The Psychology of the Food Police

I am reading a new book by professor Jayson Lusk titled The Food Police: A Well-Fed Manifesto About the Politics of Your Plate. The author is tired of the food socialists coming after trans-fats, Happy Meals, Twinkies, and soda. The book seeks to debunk “the myths propagated by the holier-than-thou foodie elite who think they know exactly what we should grow, cook, and eat.”

From the Press release:

Organic food is not necessarily healthier or tastier (and is certainly more expensive).
– Genetically modified foods haven’t sickened a single person but they have made farmers more profitable and they do hold the promise of feeding impoverished Africans.
– Farm policies aren’t making us fat.
– Voguish locavorism is not greener or better for the economy.
– Fat taxes won’t slim our waists and “fixing” school lunch programs won’t make our kids any smarter.
– Why the food police hypocritically believe an iPad is a technological marvel but food technology is an industrial evil
So before Big Brother and Animal Farm merge into a socialist nightmare, read The Food Police and let us as Americans celebrate what is good about our food system and take back our forks and foie gras before it’s too late!

The author discusses how upset people get when their food views are challenged, and it led me to remember a woman I knew when I worked in NYC many years ago. She only ate a macrobiotic diet and reveled in “clean eating.” The problem was that she felt she had no control over her life, and eating certain things was the only way she could cope with the uncertainty and angst that she felt on a daily basis. She didn’t seem to push her views on others, though she looked askance a few times when I ate some type of bakery product.

We are now a nation being controlled by a number of people like this woman — those who are full of angst and fear but rather than look to themselves to solve their crises have created one for other people whom they must control in order to feel in control themselves. It is a dangerous dynamic and one that feeds into power for the political class at the expense of the individual. Those of us who believe in freedom must fight for Happy Meals, Twinkies, and, yes, even the occasional trans-fats, for the food police are more dangerous than these.