Get your carrots, not cookies, from Howard County's vending machines [MD Freak State!]

Baltimore Sun ^ | 7/31/15 | Amanda Yeager and Meredith Cohn

[markomalley]

Healthy options are coming to Howard County, but some think the carrot is a stick.

Four of five Howard County Council members, all Democrats, voted Friday to overturn County Executive Allan Kittleman's veto of a bill that creates nutritional guidelines for the food and drinks sold in government vending machines.

Kittleman, the county's first Republican executive since 1998, framed the issue as one of choice for workers and visitors to county buildings, even if that means they choose fluorescent orange doodles chased by a bubbly soda.

"I trust Howard County residents and employees to make their own decisions about what to eat," Kittleman said before vetoing the bill that passed in early July after six months of debate.

Greg Fox, the County Council's lone Republican, voted against overturning the veto.

[867V309]

Carrots are high in sugar.

[DemforBush]

Margo G. Wootan, the center’s director of nutrition policy, called healthy vending machines “one of the hottest national trends no one has heard of.”

-That’s because no one is eating that crap.

“”People talk about the nanny state gone amok, but they don’t seem to mind when it’s the food industry that is dictating food policy by offering only big portions and junky options in vending machines,” Wootan said.”

-Pay attention, dim bulb. Nobody in the vending machine business is compelling me to buy their product, nor do they have a monopoly on my food options. the Nanny State, however, has both the power to compel (if unjustly) and punish for not compelling.

BTW, the vending machines at my job have a few of those “healthy options” in them. Nobody buys them, and they usually get pulled by the refill guy after a month or two.

[DemforBush]

http://www.cspinet.org/about/margo-wootan.html

Looks about like I thought she would. If that’s her smile, I’d hate to see her frown!

[Secret Agent Man]

I see destroyed vending machines in their future.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Maryland “Freak State” PING!

and

Nanny State PING!

[This_far]

Those vegetable vending machines best be spitting out “organic” roots for the insertion of folding money or taking plastic, otherwise I see them going the way of those US Postal Service stamp machines that only gave change in Sacajawea ‘gold’ dollar coins.

[I gotta bunch, keep ‘em with my Billy Beer collection]

Funny how even after removing the stamp vending machines, the lines for stamps ain’t any faster and the price of stamps still goes up.

[the OlLine Rebel]

I am late but I have to reply since is affects me.

First, whatever happened to Kittleman’s proposal to get rid of that crud about not allowing sale of sugary drinks on any county/Kolumbia property? He even mentioned that in the platform.

This is more of the same.

They will find themselves wasting tons of money as all those healthy things sour and turn to disgusting germ traps. That is one of the beauties of “processed” food. They will be throwing out food left and right, even if people dove in to buy as much as they could.

[Albion Wilde]

One of my family members is allergic to raw carrots. Eating grated carrots on top of a salad made his eyes swell shut.

[Still Thinking]

"I trust Howard County residents and employees to make their own decisions about what to eat," Kittleman said before vetoing the bill that passed in early July after six months of debate.

And in reality, trust has nothing to do with it. It's THEIR decision to make, not yours. (The only caveat there being that if you own the machines, you have the right to fill them with what you want)

"People talk about the nanny state gone amok, but they don't seem to mind when it's the food industry that is dictating food policy by offering only big portions and junky options in vending machines," Wootan said.

Uh, stupid lady, maam? There is no such thing as the "food industry" in the context of this discussion. Most vending machines are owned by independents, and if more people wanted carrots than Doritos, then carrots there would be. Vending machines are expensive and locations hard to come by; no halfway decent operator would leave chutes filled with stuff when people want other stuff more. You're so stupid that you can't distinguish between meddling based on your sanctimonious, condescending attitude, and supply and demand at work. (And these are the people who supposedly are smart enough to "lead" us)