It's probably worth engaging with Jacob Sullum's argument against labeling requirements at slightly greater length. His article on the subject basically makes two points: The first is that consumers don't want this, because if they did, then the market would already have provided it. As Sullum says, "If customers really were clamoring for conspicuous calorie counts, restaurants would provide them voluntarily." That sentence competes for space with a poll showing 84 percent of Californians support caloric labeling requirements, and the basic reality the article is responding to: Democratically elected legislators who depend on the favor of voters for their jobs are the ones trying to pass a bill. Because they think it popular. The idea that public preferences only have legitimacy if they're strong enough to be heard atop the clamor of the market is an exceedingly odd one.The second is that they won't work. This appears to be a misread of a new survey from the New York health department. The researchers polled 7,318 customers at nearly 300 franchises of 11 fast food chains. Of these chains, the only one that posted calorie information in a usable space was Subway. At Subway, 32 percent of consumers reported seeing it (it's posted near registers, though not on the menus or menu board), and 37 percent of that 32 percent said it was a factor in their purchasing decision. "In other words," concludes Sullum, "simply making people aware of calorie content is not enough to affect their food choices." ANTI-GOVERNMENT, ANTI-INFORMATION.
It's probably worth engaging with Jacob Sullum's argument against labeling requirements at slightly greater length. His article on the subject basically makes two points: The first is that consumers don't want this, because if they did, then the market would already have provided it. As Sullum says, "If customers really were clamoring for conspicuous calorie counts, restaurants would provide them voluntarily." That sentence competes for space with a poll showing 84 percent of Californians support caloric labeling requirements, and the basic reality the article is responding to: Democratically elected legislators who depend on the favor of voters for their jobs are the ones trying to pass a bill. Because they think it popular. The idea that public preferences only have legitimacy if they're strong enough to be heard atop the clamor of the market is an exceedingly odd one.The second is that they won't work. This appears to be a misread of a new survey from the New York health department. The researchers polled 7,318 customers at nearly 300 franchises of 11 fast food chains. Of these chains, the only one that posted calorie information in a usable space was Subway. At Subway, 32 percent of consumers reported seeing it (it's posted near registers, though not on the menus or menu board), and 37 percent of that 32 percent said it was a factor in their purchasing decision. "In other words," concludes Sullum, "simply making people aware of calorie content is not enough to affect their food choices." 
