Remember when it took a government agency infested with Reaganauts to declare ketchup a vegetable? In keeping with the times, all that has been privatized. Now the “food” industry itself is in charge of dubious nutritional advice:

• For Your Health, Froot Loops

A new food-labeling campaign called Smart Choices, backed by most of the nation’s largest food manufacturers, is “designed to help shoppers easily identify smarter food and beverage choices.”

The green checkmark label that is starting to show up on store shelves will appear on hundreds of packages, including — to the surprise of many nutritionists — sugar-laden cereals like Cocoa Krispies and Froot Loops.

But nothing to worry about. It’s just the free market at work, fulfilling consumers’ pent-up demand for lies and bullshit:

She said the program was also influenced by research into consumer behavior. That research showed that, while shoppers wanted more information, they did not want to hear negative messages or feel their choices were being dictated to them.

“The checkmark means the food item is a ‘better for you’ product, as opposed to having an x on it saying ‘Don’t eat this,’ ” Dr. Kennedy said. “Consumers are smart enough to deduce that if it doesn’t have the checkmark, by implication it’s not a ‘better for you’ product. They want to have a choice. They don’t want to be told ‘You must do this.’ ”

Fortunately the industry has banded together to form a new task force, charged with helping busy Americans make the leap to a sane, rational diet that’s sustainable for the planet:

Really, it’s bad enough that the industry gets to label sugar cereals as good food options, but check it out: the program’s funding depends on selling more product:

Ten companies have signed up for the Smart Choices program so far, including Kellogg’s, Kraft Foods, ConAgra Foods, Unilever, General Mills, PepsiCo and Tyson Foods. Companies that participate pay up to $100,000 a year to the program, with the fee based on total sales of its products that bear the seal.

Sounds like a smart choice to me.