Nexus: Chapman's Journal of Law and Public Policy

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Chapman University School of Law: Nexus Journal of Law and Policy

Orange, CA

November 4, 2011

Americans love to eat and who can blame them. In this melting pot culture, the availability and variety of food is sky high. This is fortunate because it seems people not only have less time but less desire to cook for themselves. Unfortunately, not all food is healthy and if we do not cook for ourselves it can be difficult to make smart choices. With concerns of obesity (especially among children), the federal government taking cues from state ...

Individual responsibility is an American ideal. Americans have been, at least in our cultural myth, an intrepid and ambitious people, wanting nothing but to be in control of our own destinies. From this flows consumer sovereignty. Don’t tell us what to buy; don’t tell us what to eat. Many among us feel that people should be allowed to eat fast food at their own risk–and suffer the eventual consequences should they indulge too much.

The danger in cleaving too closely to this cocksure and manly ideal is that we are also a forgiving and compassionate people: we ...

Previously in this blog, we discussed various food labeling requirements and consumer preferences in food. One of debates among consumer preferences is whether people should eat genetically modified (“GM”) food. A simplified explanation of GM food is food with an alternation of “the genetic composition of organisms by mixing genes on the cellular and molecular level in order to create new breeds of plants.” This type of food is largely introduced not only in the U.S. market, but also is cultivated and consumed internationally. For example, in 2006, “10.3 million farmers in 22 countries planted 252 million acres ...

There is no question that Americans continue to get fatter and fatter. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 34.2% of US adults aged twenty years and over are overweight, 33.8% are considered obese, and 5.7% are extremely obese. Combining these figures show that nearly three-quarters of the US adult population are either overweight or obese. These statistics are even more alarming when considering that over the past twenty years the obesity rate as increased by nearly 50%, and has increased over 250% since 1960. Moreover, research has shown that being overweight ...

Americans love their bacon double cheeseburgers, and why wouldn’t they? For a few bucks anyone can enjoy a juicy burger. The price of meat is cheap in today’s world because the federal government has decided that meat is an important and necessary staple in the American diet. As such the government has been subsidizing meat production for decades, using taxpayer money to supplement the cost so that everyone can afford bacon double cheeseburgers. But what about fruit and vegetables? They are an important and necessary staple in the American diet as well, but the agricultural subsidies are not ...

My wife and I enrolled our daughter in a farm class this summer. It is a community class that teaches suburbanite kids about farming, how food is grown etc. Most of the class is really spent seeing, petting and talking about different farm animals. Typically, each class ended with a pony ride on the much beloved horse, Benji. It would seem implicit that the class also discuss where food comes from. Neither I, my wife nor the instructor found it necessary to tell my two year old daughter that the pig they were petting was going to die, or that ...

While many Americans look for ways, such as reading nutrition facts labels on foods, to make healthy choices about the food they consume, some ignore or are unaware of the health risks posed by food allergens. It is estimated that 2 percent of adults and about 5 percent of infants and young children in the U.S. suffer from food allergies. Approximately 30,000 Americans go to the emergency room each year to get treated for severe food allergies, and it is estimated that 150 to 200 Americans die each year due to allergic reactions to food. Food allergies can ...

Over the greater portion of the last decade there appears to be an ever-increasing food-consumer consciousness about the quality, health, and overall credibility of food produced in the nation. This consumer consciousness has led to the push, as well, towards a demand for “natural” or “organic” products. With this increasing food-consumer consciousness, there has been an accompanying discourse from the media, drawing attention to the interworkings of the American food industry, as well as highlighting and critiquing food producers and governmental regulation set upon these producers (e.g., documentaries such as Food, Inc. and King Corn, Michael Pollen’s novel ...

What type of government regulation is most effective when, through advances in food science, we have access to products that Mother Nature never imagined? Americans today are in a unique place in the history of our planet. Historically, humans have had to struggle to find enough calories in their environment and our bodies have evolved in response to this challenge. What happens when our hardwired preference for calorie-rich foods encounters a time and a place in which we can have almost as much calorie-rich food as we desire?

In 2008, New York City banned artificial trans fat from restaurant food ...

This year, many Californians may have noticed that the restaurants they frequent look somehow different. The change is not immediately obvious; the ubiquitous red and yellow palette that adorns the logo and exterior of their chosen restaurant chain remains, and for the most part, the interior has the familiar sights and smells. It is only when the patron takes a glance at the menu to make sure that their usual number four hasn’t been replaced or risen in price again that they notice, in “clear and conspicuous size and typeface”, an extra set of numbers. The sudden panicked fear ...

I commend those that are trying to make a difference in the fight against obesity by providing education on healthy eating habits and exercise. I think that Michelle Obama has really taken steps in the right direction by forming the “Let’s Move” initiative. However, I am not convinced that programs like this are going to be enough to prevent nationwide and life-long battles with obesity. There are so many triggers of obesity that focusing on education alone might not be enough.

Unfortunately, one of the leading causes of obesity directly correlates to the socio-economic status of the family in ...