governor's plan to remove junk food from schools

This is 262-word letter to the editor

I strongly support the Governor's plans to "expel junk food for a health new year "in New Mexico schools! When I first pitched this idea to legislators in 1999 in the context of creating the New Mexico Nutrition Council with express powers to reject harmful food additives even if they were FDA approved, 14 out of 42 state senators agreed to cosponsor it. It has taken 6 years to finally emerge as policy from the Governor's and Secretary of Health's office! The corporate opposition and the inertia of ignorance against such an effort is incredible. This battle rages on, specifically now in the Board of Pharmacy's consideration of banning aspartame/formaldehyde in at least 500 children's meds and vitamins; if parents would only start reading the labels! The world's largest aspartame and M.S.G. manufacturer, Ajinomoto of Japan, has hired several Washington and New Mexico firms to prevent hearings on aspartame in the Environmental Improvement Board and the Board of Pharmacy. An educated public cannot be bamboozled, if only you will occasionally illuminate your readers to the mountain of medical evidence against aspartame, which is too enormous to sweep under the rug. Ajinomoto will likely ask for a Federal District court writ to deny the 5-day EIB hearings on the grounds that the FDA's approval of aspartame preempts all state scrutiny. Ajinomoto's efforts to bludgeon consumer protection will fail if the Governor and the Attorney General will only rise to the occasion, and soon, to defend the health of all New Mexicans, by supporting aspartame hearings by both the EIB and the Pharmacy Board.

Stephen Fox

Stephen@santafefineart.com

505 983-2002