Regular readers know that John “Sue the Bastards” Banzhaf is leading the charge to haul food companies and restaurants into court to answer for their customers’ love-handles. But Banzhaf is also one of the “masterminds” of litigation against the tobacco industry. Interviewed for an article on the 12-figure tobacco settlement of 1998, Banzhaf suggested that: “Any time you have a product whose use is increasingly banned in many places and is very heavily taxed, that doesn’t bode well for its future.”
The implications of this statement — for food — are ominous, since Banzhaf and his activist allies want to force those exact conditions on America’s dinner plates. They hope to slap taxes on the foods they consider unhealthy, use zoning laws to kick restaurants and convenience stores out of certain neighborhoods, and prevent quick-service restaurants from operating in places like museums.
