My Food My Choice: Tea Party Redux

posted at 12:31 pm on April 22, 2010 by Howard Portnoy
[ Public Officials ]   

Battle lines have been drawn in the war on personal choice.

Art: Howard Portnoy

I wonder if Thomas Farley, the hapless Commissioner of the New York City Health Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, has yet taken notice of the gathering storm outside the windows of his Worth Street offices. Prick up your ears, Commissioner. That sound you hear began several months back as a muted alarm sounded by a handful of isolated voices. It has since crescendoed into a grassroots chorus that is 800 strong at present and counting.

The coalition’s official name is My Food My Choice, and its goal is to persuade big government to abandon the meddlesome practice of policing what we eat and how we eat it.

In the short time since Farley assumed the reins at the Department of Health, he—with the blessing and full support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg—has been relentless in his efforts to “save city residents from themselves.” He has set into motion rules that will curtail the amount of salt used by restaurants and food manufacturers and force restaurants to prominently display a scarlet letter when they fail to comply with the department’s often-compulsive standards of cleanliness. Under consideration is a tax on booze.

While the Health Department argues that these policies will improve the health of New Yorkers and ultimately save the taxpayers money, the scientific data that informs their arguments is open to debate. The Salt Association, a British watchdog group, pinpoints some of the dangers of a diet deficient in salt, which is an essential nutrient.

There is also potential economic fallout from these mandates. The My Food My Choice website quotes Julie Rico-Febus, of Despaña Brand Foods, a New York-based purveyor of Spanish delicacies, who observes, “This parade of intrusive policy proposals kills choice, kills jobs and kills freedom…. Anyone who loves the vast variety of cuisine offered in New York and doesn’t want see their favorite restaurants fall victim to … awful ideas should sign the petition.” The petition she is referring to is this one, at My Food My Choice, which I urged you to sign a month ago.

If you need further inducement to act, watch the following video, again courtesy of My Food My Choice.

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