more ignoring the obvious about schoolkid obesity

According to an article published yesterday on the stuff.co.nz website:-

"Kiwi children are running the gauntlet of fast-food restaurants every day – with outlets five times more likely to be clustered around schools, research shows.
"The high number of burger joints and chip shops close to schools is thought to be a factor in the childhood-obesity epidemic sweeping the Western world.
"The problem has prompted the Secondary Principals Association to call for restrictions on what dairies near schools can sell during certain hours.
"A new study by Canterbury University's GeoHealth Laboratory shows that fast-food outlets are five times more likely to be clustered around schools than other areas. They are three times more likely to be nearby in poorer areas."

Er yeah, that is kind of what we would expect--but who's to blame: McDonalds etc. or bad parents? 

When this writer was going to school in the 1960s, the school tuckshop mostly stocked products from Whittakers confectionery and CocaCola, and every Friday lunchtime the school put in a bulk fish and chip order to a shop nearby.  Yet obesity wasn't the problem it is now. 

Nowadays we see outside every school at start and finish time a deluge of mothers driving their kids to and from it, often in gas guzzling SUVs--in the 1960s it was rare to see kids being driven to school, they used to walk or bike, or at least take the bus.  What's the betting that on the way home many of these mothers include a stop at a drive-through burger or fried chicken joint for their kid and themselves?  What's the betting that instead of playing outside, these kids spend the rest of the afternoon and evening and the weekend watching small screens in their rooms?  What's the betting that mothers in poorer areas give their kids money to buy food at the local fast food outlet for lunch instead of making them a salad roll or sandwiches?  Actually that isn't recent as mentioned above, the difference is that parents don't encourage kids to burn the calories they consume anymore.