A Call for Civil Disobedience on National Donut Day

Release:

Washington, D.C., June 4, 2010—The Competitive Enterprise Institute today urged Americans to turn National Donut Day into a day of protest against growing government intrusion into nutritional issues. CEI urged people to eat two donuts—“one for yourself, and one as an act of patriotic civil disobedience.”

Federal regulation of nutritional issues is accelerating. Restaurant menu labeling mandates were included in the recently enacted health care legislation; the FDA is seeking “voluntary” cutbacks on salt in processed foods; and most recently the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity issued a major report proposing changes in everything from prenatal care programs to community planning. All of these measures are based on questionable science and major misjudgments of government’s proper role.
CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman stated: “When it comes to regulating the foods we eat and the places we dine, the federal government apparently knows no limits. People may not think of National Donut Day as a political event but, given current trends, it really is a fine occasion on which to tell the feds to mind their own business. And that’s why today we urge each person to eat not one but two donuts—one for themselves, and one as an act of patriotic civil disobedience.”