Plain Packaging: First Tobacco, Then Food?
Americans are overweight. Our obesity leads to common and serious health problems, not to mention various other environmental and animal health damage caused by the industrial food system, which impose externalized costs on society. The market failures of our food system call for corrective government regulation, similar to how government regulation counterbalanced unregulated tobacco sales in the 20 th century. In particular, governments should adopt modified ‘plain packaging’ rules for high density foods. I. Lifestyle profoundly influences a person’s chances of encountering particular health problems. Cigarette smokers are more likely to contract lung cancer than non-smokers. [1] Pilots have higher rates of skin cancer than the general population. [2] Obesity is positively correlated with high calorie intake and low physical activity, among other things. [3] When our social systems cause widespread public health crises, we often ask government to regulate the market a...