Yeah but millions of people aren't putting a burden on the system by injuries. If that ever happened I would fully support a tax to recover the losses and stop skiing-it would be insanely crowded.
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Fat Tax
- Thread starter tjf67
- Start date
Yeah but millions of people aren't putting a burden on the system by injuries. If that ever happened I would fully support a tax to recover the losses and stop skiing-it would be insanely crowded.
I agree that it would be tough on the less fortunate-there must be a way around that....
The thing is that millions of people do get injured playing sports each year. In fact 85% of elite or recreational badminton players suffer an injury each year :lol:
http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/0123a-sport-injuries.htm
What do you tax there? The bird? 65% of runners suffer an injury each year, should you tax their shoes? Some people probably hurt themselves having sex. Should you tax birth control or condoms :lol:
If you're going to look at one thing like soda consumption and how it affects the national health, you have to look at ALL things in my opinion. It could probably be done and countless risk management jobs would spring up from the studies.
To me, that's just too much. I'd rather the government stay out of it.
Dr Skimeister
New member
Yes, I do. And, every pun intended, it will get bigger and bigger.
Didn't you see Wall-E??
This switches the conversation from personal/social responsibility to health care/health insurance.
I assume that a large majority of skiers & riders, being in the economic position to partake in these activities, afford health insurance. I also assume that a big part of the target audience for foods and drinks of questionable nutritional value are people of lower socioeconomic standing that have a greater liklihood of being less educated on the perils of such a diet. My assumption goes one step further that lower socioeconomic standing increases the liklihood of inadequate health insurance. Hence the social burden of these foods and drinks as opposed to social burden of ski injuries.
I don't think it's on the same scale as say Diabetes,heart disease, cancer ect......
Besides overall I think the general public benefits from any kind of activity-whether it be running, badmitton whatever. I'm looking at the big picture here and obesity is a rapidly growing problem that kills lot's and lot's of people and racks up a huge bill doing so. Running not so much. If millions of people were being hospitalized from badmitton then yes I would like someone to come up with a solution.
Foie Gras has 130 calories per ounce, 111 of those calories from fat. Should there be a Foie Gras tax to?
I think that soda and snacks are a good starting point as they are feeding the masses. I'm pretty sure most people don't even know what Foie Gras is. Step back and look at the big picture. Americans aren't getting fatter from eating more meat, butter ect... than previous generations but from all the junk and processed foods. Next time you're at The grocery store count the number of different tortilla chips in the aisle-that speaks a lot about us as consumers. I can't for the life of me come up with one real negative about taxing soda and snacks.
Dr Skimeister
New member
I'm pretty sure PETA thinks there should be a substantial tax on foie gras.
Actually there already is a PETA tax on it. $1 for every pound of Foie sold in the US goes to lawyers fighting the activist groups.
Dr Skimeister
New member
Hasn't it actually been outlawed somewhere....LA, perhaps?
It was outlawed in Chicago for a few years and overturned last May. You couldn't sell it in the city, but you could give it away. The popularity of Foie shot through the roof with the ban with restaurants selling toast points for $18 :lol:
In California, the ban takes place in 2012, it was signed into law a few years ago, but there is a large Foie farm there and the state wanted to give the farmers time to re-tool. The hope is that by then that ban to will be overturned.
PETA goes after Foie because it's a small industry in the US that they can easily over power financially. There are only 3 farms, Hudson Valley and Labelle Farms in NY and Sonoma in California.
The truth is that you will not find a farm raised animal that lives a more humane life than ducks raised for Foie Gras. They are literally treated like gold and I encourage anyone to go to Hudson Valley and visit the farm.
If anything, PETA should be going after chicken farmers.
GrilledSteezeSandwich
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I totally agree...for 5 bucks you can get alot more food at KFC than at Wholefoods..and my old roommate was a real soda-jerk. At a local mini-mart he'd buy 2-3..32 ounce Cokes or Mountain dews everyday..he hardly ate and he was overweight..because he sat around playing video games all day...should there be a tax on video games as well??? A couch Potato tax?? I was raised on fast food. When I got paper-route money,.,I wanted to check out the McRib or the new Taco Bell..it's so much a part of our culture..whenever I get a Big Mac attack..Mickey D's is always crowded..and they have a good breakfast..not healthy but if you are going skiing afterwards it's good..
I never had Foie Gras..but that seems similar to bacon in terms of fat..how many ounces are in a typical serving of Foie Gras???
When I was a little kid I though Foue Gras was some sort of grass or vegetable..but I know how it is produced and it's torture..not much different than rabbits in the cosmetics company lab wearing Mascara..
Steeze it's usually a component to an appetizer or main course. An example would be a seared duck beast with a braised ducked leg and a little two ounce peice of seared Foie Gras. It is also used often as an app-maybe over some brioche with something tart like apples, raspberry, or gastrique to cut the richness. It's a super velvety texture with a rich but mild liver flavor. I can't imagine not liking it but lots of people are grossed out or think it's ethically wrong. I agree with Deadhead that it's no worse than eating mass produced chicken but thats only second hand knowledge.
Geoff
Well-known member
Au Pied de Cochon is a fairly famous foie gras place in Montreal. GSS would probably be pretty happy with foie gras poutine and a foie gras burger.
http://www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca/index_eng.html#
http://www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca/index_eng.html#
Dr Skimeister
New member
The ethical dilemma associated with foie gras has to do with the accelerated force-feeding of the geese or ducks of a grain mixture that leads to a fattier, more epicurean-desirable liver. Granted, any flesh-producing animal in the typical factory-farming environment is fed and housed in a way that can be considered "unnatural" for the species, but many think foie gras production is above and beyond acceptable.
