Michelle Obama’s Health Campaign

I enjoyed reading Michelle Obama’s recent cover article in Newsweek on her campaign to end childhood obesity. While it was mostly an ad for her “Let’s Move” program, it took a decent look at how we can empower parents, schools, and the community to battle childhood obesity. I agree we are at a crisis point in our nation on this issue, and it will eventually end up costing all of us if we don’t do something to fix the problem. I admire Michelle Obama’s commitment to this cause, but wish she would really push her attempts further. She writes about ending the obesity problem -

Achieving all this won’t be easy. This isn’t something we can fix with a bill in Congress or an executive order from the president. I’ve spoken with many experts about this issue, and not a single one has said that the solution to childhood obesity is to have the government tell people what to do.

Instead, it’s about what all of us can do to help our kids lead active, healthy lives: parents making healthier choices for their families; mayors and governors doing their part to build healthier cities and states; and the private sector doing its part as well—from food manufacturers offering healthier options to retailers understanding that what’s good for kids and families can be good for businesses too.

Of course we all should be doing what we can to help with this, but I have to disagree that this isn’t something the government can fix. I know she has to tread carefully here, any suggestion from her that the government might dare interfere in private lives will get her slapped with outraged accusations of socialism. But the thing is the government can be blamed for a good deal of the problem, so they are going to have to be the ones to fix it. When our government subsidizes the crops used in junk food (corn, cheap beef…) and not healthy fruits and vegetables, they create the condition that forces poor families to buy food that is bad for them since they cannot afford the healthy stuff. Do that long enough and our body gets used to certain tastes, it builds up a craving for sugar, sodium, and fat that is hard to undo. If this country is serious about ending this health crisis it will take a government order to drastically change the way our country subsidizes food. This isn’t the government telling people what to do, but creating a environment in which they are able to make good choices.

The government also has the power to stand up to the agri-businesses and corporations that control food in our country. It’s been done before for the sake of our children’s health. As public schools were entering into more and more contracts with vending companies (often granting exclusive rights to these companies) in order to make ends meets, the government had to step in to protect the health of children. Many of these contracts granted exclusive rights to sell beverages at the school to a soft-drink company, essentially prohibiting the sale of milk. The government had to pass a law exempting milk from these contracts so as to make it available to kids in schools. Since then, further laws have been passed prohibiting the sale or advertizing of “foods of minimal nutritional value” in schools altogether. The government protected our kids from the greed of corporations in these instances, why can they not do so again?

Take the meat industry’s laws prohibiting anyone from criticizing meat and influencing people not to eat it. Just mentioning the chemicals, fillers, and diseases present in meat can be grounds for being sued off your ass by the meat industry. They are so protected by these food libel laws that the law states even if they lose they don’t have to pay your court fees. Even Oprah wasn’t rich enough to stand up to them. After questioning meat on her show and being sued, she eventually settled out of court and was bullied into silence on this issue. Laws like this that protect the very people harming us should not be allowed in this country. It is going to take the government to stand up to injustices like this that threaten our health. And it will take an advocate like Michelle Obama leading the charge.

There are bigger issues here than just encouraging everyone to make lifestyle changes. Of course ending the health crisis will require us all to make sacrifices for the greater good. But it will also take the government choosing to care more for the health of the nation than it does the interests of corporations. I don’t care if it “sounds” socialist or big brothery – if throwing around those names is all it takes to opt out of really helping people then we truly are beyond hope. Childhood obesity affects us all – and our food system needs major overhaul if we are ever going to see the crisis reversed. And no matter how uncomfortable it might be, that is going to require government intervention.