Here Come the Food Police
By Tom Purcell
FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, January 21, 2009

They could arrive in America any time now: food police.

I refer to an interesting item in the U.K. Telegraph. The British government is sending contractors door to door to teach its citizens how to manage leftovers.

British bureaucrats, you see, worry that Brits are wasting too much food -- one third of store-bought grub, they say, is tossed out. That is bad for the environment.

That is bad because produce must be grown and harvested. Cows and pigs must be fed and butchered. Fossil fuels must be burned to process, refrigerate and ship the food. Fossil fuels emit carbon. Carbon, it is argued, is causing the Earth to melt.

The more leftovers that go to waste, then, the more carbon we pump into the air.

Brit bureaucrats will have none of that. To prevent the wasting of leftovers, they launched the "Love Food Hate Waste" campaign.

Government contractors -- "food champions" -- are going door to door to teach helpless, inept citizens how to shop better, eat less and manage their leftovers. They offer useful tips at their Web site (lovefoodhatewaste.com).

Take portion control. Brits are eating too much. Fortunately, the government provides a nifty calculator to tell you exactly how much you should eat. A fellow dining alone is limited to two florets of broccoli, I discovered -- and all these years I've been eating 2 1/2.

They offer tips on how to save dough. They advise that vegetables, for instance, are cheaper when in season. Groundbreaking news for the government maybe, but my father, a master grocery shopper, figured it out in the '60s when he pinched every penny to feed six kids.

In another section, top chefs provide recipes to encourage Brits to eat -- not toss -- their leftovers. They should have consulted my mother. Leftovers were all we ate when I was a kid. In fact, to borrow from humorist Calvin Trillin, we once sent a crew of archeologists into our kitchen to uncover the original meal.

The problem, we are led to believe, is that Brits are dumb. They aren't able to read or understand "use by" dates and so they toss out food while it is still edible.

They don't seem to know that freezing food keeps the food from spoiling so they can eat it later. Or that celery that is a little bruised still makes good stir fry.

Thank goodness the all-knowing government has come to their rescue. The way things are breaking in America, we may soon have government-funded food champions knocking on our doors, too.

If the government decides that humans are the cause of global warming -- it's "climate change" now -- then isn't it logical for the government to thwart humans from causing it? Aren't leftover police logical?

If the government takes over all aspects of our nation's health care system -- and the Democrats are likely going to try -- isn't it also logical for health-care police to evolve?

If you smoke or eat a fatty diet -- if your poor choices could cause you to become ill -- the government will have to pick up the tab. Isn't it logical, then, for the government to monitor and control your habits and your diet?

It may sound absurd, but absurdity and government go hand-in-hand. That is why the government that governs best is the one that governs least -- something we better keep a bead on as our government expands rapidly in response to our economic woes.

Though perhaps we won't have to worry about food police just yet. Our prescient government already launched a preemptive strike to eliminate leftover wastefulness.

First it flooded the economy with easy money. Then it ensured that any fool could get a mortgage. A massive housing bubble evolved, then burst, and now unemployment is soaring.

Show me an American who can afford to waste leftovers in this economy.

reds8n wrote:Telegraph article in question

...so....ish. Basically it's a nice polite way of saying that dumbass fat bastards who feed their kids crap will get a nice polite kick in the ribs and told things like "Don't give your kid coca cola and snickers for breakfast. Vegetables don't have to be served only on a pizza".

Shortly before the whole scheme is quietly scrapped and forgotten about in X months time.

Kilkrazy wrote:Don't joke about it.

They're thinking of taxing you on the number of rubbish bins put out each week. And fining you fix mixing up the recycling.

warpcrafter wrote:Live free and eventually drown, like when that hurricane comes along.

ChaosDave wrote:
Yep all you need now is a camera mounted in your tv so they can watch you and your Orwellian society will be complete.

Greebynog wrote:You'll still be able to buy a TV license if you want one but have no digital equipment, it'll just be useless as channels are changing over to pure digital broadcasting. It's just like when DVDs replaced VHS.

And, yes, we are the most surveiled country in the world, we had around 4.2m cameras at the last count (2006), about one for every 14 citizens.

EDIT: Doesn't this poster scare the crap out of you?

Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:Oh aye, as soon as Humanity can leave this little planet you watch em go. Cults won't set up home on ranch, they go looking for 'whatever it is' they believe in. Folks who want the thrill of an 'old west' exsistance will be gone as well. Explorers, alien seekers, they'll all be off into deep space.

Should make the planet more bareable for those of us who stay.

Of course if they can figure out a way to survive on Mars at some point they may well be going before we get that light speed travel. Scientology probably move there and form some kind of huge cult based from Technology following the teachings of a Machine God.

o.O

Uh oh

Greebynog wrote:You'll still be able to buy a TV license if you want one but have no digital equipment, it'll just be useless as channels are changing over to pure digital broadcasting. It's just like when DVDs replaced VHS.

And, yes, we are the most surveiled country in the world, we had around 4.2m cameras at the last count (2006), about one for every 14 citizens.

