Monday, November 15, 2010

San Francisco's Mayor Newsom - devious or just plain dumb?


What am I talking about?

Well a couple of weeks ago San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 to restrict the sale of toys along with fast food to those meals that met certain nutritional criteria.

What didn't the Board do?

The Board did not vote to ban the sale of Happy Meals or any other food. Regardless of the Board's decision, McDonald's can continue to sell Happy Meals and parents can sadly continue to buy them, only now if parents also want to buy their children toys, they'll likely have to buy them in a toy store rather than in a fast food restaurant.

Yet on Saturday San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom, during the press conference he called to announce his veto of the Board's vote, supported his decision by stating,

"Parents, not politicians, should decide what their children eat, especially when it comes to spending their own money".
But as I mentioned, the Board's proposed ban has nothing to do with what a parent decides to feed their child, it has to do with McDonald's predatory practice of enticing children with the glitter of toys to nag their parents to take them there.

So is Mayor Newsom cognitively challenged or is he purposely trying to mislead the public and knowingly helping perpetuate one of the most common Big Food demonizing positions - that somehow politicians who care about nutrition are trying to usurp your personal liberties rather than simply trying to protect children and empower parents?

Either way, shame on you Mayor Newsom.