[EMAIL PROTECTED] forwarded:
Low-fat spat
Mar 28th 2002 | MONTREAL
From The Economist print edition
Three days earlier than this Economist article, the organization I work for (U.S. Term
Limits) coincidentally published a commentary on how the initiative referendum
process helped turn margarine yellow -- at least in a few key U.S. states. I've
included it below.
Eric D. Dixon
==
http://www.termlimits.org/Press/Common_Sense/cs560.html
Yellow Margarine
U.S. Term Limits Daily Radio Commentary #560
Release Date: March 25, 2002
Over the last 100 years, the citizen initiative
and referendum process has done great things. It
has helped women win the right to vote, ended the
discriminatory poll tax, and more recently, it
brought us a number of government reforms -- one
of my favorites being term limits.
But let's not forget the little things, either.
Like yellow margarine. Now, yellow margarine may
not seem like anything special to you if you've
never lived with margarine that's . . . well,
colorless.
What the heck am I talking about, you ask? Back in
the 1940s, when margarine first hit the food
scene, the dairy producers weren't very happy
about it. They sold butter, and for every stick of
margarine sold, it meant one less stick of butter.
So, what did the powerful dairy industry do to
compete? They went to the legislature to stop
margarine producers from coloring their product
yellow. And legislators passed laws to do just
that. Really. Well, if margarine wasn't yellow,
folks just might not feel right spreading it on
their bread.
It was the law. Until the voters in Michigan,
Oregon and Washington, between 1949 and 1952,
bypassed their legislature and passed a new law,
saying, Get real: margarine can be colored any
color the folks who produce it think customers
will like.
It's the initiative process that's the story here,
not the wonders of margarine. I much prefer
butter, myself. I also prefer the people
intervening directly when special interests have
hijacked common sense.
This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.
The opinions expressed in Common Sense are Paul
Jacob's and may not necessarily represent the
position of U.S. Term Limits or the U.S. Term
Limits Foundation. Paul's daily commentaries are
heard on 277 radio stations in 49 states and on
the Internet. Subscriptions are FREE. Just call
(800) 733-6440 or e-mail
[EMAIL PROTECTED] today.
