There's a great book for kids from the States that tells the tale of what happens to a boy when he decides to give a mouse a cookie. This little act of kindness sets off a bizarre chain reaction of events that results in the hapless youth having to do everything from helping the mouse clean the house, through making it a bed to providing the rodent with materials so it can draw works of art.
It is a wonderful tale and a neat parable too, because underneath there is a surprisingly serious message namely that every action, no matter how small, has consequences. Food is at the heart of this particular tale, which is probably why it jumped into my mind when I was thinking about the way in which the food and health debate has suddenly moved into overdrive.
We have been warning the industry for some time that this would be the year's hot topic and that an unhealthy nation would increasingly be pointing the finger of blame at the food industry. The events of the past few weeks have shown we were absolutely right. But as our feature on page 29 outlines, there could be worse to come as the government, pressure groups and the media open up new fronts in the war on obesity. The challenge for food manufacturers and retailers is ensuring they maintain a balance between the need to play a constructive role in the increasingly heated debate, while robustly defending the industry against the more ridiculous attacks.
So where does my cookie-loving mouse fit into all of this? As a parable, you can take it on a number of levels. But I think the key message is that everything we do has consequences for which we are ultimately responsible. That is particularly true when looking at the relationship between food and health although it is conveniently ignored by those who want to regulate the food industry out of business. Nevertheless, even the industry's harshest critics can't deny the fact that despite being bombarded with nutritional information there are still those who will never be happy eating just one cookie. They prefer to munch the whole packet. That's their decision. And it's about time they took responsibility for the consequences.
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It is a wonderful tale and a neat parable too, because underneath there is a surprisingly serious message namely that every action, no matter how small, has consequences. Food is at the heart of this particular tale, which is probably why it jumped into my mind when I was thinking about the way in which the food and health debate has suddenly moved into overdrive.
We have been warning the industry for some time that this would be the year's hot topic and that an unhealthy nation would increasingly be pointing the finger of blame at the food industry. The events of the past few weeks have shown we were absolutely right. But as our feature on page 29 outlines, there could be worse to come as the government, pressure groups and the media open up new fronts in the war on obesity. The challenge for food manufacturers and retailers is ensuring they maintain a balance between the need to play a constructive role in the increasingly heated debate, while robustly defending the industry against the more ridiculous attacks.
So where does my cookie-loving mouse fit into all of this? As a parable, you can take it on a number of levels. But I think the key message is that everything we do has consequences for which we are ultimately responsible. That is particularly true when looking at the relationship between food and health although it is conveniently ignored by those who want to regulate the food industry out of business. Nevertheless, even the industry's harshest critics can't deny the fact that despite being bombarded with nutritional information there are still those who will never be happy eating just one cookie. They prefer to munch the whole packet. That's their decision. And it's about time they took responsibility for the consequences.
{{COMMENT & LETTERS }}
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