Oregon’s public employees are, presumably, adults capable of making decisions about their lives without much assistance from the state. Apparently, though, some of the choices they make do not sit well with Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

Having decided to push Oregonians to live green whether they wish to or not, he’s now come up with a plan to make state employees healthy, too. Kulongoski’s office told food service managers recently that the governor wants to dump the junk, or at least some of it, in cafeterias, vending machines and snack stands. Instead of Snickers bars, he want carrots and granola bars available for those in state office buildings.

If he was surprised by the news that food managers and others weren’t taken with the plan, he shouldn’t have been. Snickers are, after all, the single most popular item in state vending machines. As for snack stands, they’re run by members of the Licensed Blind Vendors program, and those workers fear a switch will cut their revenues so much that they will be forced out of business.

Kulongoski cannot be faulted for wanting to make state workers healthier, surely. Where he erred is in how he decided to go about achieving that lofty goal. Rather than what one would expect would work for a bunch of adults — education and plenty of new choices that don’t crowd out the old — he took the government nanny approach.

Adults don’t need nannies, though. They’re entitled to eat what they please, even if what they choose isn’t particularly good for them. The state of Oregon has plenty of real problems these days, and the snacking behavior of informed adults just isn’t one of them.