SOLO-NZ Press Release: Let Them Eat Cake
May 17, 2009

It is to be hoped that Food Safety Minister Kate Wilkinson does more than review the legislation that will soon compel all but the smallest of commercial bakers to add synthetic folic acid into their bread, says SOLO spokesman Philip Duck.

"Indeed this outrageous regulation, rammed through by the last Labour Government’s Health Minister, the podgy Annette King, needs to be shredded and force-fed to Ms. King - folic acid additives optional - at Wilkinson’s earliest opportunity," Duck adds. "What effect the new standard will have on public health seems unclear; one study claimed folic acid fortification increased the risk of breast cancer, another that that risk would be lowered. Still other studies variously claim fortification would increase the risk of colon cancer, decrease asthma attacks, provide protection against Alzheimer’s and harm those with a B12 deficiency. Ms King promoted the new standard because it would, she claimed, ‘…prevent a large number of babies being born with devastating neural tube defects.’ King put that 'large' number at between 4 and 14.

"Perhaps four fewer affected pregnancies! And for that the government will - if this plan proceeds- both force the bakers to be providers of 'mass medication,' and deny the public cheap, tasty, folic acid-free bread. That's bread that an individual may prefer based upon his own conclusions as to the benefits or otherwise of the additive. Perhaps government would prefer we all eat cake?

"It must be hoped that Minister Wilkinson understands that which her predecessor, the fascist Ms King could not; that is, no government has any place in regulating what does and does not go into my body. Be it folic acid, fat, marijuana, salt, alcohol, tobacco, heroin or the dodgy six-day-old pizza at the back of my fridge, whether to drink, eat or inject anything is a choice that belongs solely with me," Duck concludes.

Philip Duck: thonburi-1@hotmail.com

SOLO (Sense of Life Objectivists): SOLOPassion.com