The fat tax is no more. The Danish government has reversed its decision to tax saturated fat.
The original tax was imposed because politicians believed the lipid hypothesis.
It has been abolished because Danish consumers voted with their feet and bought their saturated fat from Sweden and Germany. The government realised that the tax was damaging the dairy industry and the Danish economy.
Unfortunately producers have adapted to the original tax. 'Butter' is now widely available with rapeseed oil as a major ingredient. Many baked goods are made with vegetable oils, rather than the more traditional butter.
What hasn't changed is the common belief that saturated fat causes major illness, such as heart disease.
'People in California don't want to know what's in their food and drink.'
That was one argument used by the opposition alliance formed to defeat Proposition 37 in California. Prop 37 aimed to enforce labelling of genetically modified organisms in food. Companies allegedly spent $45 million on campaigning to block the adoption of this simple measure.
Are the residents of California uninterested in health or the type of food and drink they consume?
The West coast of USA is populated by many people who are very concerned with health, fitness and longevity of the body beautiful. Although some of them may resort to surgery, chemical enhancement and other 'artificial' means to stay young, I believe that many adopt healthy lifestyles. Part of this strategy involves self education and close study of the content of what goes in the body. I do not believe that all residents of California are stupid or ill informed.
The vote was lost. How did this happen?
Alex Jones and his colleague have a strong view of this, which they describe as fraud:
The USA have abolished the rule limiting the amount of money that can be spent on any election. They seem to have redefined multinational corporations as individuals for this purpose. The argument runs that an individual should have a constitutional right to participate to the full extent that they wish, without any constraint.