EDIT: Doesn't this poster scare the crap out of you?

ChaosDave wrote:

Greebynog wrote:You'll still be able to buy a TV license if you want one but have no digital equipment, it'll just be useless as channels are changing over to pure digital broadcasting. It's just like when DVDs replaced VHS.

And, yes, we are the most surveiled country in the world, we had around 4.2m cameras at the last count (2006), about one for every 14 citizens.

EDIT: Doesn't this poster scare the crap out of you?

I'm not a bit surprised about it. It's the logical conclusion of socialism. Government always seeks to empower itself and when you continually grow government like you do in socialist states there is only one logical place for it to go.

ChaosDave wrote:

Greebynog wrote:You'll still be able to buy a TV license if you want one but have no digital equipment, it'll just be useless as channels are changing over to pure digital broadcasting. It's just like when DVDs replaced VHS.

And, yes, we are the most surveiled country in the world, we had around 4.2m cameras at the last count (2006), about one for every 14 citizens.

EDIT: Doesn't this poster scare the crap out of you?

I'm not a bit surprised about it. It's the logical conclusion of socialism. Government always seeks to empower itself and when you continually grow government like you do in socialist states there is only one logical place for it to go.

Oh aye, as soon as Humanity can leave this little planet you watch em go. Cults won't set up home on ranch, they go looking for 'whatever it is' they believe in. Folks who want the thrill of an 'old west' exsistance will be gone as well. Explorers, alien seekers, they'll all be off into deep space.

Should make the planet more bareable for those of us who stay.

Greebynog wrote:

ChaosDave wrote:

Greebynog wrote:You'll still be able to buy a TV license if you want one but have no digital equipment, it'll just be useless as channels are changing over to pure digital broadcasting. It's just like when DVDs replaced VHS.

And, yes, we are the most surveiled country in the world, we had around 4.2m cameras at the last count (2006), about one for every 14 citizens.

EDIT: Doesn't this poster scare the crap out of you?

I'm not a bit surprised about it. It's the logical conclusion of socialism. Government always seeks to empower itself and when you continually grow government like you do in socialist states there is only one logical place for it to go.

Britain. Socialist? We have a huge centre-right majority, and a centre-right government to show for it.

@Grignard: I don't know if it's for real, I found it on the interwebs, but london busses now all have cameras, as of a few years ago, so it's entirely possible.

Another interesting point, to prove how controlling the current government is, there are plans to create a mandatory ID card system in Britain, on which would be contained biometric data including fingerprints, retina scans and DNA samples. This system would be linked to a huge database cataloging the data. This card will be needed to open a bank account, get a loan, get a job, etc. etc. which means with one search of a database the government can gain a look at the life story of any citizen in the land. So they can spot when terrorists buy manure from garden shops. Supposedly. Seems a bit inneficient for that purpose.

I feel like I'm some interweb conspiracy theory whacko writing that, but this is true. It's bollocks.

ChaosDave wrote:I'm not a bit surprised about it. It's the logical conclusion of socialism. Government always seeks to empower itself and when you continually grow government like you do in socialist states there is only one logical place for it to go.

ChaosDave wrote:

Greebynog wrote:

ChaosDave wrote:

Greebynog wrote:You'll still be able to buy a TV license if you want one but have no digital equipment, it'll just be useless as channels are changing over to pure digital broadcasting. It's just like when DVDs replaced VHS.

And, yes, we are the most surveiled country in the world, we had around 4.2m cameras at the last count (2006), about one for every 14 citizens.

EDIT: Doesn't this poster scare the crap out of you?

I'm not a bit surprised about it. It's the logical conclusion of socialism. Government always seeks to empower itself and when you continually grow government like you do in socialist states there is only one logical place for it to go.

Britain. Socialist? We have a huge centre-right majority, and a centre-right government to show for it.

@Grignard: I don't know if it's for real, I found it on the interwebs, but london busses now all have cameras, as of a few years ago, so it's entirely possible.

Another interesting point, to prove how controlling the current government is, there are plans to create a mandatory ID card system in Britain, on which would be contained biometric data including fingerprints, retina scans and DNA samples. This system would be linked to a huge database cataloging the data. This card will be needed to open a bank account, get a loan, get a job, etc. etc. which means with one search of a database the government can gain a look at the life story of any citizen in the land. So they can spot when terrorists buy manure from garden shops. Supposedly. Seems a bit inneficient for that purpose.

I feel like I'm some interweb conspiracy theory whacko writing that, but this is true. It's bollocks.

Wait what? Isn't the Labour party in the majority right now and have been since 1997? Aren't they centre-left and describes itself as a party of democratic socialism? I'm not that familiar with your politics but the centre-left and trend towards socialism seems pretty clear.



....

Wait what? Isn't the Labour party in the majority right now and have been since 1997? Aren't they centre-left and describes itself as a party of democratic socialism? I'm not that familiar with your politics but the centre-left and trend towards socialism seems pretty clear.

@ShumaGorath, dude you have anger issues. If you want to debate then debate, otherwise keep your lame weak minded personal attack tactics to yourself.