Freedom Fries Under Attack

The Los Angeles council has just passed on ordinance banning new fast food restaurants in a poor section of South/Central LA.  William Saletan calls it Food Apartheid and writes:

We’re not talking anymore about preaching diet and exercise, disclosing
calorie counts, or restricting sodas in schools. We’re talking about
banning the sale of food to adults….It’s true that food options in low-income neighborhoods are, on
average, worse than the options in wealthier neighborhoods. But
restricting options in low-income neighborhoods is a disturbingly
paternalistic way of solving the problem.

Milton Friedman once said:

I don’t think the state has any more right to tell me what what to put in my mouth than it has to tell me what can come out of my mouth.

Friedman was talking about drug prohibition but today the target could just as easily be food prohibition.

Hat tip on the Friedman quote to Don Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek.