A House Committee on Food Desert Zones. Seriously ?????

Yep.  The honorables in the House of Thom have established a committee on food desert zones.  That’s desert as in Sahara, and NOT as in cherry cheesecake  (YUM).

What’s a food desert?  It’s a statist term coined to refer to an urban area where it’s “hard” to find good quality fresh food for sale.  Next question:  Why in the hell is “the conservative revolution” devoting time and taxpayer money toward something like this?”  

One voice of reason has joined the conversation:

[…] One of the committee co-chairs, Rep. Edgar Starnes, a Caldwell County Republican, said there is a limit to what lawmakers can do to help because they cannot force grocery stores to open in food deserts. “We have identified a problem; so much of these problems have to be addressed by the private sector,” Starnes said. “We want to make sure we don’t have any barriers to putting a supermarket in an area.” […]

Exactly.  But one point of concern:  Starnes is the majority leader in the House of Thom.  He has the power to abolish this nonsense.  Instead, he co-chairs it.

Government needs to stay out of it, and let the private sector work this out.  After Starnes delivered his private sector sermon, what did the committee end up doing? :

The committee also agreed to write letters to the state board of education to encourage school districts to increase participation in the school breakfast program, to state agriculture officials to expand participation in the farm-to-school program and to federal agriculture officials about concerns related to the proposed food safety modernization act. The committee also plans to introduce a bill authorizing state health officials to enter a contract with state cooperative extension officials to oversee food stamp education efforts.

Um, private sector? Hello?  Anyone? (We were JUST talking about the private sector … )

I’ll let the politicians and other assorted bleeding-hearts in on a secret.  Business people look at two main things when they consider setting up shop in a community: Can we make money here?  Will our employees and customers be safe?

If government wants more grocery stores, leaders can cut taxes and regulations to nurture an environment where it’s easier to set up a business, said businesses can make money, and consumers have more money to spend at said businesses.  Government can also work on cleaning up the streets so said businesses and their customers don’t have to live in fear of being robbed and murdered.