A Ban on Fast-Food Lawsuits Passes a Hurdle in Minnesota

by Bill Sertl, Posted Feb 22nd 2011 @ 1:00PM

fast food burger and fries Photo: lehcar1477, Flickr

Okay, you can still blame Ronald McDonald if you're overweight. But it's going to be harder to take him to court. At least in Minnesota, where a House committee has just ok'd the Cheeseburger Bill -- the first such statute in the nation. The debate over the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act-the bill's official name-was spirited, with most House members voting along party lines, reports The Pioneer Press.

How you feel about it might depend on your views on whether individuals should be able to sue tobacco companies or not. (In all fairness, cheeseburgers might be addictively good, but they're not really addictive, and, as far as we know, no fast-food execs ever lied to the U.S. Congress about the number of calories in a Big Mac.) The bill still has to pass the full House and the Minnesota Senate to become law. So pig out at the Mall of America food court while there's still time to place the staff under citizen's arrest. And call your lawyer if your salad dressing didn't come on the side as requested.

Filed Under: Food Politics, Fast Food
Tags: Cheeseburger Bill, Fast-food lawsuit, Minnesota politics

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-22-2011 @1:59PM Mary said... The restaurants tempt you. They don't *make* you eat their food. Who can pretend they have their dignity when they claim they didn't know burgers and fries every day would make them fat?
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2-24-2011 @3:38PM Bev said... This is a topic that deserves more than the snide remarks in the article above.
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2-23-2011 @2:15PM jen said... there actually is some evidence in the addiction field suggesting that high fat foods can cause physiological changes in the brain in the same way as drugs such as cocaine can. so to say that cheeseburgers are 'addictively good, but not really addictive' is inaccurate
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2-23-2011 @3:53PM Shiraz said... In the McGovern Report, given to congress in 1977 -- over 3 decades ago -- the report states:

"Without Government and industry commitment to good nutrition, the American people will continue to eat themselves to poor health" - Sen. Charles H. Percy, Ranking Minority Member

Where is this commitment?

It also states:

"We must acknowledge and recognize that the public is confused about what to eat to maximize health. If we as a Government want to reduce health costs and maximize the quality of life for all Americans, we have an obligation to provide practical guides to the individual consumer."

Despite these warnings, we have continued to ignore our growing health epidemic, making only perfunctory regulations for industry to satisfy the media and public. No real headway has been made in educating the American public about health.

The report, made over a generation ago, says specifically that Government AND industry must be committed. The industry is not committed to anything but making a profit and doing anything possible to maximize those. As much as I despise a litigious society, lawsuits are the public's only redress IF proper education of the malnutrition fast food represents is not made available.

http://tipthecook.net
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