Here’s yet another piece on the food wars – this time from the New York Times. It’s not just Americans, apparently, who are fat. For example, according to the writer of the article, 70 percent of adult Greeks are overweight (doubtless someone somewhere will soon explain that McDonalds is to blame for all those podgy Pericles). The EU is planning on reacting with, you guessed it, more regulation, but, as is pointed out in the article, this presents food companies with a problem. “The message to consume less is hardly a capitalist notion. Food companies grow by selling to more people or convincing existing customers to eat more.” Really? Once again, we see the passive consumer of contemporary liberal mythology, docile, easily duped and quickly manipulated. The notion that the food companies might flourish by reacting to consumer demand does not seem to have occurred to the Times.

The proposed EU regulations are, as one would expect from anything that emanates from that corrupt and malevolent organization, both useless and hostile to the interests of the consumer. If Brussels wants to stop companies saying that foods high in salt, sugar and fat can also be good for you, that is, I suppose, vaguely understandable, if misleading. To go on to make it illegal to fortify such foods with vitamins and minerals is wrong, arrogant and destructive.

For arrogance, of course, the ‘World Health’ organization always takes some beating and, true to form, one Amalia Waxman, the project director of its ‘food initiative’ is claiming that self-regulation is less effective “than what she calls co-regulation, in which all stakeholders, including corporations, consumer groups [ notice the focus on consumer ‘groups’ rather than actual consumers] and governments, work together to ensure that minimum standards are met.”

’Stakeholders?’ The only person who has a stake in my plate (and, preferably a steak on my plate) is me.

Ms Waxman can take a hike – the exercise may do her some good.