Dear Mrs Obama
When I heard about your initiative to force restaurants to stop feeding French Fries to American children I was shocked. After having seen the result of your decree at one of the Darden Company’s restaurants – which include Olive Garden and the Longhorn Steakhouse – I thought I would write you a note.
Initially – I was not going to any Darden Company restaurant again because I don’t want the government or anyone married to anyone in the government, to dictate what is on my restaurant menu and most especially what I give to my child.
I really have a liking for seafood however, so, off we went to Red Lobster. You will be glad to know that they immediately bent to your will. My son was offered orange slices as a side rather than French Fries. They brought it out to him on his plate with a small bowl of ketchup for dipping. A few dips and tastes was all it took to effectively end the enjoyment of his meal.
You had succeeded in ensuring that this little boy would not eat too much – in fact, he ate hardly anything at all.
As for myself and my wife – I liked to eat at Darden Company restaurants because their portions were large enough for me to take some home so I was effectively buying two meals for the price of one. They had, however, again, apparently at your command – reduced the portion size to such an extent that there was hardly enough for the meal I paid for let alone any left over to take home.
This was known as nouvelle cuisine at one time – where presentation trumped content – until restaurant goers realized they were paying the same price for a shred of cucumber as they would have paid for a salad.
I noticed many tables with older patrons at the restaurant who would not be taking any leftovers home. It won’t be long before they realize too that going to a restaurant may save time but it is actually eating into the home budget.
You would then have succeeded in what I believe was your second point – getting Americans to eat less.
Mrs. Obama – Americans don’t need to have food kept away from them. Right now in the United States according to the United States Census Bureau, which is actually a part of the United States Government unlike your office which is headed by someone married to someone working in the government, approximately 43.6 million (14.3%) Americans were living in absolute poverty in 2009, up from 39.8 million (13.2%) in 2008. In addition, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday September 13th, 2011, the nation's poverty rate rose to 15.1% in 2010, up from 14.3% in 2009 and to its highest level since 1993.
One of my friends mentioned to me that maybe you meant well – but you have effectively brought a potential hunger problem to seniors and families who dine out and interfered in the restaurant industry. The effect of reduced portions and ‘healthy’ plates filled with raw broccoli (which, because of inadequate inspection might be contaminated with e.coli) and orange wedges served with ketchup on the restaurant industry, I would assume, will lead to lower numbers of Americans dining out and so the economy suffers just as individuals suffer.
Were you aware or do you care that agriculture of produce destined for markets around the country is concentrated in very few locations, and yet, nearly every acre in this nation, except in some portions of the badlands, is fit for cultivation? What I am asking is were you aware that a state like North Carolina, or even North Dakota, could be self-sufficient in the production of its own vegetables but is not because of big agri-business and Federal Commodities Pricing and FDA and USDA interference in the markets?
What was once meant as a means to ensure that fair trade took place and reasonably priced food was provided to all Americans so we could work has devolved into a state system of what appears to be state controlled agriculture – without the benefits of low prices and food security.
Food insecurity in the United States in the Year 2011.
That is a crime not a nuisance.
What are you doing about that? Where are the headlines about that?
Nationwide it is reported that the food insecurity rate for Americans of all ages – all races – all creeds is hovering at 16.6%. That is about 50,162,000 people. That is fifty million, one hundred and sixty-two thousand Americans living without enough food.
Food insecurity – have you ever heard such a term? Hunger. Want. Need. Poverty. Living without. Doing without. Suffering. These are the definitions that should appear with that phrase – Food Insecurity – creating an atmosphere of want, exclusion and pain in a nation that is supposed to be a cradle of safety in an insecure world. The reality stares back at us through the face of a hungry child.
For children it means an inability to concentrate. Hunger contributes to anger, personal insecurity, fear and crime and violence.
Maybe you are doing your best. Maybe you have good intentions.
Battling childhood obesity in a nation that fears allowing its children to play on the streets because of drug activity and because the cities and towns have become empty shells of what they once were as big business eats away at our society – where is the vision of the future?
