Are You Pouring on the Pounds?

I am so thrilled about the new ads from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Yay Bloomberg! Since the federal government subsidizes poor eating primarily by way of corn, with obsolete policies that are insanely unfair and extraordinarily greedy, it is exciting to see this question all over the city. For a great treatise on the issues surrounding food policy, read Michael Pollan's letter to Obama from last October in the New York Times Magazine.

On the subject of ads, the terms "local" and "farm fresh" and other similar phrases are being abused lately, usurped actually, stolen. In this vein, even McDonalds commercials feature stop-motion dancing vegetable montages to convince us that there are ingredients behind their food-like concoctions. It's scary. Do we have to legally define these terms so that corporations don't lie to their consumers? Because they can use the word "local" to describe basically anything from anywhere without repercussions. Where is the regulation? We have to be vigilant about our consumption in order to truly shop locally. Listen to THIS wonderful conversation with Patt Morrison on NPR's 89.3 about what local really means.

Optimistically, I hope, at least, that this trend makes people reconsider what they put in their bodies and where they spend their money, and that it doesn't just alter the way they are sold the same old mass-produced product.