Beat Me Harder! Punish Me!

Food firms should be forced to reveal how healthy or unhealthy their products are, to help people consume a better diet, an industry boss has said. Ministers should compel companies to publish an annual report so consumers can see how much of their sales is made up of dishes that contain too much fat, salt and sugar, Stéfan Descheemaeker also said. Descheemaeker is the chief executive of Nomad Foods, which owns popular brands such as Birds Eye fish fingers, Findus frozen foods and Goodfella’s pizzas.

If you're the CEO, can't you do this without government compulsion, then, Stefan? 

He told the Guardian that mandatory publication of what proportion of each firm’s sales count as healthy or unhealthy under government guidelines would kickstart a “nutrition arms race” in which manufacturers would vie with each other to make their products better for health.

Ah, I suspect he thinks this is a game he could win, and he wants competitors to be forced to enter. 

His comments underline what one diet campaigner called the “quiet revolution” going on in the industry in its views on how best to tackle the UK’s addiction to unhealthy food. More and more manufacturers want the government to now order the sector to improve its behaviour, rather than relying on voluntary agreements as the Conservatives did during their 14 years in power.

So why don't they do it without government compulsion? I really cannot understand modern business leaders...  

For the last seven years Nomad has published figures showing the percentage of its net sales that are deemed healthy under the government’s nutrient profiling model of judging which products contain the right or wrong amounts of fat, salt and sugar. It was now at 93.3% overall healthy, he said, according to the official high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) assessment system. Public disclosure of food firms’ sales would enable the creation of league tables that would allow those whose products are more often unhealthy to be named and shamed, backers say.

See? Stefan thinks the gold medal will be his! Is that why he wants government compulsion?

Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Iceland and the yoghurt maker Danone have already made clear they back mandatory reporting.

*baffled face* If they thought it was a winner with the shopping public, they'd do it, wouldn't they?

I Don't Want Such A Society Either...

As one of the many people who experience anxiety and poor mental health brought about by the trials and tribulations of modern life in our wealthy country, I urge people not to accept that this is “just the way it is”. There is clearly something wrong if doing something as simple as your weekly shopping involves such distrust.

...but I want one where shoplifters are allowed to go free, unchallenged, even less. 

I don’t want to be part of a society where shop staff behave like law enforcement, where homelessness, hardship and poverty are accepted, and a small percentage of individuals hold the bulk of the country’s wealth and assets. Things need to change. The current model doesn’t work, nor is it morally and ethically justifiable.

As I believe someone very famous once said, "Capitalism is the worst economic system, except for all the others."

Why Isn't It Up To A Company To Choose Where It Spends Its Money?

Media mogul Byron Allen's $10billion racial discrimination lawsuit against McDonald's was given the green-light to proceed by a US court on Friday, nearly a year after it was dismissed last December. Allen alleges McDonald's intentionally chooses not to pay to place advertisements on black-owned networks - including his own AMG Entertainment Studios and Weather Group - costing the networks millions in potential annual revenue.

So..? Isn't a company eentitled to choose where it spends its advertising revenue, then? 

An attorney for McDonald's, Loretta Lynch, reiterated that Olguin did not rule on the case's merits, and insisted the allegations were baseless.

'[The decision] has nothing whatsoever to do with the merits of the case, but simply allows Mr. Allen to continue to try, as he has for more than a year now, to substantiate his speculative and conclusory claims,' Lynch said, 'We believe the evidence will show that there was no discrimination and that Entertainment Studios' claims are meritless.'

Why shouldn't there be discrimination, though? Why should any company be forced into advertising with specific sectors of the population, rather than where it feels that advertising will do the most good? 

Allen, in a statement, said the case was 'about economic inclusion of African American-owned businesses in the U.S. economy. McDonald's takes billions from African American consumers and gives almost nothing back.'

No, it gives them burgers and fries in exchange for their money. And that's all they are entitled to.