California Says Farewell to Freedom Fries, Bans Trans Fats
California on Friday became the worst first state to completely ban trans fats from state restaurants. That sucks.
…Tammy Perez, owner of the Pizza Club restaurant in La Habra (Orange County), says the transition is not so easy. She switched to oil free of trans fat 18 months ago - and paid twice as much, she said. The bad economy is making it hard enough for restaurants to survive, she added, and now the new law is “pushing some of us over the edge,”
The law requires professional cooks to purge their kitchens of all ingredients containing more than half a gram per serving of artificial trans fat by Jan. 1, 2010. Inspectors could impose fines of $25 to $1,000 for violations.
Bakers have an extra year to adhere to the ban because pastries are the most difficult products to make without trans fat-laden oils and shortenings. Packaged foods are not affected by the law.
[...]
“As a former fourth-grade schoolteacher in East L.A., I saw firsthand the problems of obesity,” [Assemblyman Tony] Mendoza said Friday. “AB97 is a culmination of these concerns and works to benefit the well-being of kids and California.”
More politicians pretending to do stuff for kids here in the SF Chronicle.
Of course, until California’s overlords are nannying vegans–a distinct possibility in that state if any, frankly—it will be impossible to completely banish trans fats, since about 20% of the trans fats we eat occurs naturally in beef and the meat of other tasty ruminant animals. Though that 20% figure will rise as restaurants (but not, yet, grocers) are forced to cook how the state wants them to.
Venezuelan Food Policy is to Whine About Shortages it Creates
It’s difficult being a food blogger these days without becoming a food crisis blogger, frankly. I’m doing my best to avoid that. Still, the burgeoning food problems here and abroad are worth pointing out from time to time. And I think this comparative note illustrates how free societies handle rising food prices compared with how the same problems have such greater impact less free and unfree societies:
“This food crisis is the biggest demonstration of the historic failure of the capitalist model,” Chavez told Bolivian President Evo Morales, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage during a summit in Caracas.
[...]
Venezuela has struggled with sporadic shortages that often make it difficult to find staples such as milk, sugar and beef. Chavez has blamed local businesses, saying they hoard products. But critics blame government-imposed price controls, which they say make it difficult for some businesses to turn a profit.
Venezuela continues to import most of the food it consumes despite a nationwide agrarian reform initiative launched by Chavez more than six years ago.
Communist Cuba also imports most of its food — much of it coming from the United States.
So much for the “historic failure of the capitalist model,” eh?
And so while I can mock a place like California–which claims to be the Land of Wine and Food at precisely the time when various levels of government in the state seem to be doing their best to outlaw both food and alcohol–I’m also damn happy I live in a country that generally recognizes my right to grow, buy, and sell all sorts of good food. Not that things here don’t need fixing.
