? The major food companies are responding with a massive public relations campaign. These companies, including McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Kraft, and General Mills are increasingly on the defensive. In response, they are pretending to sell healthier food and otherwise position themselves as “part of the solution.” All the while, they continue to lobby against commonsense nutrition policies. This book explains how to fight back by offering reliable resources. Readers will learn how to spot the PR, how to not be fooled, and how to organize, for example, to improve school food.
What do you think? Should we blame and go after the food companies or is healthy eating simply a matter of personal responsibility (or somewhere in between)?
The food cos need to be held accountable, they lobby for looser laws so they can put dangerous chemicals in our food. Then poor quality ingtedients get subsidized so that the products are cheap and they still make a killing. this is the only food that many who are poor can only afford. Lets start subsidizing organic produce and then let people pick what they want.