Are obese people responsible for rising food prices?

[proud2BlibKansan]

Are obese people responsible for rising food prices? YES

We endorse the call for fair and sustainable solutions to tackle the causes of global food insecurity, but argue for greater recognition of the importance of reducing the demand for transportation fuel in resolving the struggle for energy between people and cars.

Motorized transport is more than 95 percent oil-dependent and accounts for almost half of world oil use. Because oil is a key agricultural input, demand for transportation fuel affects food prices. Increased car use also contributes to rising food prices by promoting obesity which increases the global demand for food.

Compared with the normal weight population, the obese population consumes 18 percent more food energy. Additionally, more transportation fuel energy will be used to transport the increased mass of the obese population.

Urban transport policies that promote walking and cycling would reduce food prices by reducing the global demand for oil, and promotion of a normal distribution of body mass would reduce the global demand for, and thus the price of, food.

Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

http://www.kansascity.com/273/story/668344.html

[SoCalDem]

1. Want butter flavored oil on yours?

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. More, sir, may I have some MORE?

:rofl:

[SoCalDem]

4. of course

[Skittles]

9. f*** that generic-colored shit

give me Skittles colors please:

[TahitiNut]

11. I'll pass on the popcorn and just light up.

:smoke:

[mcctatas]

18. Funny....

every time I light up, I crave popcorn and chocolate after an hour or so....

Oh, you meant cigarettes;)

[cliffordu]

24. I LOVE POPCORN!! and smoking......

:popcorn:

[mcctatas]

27. But what about chocolate....

especially junior mints chewed at the same time as popcorn...BEST MUNCHIE FOOD EVER!!!

[cliffordu]

47. YOU BETTER STOP THAT!!! Alerting for snack subversion.

[nebenaube]

3. thank you for demonstrating the magnitude of your ...

critical thinking capacity. sheesh!

[underseasurveyor]

21. don't you find it fascinating and hilarious at the same time

that when someone posts an article on DU that some people automatically assume that the OP is somehow responsible for the content of what is written, and along with that, the usual assumption that the OP is always in full agreement with what they posted?

don't you find that fascinating?

yea.. me too.

[China_cat]

35. Without a disclaimer saying 'what bullshit this is'

you can only conclude that the OP -is- in full agreement with what they posted.

[rucky]

37. On Democratic Underground, is that really necessary?

This is a mostly progressive community. If you want to check on an individual's liberal stripes, you can search their posts.

[proud2BlibKansan]

39. Oh give me a break

:crazy:

[QueenOfCalifornia]

51. You know that

you secretly meet with Karl Rove every other week to discuss secret handshakes.:rofl:

[proud2BlibKansan]

55. Shhhh

:)

[underseasurveyor]

48. Oh well I certainly see your point........

NOT!


I'm glad most DUers have the capacity to conclude more than just ONE thing at a time.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

52. She is being

her sarcastic, lovable self.

Jeesh.

[MercutioATC]

5. Are people with higher heartrates responsible for increased CO2 levels?

What a moronic argument.

[Quantess]

16. People who eat a lot of beans emit more CO2

I think they're to blame. :rofl:

[mcctatas]

20. Well rush said cow farts are the main cause of global warming...

But a recent story on cow flatulence in the British newspaper, The Independent, makes the environmental benefits from gasoline-powered engines even more obvious. Based on a recent study by the Food and Agricultural Organization, The Independent reports that "livestock are responsible for 18 percent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.”

http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Webpages/Global%20Warming%20Update%20The%20Hoax%20Gets%20Crazy%20Canadian%20Liberal%20Demands%20World%20Use%20Secret%20Alien%20Technology%20to%20Fix%20Climate.htm

[Maine-ah]

36. if cow farts are the main cause of global warming

maybe Rush should shut his mouth and stop contributing to the demise of the planet.

:shrug:

[cliffordu]

26. I know I generate my share.....

:rofl:

[Carnea]

6. Here let em get a good seat.... yup lets put the seat back..... okay good to go.

[Cleita]

7. Oh my god, I am speechless.

At least fat people eat their food. As a worker in restaurants I have seen more waste in uneaten food than I care to mention. It has nothing to do with people's weight and a lot to do with who gets the food for distribution and who they distribute it to whether they are fat or thin.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

29. The portions are too huge for most people to eat. That's why there's lots of waste.

Anybody in the restaurant business figure out that most of us would like to eat smaller portions instead of wasting food????


:wtf:

[Hekate]

33. It's called "pushing product" -- the more they push the more money they make

It's what happens when food becomes a commodity.

