News Release

June 3, 2004

Media Contact: (202) 789-5200

Bigger government will not create smaller waistlines
Cato expert says less government regulation, not more, is the best way to fight obesity

WASHINGTON -- Today in Williamsburg, Va., at a three-day summit examining America's obesity problem, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is expected to release his state's first report on overweight children in public schools.

Cato Institute Policy Analyst Radley Balko, who is attending the summit and recently wrote an essay on obesity for the June 7 issue of TIME, made the following comments on the conference and the obesity problem in general:

"The obesity summit promises to prescribe a litany of programs at all levels of government that aren't likely to do much to slim the American waistline. Worse, most of the ideas put forth by the attendees represent significant trespasses on consumer choice and personal freedom.

"First, we should emphasize that it's no one else's business what Americans choose to eat. There's little in life more private than what we choose to put into our bodies.

"Still, there are better, less intrusive ways we can change public policy to fight obesity. The first would be to remove obesity from the realm of `public health' and return to Americans ownership and responsibility for their own health. Health insurers should be free to assess the health of consumers when charging premiums the same way auto and life insurers do. Our current system provides no financial incentive for healthy lifestyles, and forces consumers who stay fit to subsidize consumers who do not.

"Finally, government should stop subsidizing domestic agriculture. Subsidies to corn, wheat, and soybean farmers artificially lower the price of processed foods and encourage the use of enriched white flour and high-calorie corn syrup sweeteners. At the same time, we should remove the tariffs and trade restrictions that protect domestic produce farmers, and which force American consumers to pay more for fresh fruits and vegetables."

On Monday, June 7, the Cato Institute will host a policy forum to discuss whether food marketers are responsible for childhood obesity in the United States and what the government should do about it.