What Will MoCo Ban Next? Skeeters? Wind Chimes?

By Marc Fisher
Mark Fisher
May. 18, 2007

Montgomery County, where only county-run stores can be trusted to sell liquor and where the county has tossed smokers out of bars and restaurants, is now the first county in the nation to ban trans fats. The county council voted yesterday to prohibit restaurants, bakeries and delis from using the unhealthful fats in their cooking and food preparation.

Apparently oblivious to the fact that a trans fat ban in New York City is forcing some chefs there to abandon butter because it contains small amounts of natural trans fat, the nannies who run Montgomery County unanimously--yes, every single member of the council!--voted to take choices about what to eat away from consumers, cooks, and restaurant owners and place all authority in the hands of the bureaucrats.

Little did MoCo voters know when they went to the polls that they were electing Chefs-in-Chief. Never mind that naturally occurring trans fats may help prevent cancer, according to research at Cornell University. Never mind that some people may prefer to eat foods made with trans fats over foods made with high levels of saturated fat, such as palm and coconut oils. The county knows better.

It's fairly clear that trans fats are bad for you. And lots of food businesses are reacting to the widespread public opposition to trans fats by working on new recipes that eliminate or drastically reduce use of those oils. But a ban on trans fats--very much like the smoking ban, which utterly ignores the fact that the marketplace is effectively reducing smoking in public gathering spots as well as smoking behavior overall--elbows the natural forces of the marketplace out of the way. The result of the government fiat will be less satisfied customers, widespread hysteria, and a growing belief that only the Nanny State can protect us from ourselves.

There are some things Montgomery's ban-happy politicians might want to address. I would be pleased to see elected officials pass and enforce bans on mosquitos, cellphones in theaters and concert halls, public coughing fits, leafblowers, and that scourge of civilization, wind chimes.

Having completed its work on trans fats, the county council will be searching the universe for things to ban. Please help: What would you like to see MoCo tackle next?