A nation of people who get enough to eat and have enough to share. A nation able to produce enough food and market it without having central planning arrange every single aspect of every action. A nation able to provide a variety of the thousands of vegetables native to North and South America that can be grown in every state rather than the 30 or so staple products that are produced on industrial farms in a couple of states.
That’s a glimpse of the future I see.
As you know restaurants must create their product and be new each time – else patrons will not return. I had determined I wasn’t going to Red Lobster when I heard their announcement based on your interference – but I relented because I like their food.
The reduced portions – well, I can only eat out on special occasions as it is – and reduced portions will lead me to do it even less. As for the delivery of orange wedges with a small bowl of ketchup for dipping – would you return to a restaurant that made such a glaring error?
It means they don’t know their stuff and don’t care enough about me, the person paying them for the service, to do the right thing in order to provide the right service and the right product at the right time.
I’ll finish with this – I appreciate what you might be trying to do but the fact is that without local involvement of some kind – it’s going to be very hard to apply it and get the results you seek. Just so you don’t think I am completely off the rails, I want to state that I believe your intention in this case is to reduce childhood obesity. Here in Michigan, however, I will bring your attention to a Governor by the name of Snyder, who is intent on creating a statewide database that doctors would be required to populate with information regarding the weights of children. It is referred to as a statewide “body mass index” database of children to track obesity anonymously.
To show where he is coming from, and I can’t say I know that fully or even where he is headed, in concert with the State Legislature he arranged to put into effect a law restricting access to welfare and other state support and so is directly contributing to the increase in poverty and ignorance while exercising the power of the government to intrude on the lives of its citizens through tracking the physical characteristics of their children.
Good luck in what you are doing – whatever that is. I, for myself, will continue to try and ensure that my neighbors in Michigan, where the child food insecurity rate is nearly 40 percent, get enough food to eat. I will continue to tutor anyone I can to learn how to read – in a state where the illiteracy rate is pegged at 18 percent for adults and especially in Detroit, where I try to apply my skills, where the illiteracy rate is put at 47 percent and the unemployment rate is climbing.
Initially – I was not going to any Darden Company restaurant again because I don’t want the government or anyone married to anyone in the government, to dictate what is on my restaurant menu and most especially what I give to my child.
I really have a liking for seafood however, so, off we went to Red Lobster. You will be glad to know that they immediately bent to your will. My son was offered orange slices as a side rather than French Fries. They brought it out to him on his plate with a small bowl of ketchup for dipping. A few dips and tastes was all it took to effectively end the enjoyment of his meal.
You had succeeded in ensuring that this little boy would not eat too much – in fact, he ate hardly anything at all.
As for myself and my wife – I liked to eat at Darden Company restaurants because their portions were large enough for me to take some home so I was effectively buying two meals for the price of one. They had, however, again, apparently at your command – reduced the portion size to such an extent that there was hardly enough for the meal I paid for let alone any left over to take home.
This was known as nouvelle cuisine at one time – where presentation trumped content – until restaurant goers realized they were paying the same price for a shred of cucumber as they would have paid for a salad.
I noticed many tables with older patrons at the restaurant who would not be taking any leftovers home. It won’t be long before they realize too that going to a restaurant may save time but it is actually eating into the home budget.
You would then have succeeded in what I believe was your second point – getting Americans to eat less.
Mrs. Obama – Americans don’t need to have food kept away from them. Right now in the United States according to the United States Census Bureau, which is actually a part of the United States Government unlike your office which is headed by someone married to someone working in the government, approximately 43.6 million (14.3%) Americans were living in absolute poverty in 2009, up from 39.8 million (13.2%) in 2008. In addition, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday September 13th, 2011, the nation's poverty rate rose to 15.1% in 2010, up from 14.3% in 2009 and to its highest level since 1993.
