Let's Do to Big Food What We Did to Big Tobacco

After decades of anti-smoking campaigns, Big Tobacco has been brought low and ashtrays have “gone the way of spittoons,” writes Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe. It’s high time we gave Big Food the same treatment. “Now that two-thirds of Americans are overweight, the lethal effects of fat are catching up to those of cigarette smoke."

That hasn't happened by accident. Food scientists openly devise new ways to “spike” food, to make sure people eat more. Marketing departments position food as “eatertainment.” As one food executive said recently, “Everything that has made us successful ... is the problem.” We need to change the way our society views eating, and given the new Food Inc. documentary and David Kessler's book, there's reason to hope the summer of 2009 could be a turning point. Maybe we can make a 1,750-calorie quesadilla “look just a bit more like an ashtray.” (More cigarettes stories.)