In testimony before the Senate earlier this week, Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) let loose with a line that, well, we couldn’t agree with more: “Of course, it is ultimately the responsibility of parents to feed their children well.” Refreshing, if not surprising, wisdom from the same woman who told fellow nutrition nags at last year’s American Public Health Association conference: “We have got to move beyond personal responsibility.”
It appears that CSPI’s rhetoric comes in two versions. There’s “Senate Testimony CSPI” — just pull their cord to hear the sensible reminder that parents are responsible for their children’s diets. And there’s also “Big Brother CSPI” — which comes out in closed-door meetings with like-minded food cops. Wind them up and they’ll go on about “twinkie taxes” and that dastardly roadblock to all their regulatory dreams: personal responsibility.