One of my friends mentioned to me that maybe you meant well – but you have effectively brought a potential hunger problem to seniors and families who dine out and interfered in the restaurant industry. The effect of reduced portions and ‘healthy’ plates filled with raw broccoli (which, because of inadequate inspection might be contaminated with e.coli) and orange wedges served with ketchup on the restaurant industry, I would assume, will lead to lower numbers of Americans dining out and so the economy suffers just as individuals suffer.
Were you aware or do you care that agriculture of produce destined for markets around the country is concentrated in very few locations, and yet, nearly every acre in this nation, except in some portions of the badlands, is fit for cultivation? What I am asking is were you aware that a state like North Carolina, or even North Dakota, could be self-sufficient in the production of its own vegetables but is not because of big agri-business and Federal Commodities Pricing and FDA and USDA interference in the markets?
What was once meant as a means to ensure that fair trade took place and reasonably priced food was provided to all Americans so we could work has devolved into a state system of what appears to be state controlled agriculture – without the benefits of low prices and food security.
Food insecurity in the United States in the Year 2011.
That is a crime not a nuisance.
What are you doing about that? Where are the headlines about that?
Nationwide it is reported that the food insecurity rate for Americans of all ages – all races – all creeds is hovering at 16.6%. That is about 50,162,000 people. That is fifty million, one hundred and sixty-two thousand Americans living without enough food.
Food insecurity – have you ever heard such a term? Hunger. Want. Need. Poverty. Living without. Doing without. Suffering. These are the definitions that should appear with that phrase – Food Insecurity – creating an atmosphere of want, exclusion and pain in a nation that is supposed to be a cradle of safety in an insecure world. The reality stares back at us through the face of a hungry child.
For children it means an inability to concentrate. Hunger contributes to anger, personal insecurity, fear and crime and violence.
Maybe you are doing your best. Maybe you have good intentions.
Battling childhood obesity in a nation that fears allowing its children to play on the streets because of drug activity and because the cities and towns have become empty shells of what they once were as big business eats away at our society – where is the vision of the future?
A nation of people who get enough to eat and have enough to share. A nation able to produce enough food and market it without having central planning arrange every single aspect of every action. A nation able to provide a variety of the thousands of vegetables native to North and South America that can be grown in every state rather than the 30 or so staple products that are produced on industrial farms in a couple of states.
That’s a glimpse of the future I see.
As you know restaurants must create their product and be new each time – else patrons will not return. I had determined I wasn’t going to Red Lobster when I heard their announcement based on your interference – but I relented because I like their food.
The reduced portions – well, I can only eat out on special occasions as it is – and reduced portions will lead me to do it even less. As for the delivery of orange wedges with a small bowl of ketchup for dipping – would you return to a restaurant that made such a glaring error?
It means they don’t know their stuff and don’t care enough about me, the person paying them for the service, to do the right thing in order to provide the right service and the right product at the right time.
I’ll finish with this – I appreciate what you might be trying to do but the fact is that without local involvement of some kind – it’s going to be very hard to apply it and get the results you seek. Just so you don’t think I am completely off the rails, I want to state that I believe your intention in this case is to reduce childhood obesity. Here in Michigan, however, I will bring your attention to a Governor by the name of Snyder, who is intent on creating a statewide database that doctors would be required to populate with information regarding the weights of children. It is referred to as a statewide “body mass index” database of children to track obesity anonymously.
To show where he is coming from, and I can’t say I know that fully or even where he is headed, in concert with the State Legislature he arranged to put into effect a law restricting access to welfare and other state support and so is directly contributing to the increase in poverty and ignorance while exercising the power of the government to intrude on the lives of its citizens through tracking the physical characteristics of their children.
Good luck in what you are doing – whatever that is. I, for myself, will continue to try and ensure that my neighbors in Michigan, where the child food insecurity rate is nearly 40 percent, get enough food to eat. I will continue to tutor anyone I can to learn how to read – in a state where the illiteracy rate is pegged at 18 percent for adults and especially in Detroit, where I try to apply my skills, where the illiteracy rate is put at 47 percent and the unemployment rate is climbing.
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