We've been writing about the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and the other radicals who crusade against any food or drink that might taste good. With every whacky new proposal, they expand their agenda to limit our freedom to choose what we eat and drink.

And as we've sounded off, we've groped for a term that captured, in a word or two, their absurd agenda and the threat that it poses to our freedom. We've referred to them as the food police, nutrition nannies, anti-food zealots and pretty much anything that we could think of.

But this week, CEI scholar Greg Conko finally got it just right. Henceforth, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and all the other groups who don't think you can be trusted to eat or drink anything that's not on their approved list will be known as Big Tofu.

Casting every story as little guy vs. big guy is as old as campfires. So it's only natural that modern story tellers in the press have seized upon the theme – especially in their coverage of politics. If reporters got their way, every political story would somehow shape up as a battle to the death between regular folks and Big something. You know – Big Oil, Big Tobacco, Big Food. These monikers have become pejorative shorthand expressions synonymous with another favorite media pejorative – big special interests.

But arguably, there's no interest operating in Washington and the 50 state capitols with its tentacles wrapped effectively around the levers of policy-making power than Big Tofu. They've got left-leaning Senators and Members of Congress totally in their pockets. In state capitols and government bureaucracies, their pseudo-scientific studies are treated as if they were handed down from on High.

And most importantly, they've got reporters and producers from some of the nation's biggest media outlets eager to type their press releases. The New York Times' Marian Burros in particular seems ready to hop on any train from New York to Washington to plant herself in the front row of each and every CSPI press conference. And there are few better stenographers than the Times' Ms. Burros.

Big Tofu has an agenda. Protect you from yourself. That means no steaks. No cheeseburgers. No fried chicken. No Chinese take-out. For God's sake – don't even think about whole milk.

Big Tofu doesn't think in degrees, and the concept of moderation has seemingly never entered their soy-infested brains. If Big Tofu pronounces something bad for you, they want to stamp it out – by any means necessary. They push for laws in Washington and in state capitols. They lobby the FDA, the FCC, the FTC and an alphabet soup of state and federal agencies that might turn your brain to tofu. They want bans, and if they can't have those, they want warning labels. They want to ban advertising of this food and that. And they really prefer that no child ever saw an ad for a food product ever again! (And you can read about their latest craziness – a lawsuit against KFC – here.)

To be sure, there are lots of folks in Washington asking Congress to do things. Everyone from individuals to big corporations, labor unions and organized groups of people. Their ability to make their case to our lawmakers is one of the true cornerstones of our freedom. But all too often, the press gets away with tarring businesses as "Big whatever" – implying that they can't possibly have anything good or honest to say.

It's time for Big Tofu to be held up to the same scrutiny. It's time for the double standard to end. Indeed, Big Tofu deserves greater scrutiny, because it's gotten away with so much for so long. Just saying you work in the "public interest," don't make it so.