John Block Reports from Washington

We are not alone. It is so comforting to know that so many other people have the same problem as we do. Misery just loves company. As a society, we are getting fat, but we have company. Germany is right there with us -eating and drinking, drinking and eating. One third of all German teenagers are overweight. While they may be eating potatoes and gray in Germany, in Greece they're chowing down on the Mediterranean diet and find that 70% of men and women are overweight. The fattest people in the world are in Guam

I don't know how the World Health Organization gets all of these statistics. I guess they take a scale around the world and weight people. Anyhow, the fact is that there are too many people, including children, overweight, and it is not good for their health. So -- what are we going to do about it?

As you have seen, the self appointed experts have been quick to point their finger at food companies and restaurants. Fast food was the first target because some idiot in New York City wanted to blame someone after he got fat eating all those Big Macs. Ice cream is in the crosshairs now. Somehow, they went after com sweetener as if it is really any different than sugar.

Unfortunately I'm afraid we are just seeing the beginning of attacks on food. What happened? It seems like overnight we got fat. Here is what happened. We have more than enough food in most countries in the world. There isn't any shortage. Eat all you want. Eat until you drop. There is world hunger in some isolated places but it isn't as widespread as it has been in the past. We have succeeded in producing abundance. On top of that, the necessity for manual labor is down dramatically. We don't even get up to change the television channels while eating potato chips and drinking beer. We would be outraged if the changer didn't work. And the kids are watching 3.3 hours of television per day on average. They are on the telephone, the computer, playing their Gameboy.

I'm not surprised to see the greedy trials lawyers suing the food companies. That could be easy money. The food industry critics want the government to fix the problem. Well, the government can't do it. The food industry can't fix it either. People will have to do it for themselves. They are choosing what and how much to eat and the amount of exercise they get. It's calories in and calories burned. Extra calories left are stored as fat.

On the farm in Illinois next week, I am John Block from Washington.