Twinkies may be on the chopping block this next election, if OSPIRG has its way.
This morning, Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group members petitioned to cut as much as $30 billion from federal government subsidies that lower prices on unhealthy food. Along with general national health, OSPIRG hopes to target childhood obesity, which has taken a spike in the past years. Stationed outside of Lloyd Farmer’s Market, the group compared a pile of unhealthy foods — Sno Balls, potato chips, chocolate syrup — to a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables. OSPRIG’s David Gamburd compared the prices between the piles, illustrating the significant difference in cost.
“People get that this food is unhealthy, but they don’t understand that it’s their tax dollars going towards these subsidies,” said Gamburd. “That’s the real issue.”
Titled “The Price is Wrong,” the national USPIRG campaign aims to eliminate the major agribusiness influence on government subsidies in the 2012 election. However, Gamburd said that they have no position on what to do with the money if it is cut. “For now, we’re just attacking it at the ground level,” he said.
Representative Earl Blumenauer’s office is supporting the local campaign, and sent a statement (his spokeswomen wasn’t able to make it due to the Mt. Hood fire) to the group to read at today’s event. The letter focused on local farms, which these subsidies originally meant to help, and the necessity of regaining a local economy.
For now, OSPIRG aims to roam the streets for support and hold similar events prior to the 2012 election, in hopes of taking a bite out of the corn syrup-laden grub.
Now those bastard lefties want to take away our Twinkies?!?!?!?!
There are the people who base their existence on telling others how to live.
And those who don’t.
What Mount Hood fire?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM6xVQwIOYQ
@2, I don’t think they’re telling anyone how to live. I think they’re trying to end a subsidy for unhealthy foods (which should be a no-brainer).
While I agree with you that, should I decide to do so, I have the right to eat myself to death (channeling inner Ron Swanson here). However, as a tax payer, and assuming this article is factual, I’d prefer not to subsidize twinkies.
@ezra: +1.
Oh please…. get a life kids.
Always hilarious when people who purport to believe in some sort of “free market” cry foul at efforts to end public subsidies for corporations to artificially lower the prices of unsustainable products that make us unhealthy.
And then people criticize vegetarianism and healthy eating as somehow elitist because fresh produce is expensive for poor families relative to processed crap. Hmm, could there be a connection?
This is a good thing. This country has like 300 million people, a large number of whom are fat, stupid idiots who will eat modified plastic if you shape it like food. Bummer about their fat, stupid kids, but this is just natural selection doing its thing. If you’re dumb enough to eat that shit and feed it to your kids, I’m willing to pay a little bit of tax money to help get you off the planet quicker. That way I won’t have to hear as many assholes saying “hipster.”
@DieSalty, they don’t get off the planet quicker, they develop diabetes and hypertension and then you have to spend even more money giving them lifelong health care so they can manage their chronic disorders while continuing to breed.
@DieSalty – I’d totally be with you if the process was a lot quicker. But Theterminizer is right – those folks breed too fast.
“but this is just natural selection doing its thing”
There is nothing natural about that kind of selection.
Oops! I thought that was a sampling table and took some tasty gifts off it.
They should also get ride of the subsidies for bio-fuel since all this “corn sugar” is a byproduct.
Rosy – yes.