Hekate

[Cleita]

49. Yes, but it's not the fault of fat people. n/t

[Scout]

62. you don't have to eat it all at once or waste half of it ... duh ... you can take half

home for later.

[Beacool]

45. I'm with you.

I hate, hate seeing food going to waste!!!!

My church feeds the homeless lunch every day (it's the only place where they can get a midday meal in my town). The numbers have grown drastically the last few years and I know how much money it costs us to feed them. We don't get a grant, the money comes from the parishioners. Though we are lucky that places like Dunkin Donuts, BJs and some other businesses donate some of the food. We also have a cool deli nearby whose owner donates every month several pounds of cold cuts and cheese.

I therefore can't stand it when some spoil people see fit to throw out 3/4 of their meal instead of taking it home to eat later.

Wasteful bastards!!!

[Cleita]

50. Also, the supermarkets do it.

I live alone and find myself having to buy more than I want in prepackaged food, particulary in meat, dairy and eggs, which sometimes spoils before I get around to eating it.

[Beacool]

57. Well, that's different.

Try freezing meats and other things that are freezable. I divide everything in portions if the package is too big to eat in one sitting. Eggs are also sold in 6 packs and milk can be bought in smaller containers. I try not to throw out food whenever possible, but like you say, sometimes it gets spoiled.

[Cleita]

58. I'm not a moron. I know what to do, but the fact is I don't want to buy more

than I'm going to use. Try freezing eggs. I do buy the six pack eggs and small milk containers but they aren't always available and I'm force to buy a large size.

[Beacool]

61. I'm sorry if I offended you.

I never meant to imply that you were a moron. I was just trying to give you some household advice like my mother gave me when I moved out.

:(

[Cleita]

64. Thanks. I didn't mean to be testy. n/t

[Beacool]

65. OK

:hi:

[melody]

8. Gee, I wonder how many resources rich or workaholic people use up

Do ya really want to open *that* Pandora's Box. lol

[lutefisk]

10. I'm glad obese people are driving up food prices!!!

Food prices need to go through the roof!!!

Only then will this country address issues related to, uh, obese people. And food prices.

:sarcasm: :shrug:

Oh. Obese people should all ride scooters. In the snow.

[Gemini Cat]

17. No no! They should push scooters UPHILL in the snow.

Since all of them put such a strain on me and mine.
I'm not sure what the strain is, but gimme a second I'm sure I'll think of something or someone will tell me what the strain is.
:sarcasm:

[QueenOfCalifornia]

54. You made me

laugh. right out loud! :rofl:

[flvegan]

12. EPIC FAIL.

There's more stupid in this bit than in most of...well, anything.

I say that with *some* professional credentials, as well.

[Missy Vixen]

14. Thanks, flvegan

You've always gone out of your way to tell the truth on this matter.

In the meantime, the demonization of anyone who's not considered "normal" weight by flawed insurance charts from the 50's and BMI will start in 10...9...8...

:popcorn:

Julie

[Name removed]

23. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[rucky]

60. Best deleted subthread ever!

whoever that was got their ass handed to 'em.

[MonkeyFunk]

13. wow

that's some kinda dumb.

[Selatius]

15. I disagree with the opinion in that piece, but fighting obesity is a good thing despite that.

Preventive medicine would go a long way towards alleviating some, but not all, of the health care costs. Eating right and exercise simply makes life more livable. Nobody wants to suffer from chronic ailments that are associated with obesity.

On the topic of health care, I think profit should be removed from the equation. A person's health should not be subordinate to somebody's desire to make bigger dividends. As it stands, health insurance corporations make more money by denying people care. This is a conflict of interest.

[flvegan]

22. See, here's the thing...

"preventive medicine" as you've called it, is a very good thing. However, nutritional training would be something that we could all be educated on that would circumvent much of that need, if followed.

I agree with your post 100%, just wanted to add that. Because I'm a jerk.

[1]

19. god bless all of the fat fucks. and god damn all of the smoker fucks...

because smoker fucks drive up our health care costs, and fat fucks?


ummm...

[newmajority]

30. Actually, it's mostly the greedy corporatist fucks driving up our health care costs

[tama]

31. Get you math right

Those who die early - preferably before pension, save society huge amounts social costs.

God damn all healthy fucks who live up to hundred and have to be supported by others for their non-working decades. Isn't that the logic?

[Carnea]

40. Actually smokers lower heath costs by dying early....

I mean we all have end of life costs. Smokers, by keeling over before Medicare kicks in, help keep those costs reasonable. Healthy people who might survive three separate cancers into their 90's cost a fortune.

