politics / commentary ::.
Senate Bill 161 Is Needless Law
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Craig Culver, chief executive officer and co-founder of Culver Franchising System Inc. and keynote speaker at the Wisconsin Restaurant Expo in Milwaukee, is warning fellow food-chain owners to support state legislation that would protect them from lawsuits filed by obese people who blame the industry for their weight gain. Senate Bill 161 would exempt food manufacturers, marketers, advertisers, distributors and sellers from being held liable from lawsuits filed by people who blame them for their weight or health problems because of eating fast food. Gov. Jim Doyle, according to Culver, is not ready to just jump on the corporate bandwagon. Hopefully, Doyle will not sign this bill. SB161 has nothing to do with stopping lawsuits filed by Chubby and the gang, but it is a law that will provide Corporate America with more tools to insulate itself from accountability from the public. These bills only help to shield corporations from being held accountable and take away the individual’s right to litigate. It is a bill designed to increase corporate power and diminish the individual’s civil right to have his or her day in court. What’s to say that genetically engineered foods are not contributing to the obesity of an individual? Could bills such as SB161 be designed to protect the food industry from lawsuits filed by individuals negatively affected by genetically engineered foods? For that matter, what will the health of the nation be in 30 years after mass consumption of foods that have been genetically engineered? According to Dr. John Fagan, an award-winning geneticist, “Genetically modified foods available, or about to appear, in U.S. markets include tomatoes, squash, yeast, corn, potatoes, and soybeans (which are used in 60% of all processed foods, such as bread, pasta, candies, ice cream, pies, biscuits, margarine, meat products and vegetarian meat substitutes). Genetically modified organisms are also used to produce cheeses and canola oil.” Big tobacco hid from the public the negative effects of nicotine. Could the food industry do the same with foods manufactured and produced by science? Could the food industry be setting up protections against suits in the future once new research shows that foods genetically prepared have devastated the health of the American people? The Institute on Money in State Politics, a nonpartisan research group based in Helena, Mont, reports that in the 2002 and 2004 election cycles, the food and restaurant industry gave over $5 million to politicians in states that have passed laws shielding companies from liability. But this goes beyond the profit motive. Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, calls these laws “shameful” and blasts the food industry’s continued efforts to get special exemptions from lawsuits. In an article published by the Organic Consumers Association, Jacobson states, “If someone is saying that a 64-ounce soda at 7-Eleven contributed to obesity, that person should have his day in court,” Mr. Jacobson said. “If it’s frivolous, the courts are accustomed to throwing those out.” Plaintiffs who sue do so because they claim deceptive advertising and marketing, misrepresentation and failure to warn consumers of health and other issues, not simply because they got fat. SB161 is anti-democratic and fails to live up to the values and principles of this democracy as it relates to the right of the citizenry. Culver’s push to support this law that protects corporations and take away the rights of the individual to utilize the courts is un-American. The people have the right to use the institutions established by our laws and our constitutions to pursue individual liberty and justice. It is for the courts to decide what is frivolous, not the economists, and surely, not Corporate America. • Miranda is a national award winning columnist, Latino community activist and Editor-in-Chief of the Milwaukee Spanish Journal. Email at: rmiranda@wi.rr.com >>More articles by Robert Miranda |