Government Control Pros Civilization is growing and with it the Government. The Government is over the country of their own. They are people that represent the people. With everything at the end of our fingertips civilization has little to no exercise. This makes what they consume very important on staying healthy. The obesity rate of American has grown through the years and the Government feels as if they need to stop it by controlling the people’s diets. Reasons that the government should have control is that people have a hard time making the right choice for themselves, taxes on unhealthy foods will steer people away, and genetically modified food can have more nutrition added. Everyday a person is faced with a choice. The …show more content…
What is grown and raised by farms is what we buy and consume at the grocery store. Where else is the best place to start control? At the source or the beginning of the issue. Government has pushed and supported certained Genetically Modified foods, or GMOs, (Genetically Modified Organisms), “Genetic engineering allows scientist to speed this process up by moving desired genes from one plant to another,” (Wax, 1). These foods are modified by pesticide injections, animal DNA, and other breeds of crops to become more efficient for the world. They can also be made to taste better so people may not regret trying them. They can also be healthier than their original versions because genetically modifying foods can help with supplementing vitamins not usually found in the food. Some may say that the government controlling our diets is taking away our individual freedom to make our own choices. Though, they are right that they are making our choices for us, they are helping us find a better alternative and better way of life that we don’t have the will too. So the government control will be useful for us. Therefore, government control over diets isn’t a bad thing. It will decrease the obesity rate and limit health problems. Americans will be a lot better off when the government steps in. They will raise our taxes, give us more sources of GMOs and will help us make the right
It is not the government’s responsibility to manage what we eat. “Government is setting aside whether they have the constitutional authority to regulate what we eat (paragraph 2, source 1).” Government regulating what we eat could stop responsible people that eat healthy from treating themselves. People who have long hours of work rely on fast foods because
Most people say that the government’s role, in our diets, is the key for a healthier life. While others may argue that it is freedom of choice to eat whatever we want. However depending on the point of view, the government’s role in shaping what we consume is either a compulsory intervention or a blatant interference on American free will. Even though we hear a good argument on the government controlling our diets, most research show that the involvement of the government on our diets has shown little to no results.
Even if it is detrimental to society - it is exactly that - a societal issue, not a governmental one. The federal government should not have a say in how we live if the purpose of government is to protect the way of life of all people. Whether every person should believe that we should be careful of what we eat does not matter. The government should allow people to make their own choices. The government controlling what we eat would act as a gateway, or catalyst, towards the government controlling every aspect of humanity. This would leave us with little, if any, free will. Soon the government would begin to control how much electricity we can use in a day because of increasing argument for saving the environment, or even as far as controlling the way we dress because this leads to crime and/or violence. It can be seen that everything can have valid convincing reasons so that once we accept one aspect of control, the diet would stop us from disagreeing in some way to other ideas, increasing the governments control over us. They may seem valid and useful at first, but then we will end up with no free will at
Professor Richard Lewotin said “An ecosystem, you can always intervene and change something in it, but there is no way of knowing what all the downstream effects will be or how it will affect the environment.” Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are not healthy and they shouldn’t be put in our food. Our nation does not know the full extent of GMOs. GMOs are used in almost all of our food, and for the most part there are no regulations for these GMOs that food companies are using now a days. They have been used for years without telling us the full background and side effects they could have. As a nation we need to take the right step in learning the facts about them and making our food truly healthy. GMOs should be made illegal due to the fact that studies have shown them to be unsafe and harmful to consume.
Everyone loves the idea of a government that truly cares about him or her. Especially a government that would go so far as to layout a healthy diet plan to insure the health of your children and to battle childhood obesity. It is great that the government is concerned about adolescent obesity and the nutrition students receive at school. However, the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) Food and Nutrition Guidelines provide more problems for schools and they need to be eradicated, as well as repealing the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.