:sarcasm:


How does that poem go they came for fat people and there wasn't room for the rest of us.

no that's not right gimme a minute here.....:silly:

[AlCzervik]

43. i am a former fat fuck but i'm still a smoking fuck.

i'm trying to quit on that because that's what is going to kill me and i know it. Smoking is the worst thing you can do to yourself so you younger folks that don't smoke, please don't ever start, i've been smoking since the age of 13 and i finally feel it taking a toll on me.

[DearAbby]

25. I am not obese....just big boned...

my alarm clock, wakes me in the morning "DING... fries are done!"

My MuuMuu's are made by "OMAR the Tent maker"

Went sunbathing last weekend on the beach, people mistook me for a beached whale, kept trying to shove me back into the water!

[Beacool]

46. Reminds me of a saying I saw at my favorite ice cream store in Hyannis, MA

They have a wood cut out of an ewe and it says: Ewe's not fat, ewe's fluffy.

I love that sheep!!!

LOL!!!!

:rofl:

[earth mom]

28. The U.S. is rife with bulimics-who waste tons of food. Why don't you put the blame on them? nt

[tama]

32. Yes

Of course they are responsible. But who isn't?

Those who try to forget their own responsibility by blaming others are doubly responsible.

[krispos42]

34. Or...

Are drivers responsible for rising gas prices?

Or...

A driver responsible for rising food prices?

Or...

Are obese people responsible for rising gas prices?


What came first, the chicken or the egg?





Here's a better idea: let's blame globallization. The offshoring of American manufacturing jobs to China means a) China's economy is growing rapidly, causing their demand for petroleum to skyrocket, and b) all that shit overthere that we used to make over here has to be schlepped here by a big-ass diesel-sucking freighter.


Ah, much better.

[tomg]

38. I would ask how much obesity

is caused caused by poverty when parents who are hitting bottom have to load up on food that fills just to feed their kids;
is caused by ecomonic pressure that has parents holding down multiple jobs and, under pressure, eating on the run themselves and winding up at fast food joints with their kids;
is caused by cutbacks to school budgets that lead to the evisceration of programs in health, in after-school activites and in expanded sports programs.

While Edwards and Roberts are right ( to the point of obviousness) in recognizing "the importance of reducing the demand for transportation fuel," and they are obvious in their immediate solutions ( decrease car use, develop reasonable public transport policies, encourage walking and biking), their "chain of logic" in what is obviously the journalistic equivalent of soundbites designed to have people respond is deliberately inflammatory and insulting.

And that is too bad. Examining the relationship amongst health, education, poverty, corporate profits, public transport policies and how those factors have led to a rise in obesity (as medically determined) and the subsequent environmental impact would be fascinating, useful, and important. For one, I think it could suggest how intimately connected, complex and multi-faceted the problems that we face are. Instead the news reduces an important issue on a number of levels to the equivalent of academic Jerry Springerism. The findings don't disgust me( I haven't read their report in Lancet yet), as much as the sensationalism of how they are presented.

I absolutely despise this dumbing down.

edit: typo and then another typo

[treestar]

41. No, it's teenagers

That assumes obese people eat the most. The older you get, the less you can eat without gaining weight.

I ate much more as a teenager and in my twenties than now and weighed much less. I bet that's pretty typical.

[Canuckistanian]

42. Of course, it has nothing to do with the fact that the Earth has 6.8 billion people

And is continuing to increase at a faster rate than ever?

And what percentage of those people are obese? Less than 1%, I'd wager.

[Beacool]

44. Bullcrap!!

Granted that we have an obesity problem in this country, but i reject making a group of people scapegoats.

Discrimination against the obese is just as wrong as discriminating someone due to race, gender or any other characteristic.

Obesity should be treated as a disease and people should be helped to overcome it, punishing them for it is as outrageous as punishing anyone else for being ill.

[rucky]

53. Why doesn't this thread have 300 responses by now?

I'm a little disappointed in the DU.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

56. I just recommended it

because the discussion is hysterical.

[proud2BlibKansan]

63. Hey great sig pic!!

[Vinca]

59. Oh boy, blame it on the fat people again.

I say line 'em up along a pit of chocolate and shoot them.:sarcasm:

[Spike89]

66. Nope, it is the healthy people doing it

The smug coming off the organics-only people diminishes the amount of sun that can reach the farms, lowering the total amount of food that can be produced, raising prices, widening the gap between mass-produced groceries and organically-grown food, resulting in increased smugness from the saints spending 90% of their budget on hand-grown spinach that was harvested by certified organic virgins in a totally pollution-free plot in the remote Andes.

Wait, maybe it is fat people...lets eat them, but only if they are pesticide free!