Obesity? Is It A Moral Issue?

[cronus]

I say it is even though I don't believe in morals. To maximise a disturbance in the force it is sometimes necessary for a nihilist of action to take a quasi-moral stance.

[pErvinalia]

No.

[cronus]

No.

Eaten all the pies over the festive have we?

[pErvinalia]

how could it be a moral issue?

[Svartalf]

I'm overweight, do you really think that makes me evil?

Seriously, I've had issues with depression (drank a lot ate lots of sweets), then with depression meds (that fatten you like an ox)
If you think that's a moral failing on my part, I've got two letters for you FU

[cronus]

Whilst there's genuine hunger in the world on a astronomic scale there is a case to answer for eating too much? Surely the excess needs redistributing? For health and personal moral sanity?

http://lovefoodgivefood.org/

[Hermit]

Curbing our excessive intake of kilojoules won't make any difference to those who die of starvation. There is no shortage of food. We have trouble finding waste disposal sites for our butter mountains, milk lakes, rice ranges and wheat surpluses. Farmers regularly dig trenches with bulldozers and fill them up with tomatoes by the trainload and other produce they can't sell. Other farmers are actually paid to not grow things. The problem is not a shortage of food. It's one of capitalism. It's cheaper to bury the excess than to sell it to starving people who don't have the money to buy the stuff. Most of us don't want to know about that. Lolbertardians just laugh and jeer: "Serves you right, losers."

[cronus]

Curbing our excessive intake of kilojoules won't make any difference to those who die of starvation. There is no shortage of food. We have trouble finding waste disposal sites for our butter mountains, milk lakes, rice ranges and wheat surpluses. Farmers regularly dig trenches with bulldozers and fill them up with tomatoes by the trainload and other produce they can't sell. Other farmers are actually paid to not grow things. The problem is not a shortage of food. It's one of capitalism. It's cheaper to bury the excess than to sell it to starving people who don't have the money to buy the stuff. Most of us don't want to know about that. Lolbertardians just laugh and jeer: "Serves you right, losers."

It's a personal moral failing too when there are charitable conduits of giving and people choose to buy surplus food. Yeah, systematic realities exist, and choices. Like a fractal so do personal realities, and choices. Where do you start if you want change? and if you don't and it is such a appalling outcome where people die, surely it is a large moral failing?

[laklak]

Those starving African kids can have my Brussels sprouts.

[Hermit]

Curbing our excessive intake of kilojoules won't make any difference to those who die of starvation. There is no shortage of food. We have trouble finding waste disposal sites for our butter mountains, milk lakes, rice ranges and wheat surpluses. Farmers regularly dig trenches with bulldozers and fill them up with tomatoes by the trainload and other produce they can't sell. Other farmers are actually paid to not grow things. The problem is not a shortage of food. It's one of capitalism. It's cheaper to bury the excess than to sell it to starving people who don't have the money to buy the stuff. Most of us don't want to know about that. Lolbertardians just laugh and jeer: "Serves you right, losers."

It's a personal moral failing too when there are charitable conduits of giving and people choose to buy surplus food.

It manifestly is not, as I have just explained. Not buying food you don't really need does not help those who starve. Yes, by all means, donate to Oxfam or some such institution. I do. It makes fuckall difference, though. A better way is the long slog via the voting booth and political activism.

And no, posting predictions concerning impending doom ad nauseam doesn't qualify.

[mistermack]

No, it's not a moral issue.
We are programmed to eat too much. It's no good pointing at thin people and saying that they have more willpower. They haven't.
They just have different programming from birth. And there is some evidence that there might be a viral influence making people eat more.
And of course, we evolved to hunt and gather. Travelling many miles every day. Calories are vital for that. That's why we crave them.

Now our lives are much more sedentary, it's asking too much to expect people to fight the programming that they have acquired.
It won't be long before we have a drug that solves the problem though. I think.
There's big money in it.

[Seth]

Whilst there's genuine hunger in the world on a astronomic scale there is a case to answer for eating too much? Surely the excess needs redistributing? For health and personal moral sanity?

http://lovefoodgivefood.org/

The problem is not a shortage of food, it's a shortage of distribution channels and ability.

Take Somalia as an example. Plenty of staples were being imported into Somalia just before the "Blackhawk Down" events, but they were being seized at the docks by warlords and were being used as tools of warfare and political control.

Getting food to refugees is often blocked by governments and rebels.

Fix the distribution systems and the problem goes away.

Which means I can eat as many cheeseburgers as I like.

[pErvinalia]

Whilst there's genuine hunger in the world on a astronomic scale there is a case to answer for eating too much? Surely the excess needs redistributing? For health and personal moral sanity?

http://lovefoodgivefood.org/

Food goes to waste in the west. It's not overeating that is the problem (I suspect). It's throwing out perfectly good food. I think we throw out somewhere between 30-50% of the food we produce/import.

[pErvinalia]

Curbing our excessive intake of kilojoules won't make any difference to those who die of starvation. There is no shortage of food. We have trouble finding waste disposal sites for our butter mountains, milk lakes, rice ranges and wheat surpluses. Farmers regularly dig trenches with bulldozers and fill them up with tomatoes by the trainload and other produce they can't sell. Other farmers are actually paid to not grow things. The problem is not a shortage of food. It's one of capitalism. It's cheaper to bury the excess than to sell it to starving people who don't have the money to buy the stuff. Most of us don't want to know about that. Lolbertardians just laugh and jeer: "Serves you right, losers."

[Seth]

Curbing our excessive intake of kilojoules won't make any difference to those who die of starvation. There is no shortage of food. We have trouble finding waste disposal sites for our butter mountains, milk lakes, rice ranges and wheat surpluses. Farmers regularly dig trenches with bulldozers and fill them up with tomatoes by the trainload and other produce they can't sell. Other farmers are actually paid to not grow things. The problem is not a shortage of food. It's one of capitalism. It's cheaper to bury the excess than to sell it to starving people who don't have the money to buy the stuff. Most of us don't want to know about that. Lolbertardians just laugh and jeer: "Serves you right, losers."

The problem with surplus food is not that poor people can't afford to buy it...Americans donate millions of tons of surplus food every year. The problem is that even if the tomato farmer wants to give the tomatoes away there is no way for him to get them to the people who need them without spending so much on transport and processing that any profit he might make from the rest of his crop disappears.

It's a delivery cost and logistics matter. Every step in that supply chain costs someone actual money, and the profit margins in foodstuffs are razor thin to begin with. That's WHY good food gets thrown away, because it's cheaper to toss it or recycle it than it is to try to get it to someone who needs it. Farmers are not charitable organizations that are funded by donations so they can grow and transport food to market at a loss. When someone comes along and offers to take the crop and move it where it is needed at no cost to the farmer, he's happy to let them have his surplus. These sort of charitable "gleaning" operations are seen all the time in farming.