Calorie Counting on Menus

So the Jacksonville Observer has reported that Jacksonville State Senator Steve Wise-R and Rep. Ed Homan, R-Tampa decided that it would be a good idea to put forth legislation in favor of forcing restaurants to put a calorie count on all menu items. They want to do this because they think it will make Floridians thinner--and therefore more healthy.

As a foodie this has made me made angry for a few reasons.

1: You can't legislate health. Case in point, larger warning labels on cigs in other countries resulted not in less sales of cigarettes, but in larger sales of decorative cigarette cases.

2: It stifles creativity. Chefs would not have the ability to be put together dishes based on what's fresh at the market. Nope. They'll have to stick to the calorie counted menu.

3: Higher cost for smaller businesses. Chains can afford to do calorie counts because they have the same menus across the country. But the cost of sending each dish to a lab is prohibitive for a local place. Say goodbye to Orsay.

4: Calorie counts are just a guess. Calorie counts even in chains can vary widely. Unless you're dealing with ALL prepackaged food ANYTHING can skew it higher. A piece of meat of the same size can vary in calories.

5: Less fresh food. If this is enforced, see above--in order for calorie counts to be accurate, less fresh food will be served in restaurants. How is this more healthy, exactly?

6: This will further homogenize our fruit and vegetable supply if all the states decide to do this. If each restaurant needs an exact calorie count, then they'll look for fruits and veggies that deliver a consistent count per gram that they are familiar with. That means they'll stick to a particular genus. If we don't have a variety of different genuses it could lead to a farming disaster for the US. We're already in trouble on that front because we don't grow enough different varieties of, say, corn. If you grow one type of corn only, it takes only ONE wave of disease or bugs to wipe out all of the corn in the US. If you grow a bunch of different types of corns some will be resistant.

I'm also annoyed because it seems to me the sort of thing I'd condemn Democrats for, but both of these guys are Republicans! It costs small business owners more and it sticks the government's nose in something that it should not interfere with.

We are not California.