Beware the Ides of March

And so it begins!  Welcome to Urbanities, my little corner of Sedulous Apes.  Many thanks to my partner and fellow simian, Anthony for his work researching, designing and creating this site. Check him out over at Monkey Tricks. 

The food section in today's San Francisco Chronicle featured an article about Marion Nestle, an NYU nutrition professor (and social activist) who is doing a guest stint at UC Berkeley.  She has been called a "diet scold" and "food cop" for taking on the food industry for--gasp! --marketing its products to unwary children.  Her first book was called "Food Politics" and her latest book is called "What to Eat".  Yes Ma'am!

It irritated me to find a political screed in the section that usually contains recipes for acorn squash soup and petit fours. Is nothing sacred from politics?  In this article we see once again the same tiresome, left wing scenario:

• Industry is evil because, it's well..industry.  Usually prefaced by the word "Big" as in Big Tobacco or Big Pharma.  I'm surprised that the article didn't refer to the food industry as "Big Food".
• And the reason Big Food is evil is because it's only interested in...profits!  Oh the horror...
• Average, every day people (who aren't the minions of big whatever) are gullible, innocent children who are easily hypnotized by industry's marketing tactics into doing things that go against their self-interest.  They need left-wing crusaders like Professor Nestle (such a deliciously ironic last name) to protect them from themselves.

While I do think that obesity, especially childhood obesity is a problem, it seems that the solution would be for people to take responsibility for what they put in their mouths.  Just because high-fat, high-sugar food is available doesn't mean you should buy it.  The article does offer the ray of hope that sales of natural foods are on the upswing. My local Safeway just introduced a whole selection of organic food. Guess what Professor Nestle, the free market works!  People are choosing healthier food on their own, without the help of a "diet scold" to tell them what to do.