In the essay, “What You Eat is Your Business”, Radley Balko writes to tell his audience about how the government is trying to control people’s health and eating habits by restricting food, taxing high calorie food, and considering menu labeling. Balko includes in his essay that government restricting diets and having socialist insurance is not helping the obesity problem, but it is only making it worse because it not allowing people to take their health in to their own hands so they have no drive to lose weight or eat healthy. In his essay, Balko is targeting society, including those who may be obese, he is trying to show them that the laws our
The government is not responsible for the consequences of poor dietary choices made by individuals. The government is how ever needed to change the way we see health care. In America we have been taking on the burden of others issues unwillingly through the healthcare system. The article What You Eat Is Your Business by Radley Balko explains how premiums on healthcare due to “Your heart attack drives up the cost of [other’s]”. When others are paying for your personal health issues, it makes it easier to not “put down the cheese burger”. Other than motivation from the government we as individuals
However, unlike the view of David Zinczenko, Radley Balko, a senior editor at Reason and author of “What You Eat Is Your Business”, takes a strong clear stance that Americans are to blame for their own actions and health. Balko illustrates that the government is spending millions of dollars on changing the distribution food, such as what is being sold in school cafeterias and calling obesity a nationwide health crisis. He expands this idea by stating, “A society where everyone is responsible for everyone else’s well-being is a society more apt to accept government restrictions” (159). Basically, he believes this is a misguided resolution in the fact that government should not be concerned with intervening and restricting the food options for the entire population, but should be with individuals harboring responsibility for their own health.
Radley Balko, the once editor of the Huffington Post, argues in his essay “What You Eat Is Your Business,” that personal responsibility is necessary when it comes to the food you ingest and your health. Balko goes into detail about how the government should not have a hand in what consumers eat or where they eat by discussing initiatives the government has put in place. Anti-obesity initiatives such as the request for more food labels and the restriction of junk food in vending machines at schools are becoming more popular and causing the American population to not take responsibility for their own health choices. American’s well-being has become an issue of “public health” instead of being an individual concern.
300 years ago, people immigrated to America to be free. These people did not want to have to worry about the government telling them what they can and cannot do, but that was a simpler time. Today, society is taking this freedom for granted, and are abusing their privileges as citizens, mostly with reference to their food choices. The government should regulate what we eat. A person may believe that this should happen because obesity has become such an issue in the US. One may also feel that the American public should let the government regulate their food choices because freedom of choice for the people of the US is a privilege that has been abused. Additionally, if the government does start to regulate Americans' diets, this country will have a healthier and happier population as a result.
The government would have too much power if they were to take away the freedoms we have as Americans to eat certain foods. “No, the government should not be entitled to the decisions of US citizens.” Just because some Americans are obese and cannot control what and how they eat food doesn’t mean the government should make the rest of Americans suffer by taking away the freedom of choice.
By playing the country’s personal nutritionist through its restrictions and modifications on food, the government seemingly wipes out the need for education on healthful dieting habits. Unfortunately, without this knowledge citizens become increasing reliant on the government to set its standard for what they should eat, instead of being able to make the proper decisions for themselves. An outstanding example provides by Radley Balko in his writing “What You Eat is Your Business” is the recent wave of school
According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) more than one third (34.96%) of U.S adults are obese. This proves that people are not taking care of their bodies and being aware of the types of foods that go in their mouths. The issue is that many people are disagreeing with the government regulating what we eat, however if this law is not enforced people will be free to buy excessive amounts of unhealthy sugary foods, leading them to a chronic disease. Even though sugary drinks and foods can have a good taste and be satisfying to many, the government should regulate what we eat because there will be less people with chronic illness, it will be less money wasted on health care for obese people, and there will be less individuals consuming trans fats.
The fact is that in our country, any government intrusion looks undesirable. We are so used to making free choice and to having access to everything we need and want that we have already forgotten the value and usefulness of the government control. No, that does not mean that the government must control everything and everyone. What I mean here is that the government control should be balanced with the freedom of choice. Unfortunately, plentiful foods do not lead to improved health conditions. We cannot always make a relevant choice. Our hurried lifestyles make us extremely fast, and eating is not an exception. We eat fast, but fast does not always mean useful. I believe, and in this essay I argue that the government must have a say in our
Over the past 50 years, the way we eat has changed more than it had in the previous 10,000. Now, 60% of Americans over the age of 20 are overweight. The fast-food industry is highly responsible for today’s health epidemic. Some people choose to blame the government for not balancing individual rights, and the common good. However, the government is not forcing you to eat. You put yourself at risk of diet related health problems.