Voting Three Times A Day

Robert Kenner's new movie, Food, Inc., argues that food is too cheap and, thanks to health-related issues from diabetes, will end up being more expensive in the long run. While Kenner is lacking in his rationality (it's hard to make the argument that it's bad to give people more options in the form of cheaper food) he recognizes that consumers are the key to the problem. When he appeared on The Daily Show last week, he reminded Jon Stewart that the consumer "votes three times a day." If consumers want healthier food, they will demand it and producers will provide. They will have to if they want to stay in business. But most Americans aren't demanding these things, even those who know all the messy origins. At the end of the day, people vote for fat and that's their choice.