Wesleyan University is in dire need of a comprehensive policy on sensible, moral investment. Our endowment cannot be tied to companies that profit from the death of human beings. Every year, over 25,000 Americans die as a direct result of obesity (CDC, 2005). Thus, it is a moral imperative for Wesleyan University to divest from Yum! Brands, a company that preys on the misery and hunger of average Americans.
Yum! Brands is the corporate parent of some of America’s most insidious purveyors of unhealthy foods, including KFC and Taco Bell. Kentucky Fried Chicken has an appalling menu of gradual deaths. A single Extra Crispy Chicken Breast contains 42 percent of the Recommended Daily Value of fat, including a shocking 250 calories from fat. They also offer a product called a “Chicken and Biscuit Bowl” which contains more sodium than the RDV (http://www.yum.com). These are not mere statistics for dietary tea-totalers; excessive sodium intake is scientifically associated with heart disease and high blood pressure.
Taco Bell’s options are little improved. A single steak quesadilla contains 65 percent of the RDV of saturated fat, which has been conclusively linked to death from coronary heart disease (American Journal of Preventative Medicine). Furthermore, though these companies have pledged to remove pernicious trans fats from their foods, compliance has been slow. These trans fats are of no nutritional value whatsoever, and contribute to coronary heart disease (New England Journal of Medicine).
Aside from the social and moral costs of obesity, there are real economic impacts as well. According to the National Institutes of Health, the economic cost of obesity is greater than $115 billion in health care annually, which includes physician visits, surgeries, lost wages, and early death. In a more socially responsible world, this money would be put to better use, such as finding alternate sources of energy, or constructing a missile defense shield.
Yum! Brands have been very profitable for their shareholders. However, the question must be asked, at what cost? Are we willing to compromise our morality? Should we become accessories to the spread of a nation-wide epidemic, simply because Williams and Amherst have per-capita endowments three times the size of ours? You decide.
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