There's big bucks in those livers though. Lobbying efforts by domestic producers curtailed the attempt by the American Veterinary Medical Association to condemn the husbandry practices involved in foie gras production.
There's big bucks in those livers though. Lobbying efforts by domestic producers curtailed the attempt by the American Veterinary Medical Association to condemn the husbandry practices involved in foie gras production.
They actually have a vet on staff at the farm in Hudson Valley. He is all about the ducks welfare. The whole facility was humane audited by Temple Granden and from 1 day old until processing everything is designed to create the most comfortable life possible for the duck. The better any animal is treated, the better the quality of the meat will be. From making the surfaces of the farm as comfortable as possible for their feet, too make chicks walk up slight ramps for water to strengthen their legs, to the temperature, manure control, a cage free environment, it's an emaculate facility.
There's a lot of misconception regarding the 'gavage' and in some ways it's wrong to translate the word force feeding. The first propaganda against it is that the tube placed into the throat of the duck creates discomfort and is painful. The truth is that the duck has no pain receptors in that area of the throat, it's also very tough tissue as in nature, ducks swallow spiny fish whole without issue that are far larger than the tube and struggle in the throat for a longer period.
The second is the term force feeding. The ducks are fed three times a day with about a half cup of a corn silage. Ducks at this point are in groups of 14. The same person handles the duck for every feed for the entire 21 day process of feeding. When the lady, they are all women as they apparently handle ducks better than men, goes to feed a duck, she checks it's crop (where it first stores food for digestion). If the crop still contains food, she will not feed it and the bird is tagged. Most times they are ready to eat again, but if not, the duck is removed from the gavage and taken to be processed. So, they aren't forced to eat if they aren't ready to eat.
Lastly, the information being spread that the fattened liver is diseased. Bringing it back to the beginning of the point of this thread, a ducks liver will return to normal if the diet changes just like a humans gut will return to normal if they stop drinking taxed non-diet soda Ducks gavage naturally and enlarge their livers in the process for migration. Natural Foie Gras was discovered 4000 years ago by Egyptians. Changing raising conditions for this process to occur artificially isn't all that different from stimulating a hen to lay eggs.
Hope you enjoyed Foie Gras 101
Anthony Bourdain clip on Foie and Hudson Valley farm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABeWlY0KFv8
There's a lot of misconception regarding the 'gavage' and in some ways it's wrong to translate the word force feeding. The first propaganda against it is that the tube placed into the throat of the duck creates discomfort and is painful. The truth is that the duck has no pain receptors in that area of the throat, it's also very tough tissue as in nature, ducks swallow spiny fish whole without issue that are far larger than the tube and struggle in the throat for a longer period.
The second is the term force feeding. The ducks are fed three times a day with about a half cup of a corn silage. Ducks at this point are in groups of 14. The same person handles the duck for every feed for the entire 21 day process of feeding. When the lady, they are all women as they apparently handle ducks better than men, goes to feed a duck, she checks it's crop (where it first stores food for digestion). If the crop still contains food, she will not feed it and the bird is tagged. Most times they are ready to eat again, but if not, the duck is removed from the gavage and taken to be processed. So, they aren't forced to eat if they aren't ready to eat.
Lastly, the information being spread that the fattened liver is diseased. Bringing it back to the beginning of the point of this thread, a ducks liver will return to normal if the diet changes just like a humans gut will return to normal if they stop drinking taxed non-diet soda
Ducks gavage naturally and enlarge their livers in the process for migration. Natural Foie Gras was discovered 4000 years ago by Egyptians. Changing raising conditions for this process to occur artificially isn't all that different from stimulating a hen to lay eggs.Hope you enjoyed Foie Gras 101
Anthony Bourdain clip on Foie and Hudson Valley farm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABeWlY0KFv8
I agree. If you tax these foods, everyone pays a higher price; even those who occationally indulge in them. If you make people who are deemed "at risk" (yet to be determined exactly how that would be determined) you only hit those who live an unhealthly lifestyle.
Taxing anything worries me for a number of reasons. But like I mentioned before, the cig tax and settlement was/is one of the greatest goverment cluster f's of our time. All this money was supposed to help people stop smoking. That was BS...it all went states' general funds. I think CT put a few hundred thousand in to smoking prevention programs. The rest of the million went into that black hole of unaccountability knowns as the "general fund."
I'm sure politicians have good intentions with this, but I'd bet the farm that any of this money will eventually be diverted. We see the effects of it now here in CT. The goverment has already been b!tching about the decline of revenue generated from the cig tax. "We can't pay for _____ because cig taxes are down." It's unreal folks.
GrilledSteezeSandwich
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I've been trying to cut fat from my diet..I still enjoy snacks but just less. I buy smalled bags for portion control. I don't think I could go a month without salty snacks..
jack97
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I crave salt also, for snacks I eat roasted and salted nuts; peanuts, almonds, cashews or pistachios. A bag of chips is something I eat to treat myself, maybe once every week or two.
BTW, most food markets place nuts in the snack section. If they tax "snack foods" will nuts which contain plenty of nutrient and are less processed than potato chips be taxed in the same manner?
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