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I choose free country over cityYou are kidding me, right? I was afraid you were serious. I will not argue with anybody about the fact that we have a weight problem in the United States, but I assure you this is just the first of many initiatives that will leave us speechless in their attempt to control our lives. On Feb. 19, the Obama administration announced its commitment to improve the nation's health by eliminating the "food deserts." What are "food deserts," you might ask. These are areas of the country where people live more than one mile from a grocery store. Here is the announcement made in Philadelphia by Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and first lady Michelle Obama: "The Healthy Food Financing Initiative seeks to eliminate food deserts--urban areas more than a mile from a supermarket--in the U.S. within seven years, according to a news release from the USDA. The goal for the $400 million for fiscal year 2011 is to expand healthy options in as many as one-fifth of the areas in need. The money will be used to provide financial and technical assistance to expand healthy food options, including tax credits, below-market-rate loans, loan guarantees and grants to attract private sector capital. Through a new tool called the Food Environment Atlas, the USDA has determined that 23.5 million people live in low-income areas that are more than a mile from a supermarket." Here is the sad part--I have a feeling that they honestly believe that low-income folks who are less than one mile from a grocery will actually consume more fruits and vegetables. Did they fail to notice that the unemployment rate continues to hang at 10 percent and people are forced to buy the cheapest foods they possibly can, just to keep their families from going hungry? Wouldn't it make more sense to stop imposing burdensome regulations on business owners that eventually result in employers doing more with fewer employees? Case in point: In January HR 3288, another $447-billion appropriation, gave the Department of Labor $13.3 billion, which was mostly designated to hire 600 new labor enforcement officials. Not one of these new hires will do anything but increase unemployment numbers as they enforce overzealous regulations imposed by the government. Furthermore, part of the reason fruits and vegetables are as expensive as they are has to do with a whole truckload of unnecessary regulations placed on the industry, from labor compliance and water access, to environmental compliance and food safety. I simply suggest, for anybody who thinks fruits and vegetables are expensive, you just find a little plot of soil and try your hand at gardening. Most will come flocking back to the grocery saying, "Just sell me the goods." Most importantly, reality doesn't even play a role in improving the health of our nation. Repeated research has documented that, given equal access, we do not choose fruits and vegetables to begin with, whether one mile from the store or 100. It would appear that as restaurants and vending machine operators grant us our wish for health food options, we are more likely to order the least healthy option, say researchers with City University of New York and Duke University. A study released last year in the "Journal of Consumer Research" suggests we are, in fact, our own worst enemies when it comes to making healthy food choices. "Just because we consumers want to see healthier items available does not mean that we are going to choose them," write the authors. "We present evidence that for many consumers, the addition of healthy alternatives to food choice sets can, ironically, increase the consumption of very indulgent food items." I believe we should do what we can to encourage and educate about healthy food choices, but our government continues to overstep its boundaries. We need a society where people are allowed to screw themselves up in any way, shape, or form that they want to. But when they do, we don't need some nationalized health care system where the rest of us are responsible for paying for their mistakes. Let them pay for themselves. It is time to accept responsibility for our life choices. It is high time that all elected officials, regardless of their branch of government or political affiliation, understand that this nation needs to be ruled like a free country rather than controlled like a city. Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or e-mail Trent at trent@loostales.com.
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