Eat more kale! is the slogan of a small businessman and folk artist from Montpelier, Vermont. His T-shirt business has grown from tiny to gigantic in the years since he began printing shirts with the slogan emblazoned on them in 2000. Earlier this fall, fast food behemoth Chik-fil-A sent a cease-and-desist letter to the kale guy, arguing that Eat More Kale was too much like the company's own trademarked slogan, "Eat more chikin."
Last week, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin held a press conference to raise money for the litigation campaign of the Eat More Kale forces. He announced the creation of "Team Kale," which I think is the entire state of Vermont. He made important points, with a pitch-perfect sense of his loca-vore audience, such as "kale is a vegetable, chickens are birds."
Admittedly, the legal history content of this (otherwise extremely significant) story is limited. But there is some law in it, and I just thought people should know. I know that this is a lot more fun than politics at the national level (when will President Obama stand up for the Audacity of Kale? Won't someone ask Newt Gingrich for a new Contract with America -- for a head of kale in every pot?)
For the L.A. Times blog on The Politics of Kale, with video, see
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/12/kale-chicken-vermont-governor.html
