MagnumDR said, "The USDA is supposed to tell us what foods may be bad for our health, not to "dictate" when and where we will eat the things they don't recomend. These people are oversteping their boundries of power they have ans should not be allowed to force anything on the American citizens!" -------
Looking for direct democracy? Go back a few thousand years to Athens, and even that did not include all citizens. Today, the closest, viable political system is what we have, a representative democracy. Our government's elected officials-- via congress-- provide funding for meals many local school systems simply would not provide.
The 2010 federal legislation to improve school-based nutrition arose from the need to provide at least one meal daily with sufficient value for normal child and adolescent development. This is a huge benefit for all children, but especially those from lower-income families whose home seldom provides healthy food. (And we wonder why behavioral problems are so prevalent and test scores are so low?)
The actual "vote" to place junk in school vending machines came years ago from minders of educational system budgets who sought new sources of revenue, not from parents. These officials watched junk vendor presentations which deceitfully minimized the nutritional damage and maximized the revenue to schools, and they made a quiet decision to sell out both students and their parents. Theirs was not a completely transparent decision, by any means.
The USDA action comes after a long period of neglect and studied indifference to American consumers and their needs. Back then, under predominantly GOP presidents, the USDA was lapdog to the food industry-- the reigning GOP idea was government was to serve as a "friend of business clients" and their few wealthy owners, not the vast constituency of American parents and their children.
Thanks to the efforts of Ms. Obama and many in the public health and medical community, that retrograde and corrupt situation is being remedied to represent the needs of most of the country-- school children, in particular. But this is not a debate about proper nutrition, and a scientifically-sound diet never meant substituting ketchup for one of the vegetables on the school menu (Reagan). Clearly, this is public policy based more on science, not patronage-- in this case, by officials representing a majority of the American public.
*PS-- The USDA is by no means perfect on many of its decisions, and under Secretary Vilsack, frequently reverts to its lapdog behavior with Monsanto marketing of corporate agricultural GMO products. But the USDA school lunch initiative is at least one step in a better direction.
The USDA is supposed to tell us what foods may be bad for our health, not to "dictate" when and where we will eat the things they don't recomend. These people are oversteping their boundries of power they have ans should not be allowed to force anything on the American citizens!
If I have my stats right, these schools who allowed the junk in the food machines in the first place, resist parental pressure to improve the food they provide for growing bodies. They even go out of their way to dodge parents who try to demand simple improvements in food quality. But if the USDA says they have to WHOA! It must be so.... what a bunch of crap.
We will never see an improvement in the health crisis until people stop focusing on numbers like calorie and fat counts and start focusing on unprocessed, whole foods.
And the corollary-- the typical grocery chain will improve only when consumers demand better food than they find on grocery shelves. Those who shop according to their food habits and cravings are the very consumer victims for whom food manufacturers create their apparently addictive products. Special varieties of wheat have been engineered, some experts believe, to appeal to opiate centers of the brain.
But introducing major change demands methodical, patient effort. For every product improvement you could suggest, stop grumbling and take action-- write down your suggestion, first, in a few clear and simple sentences, and then call the grocery (during business hours). Make your suggestion by calling the customer service line most groceries provide. Some groceries (Kroger, Publix and Food Lion, for example) place their comment and customer service numbers on many of their house-brand packages.
The point is most groceries are delighted to hear about suggestions for improvement. If you have a good idea, think of the many others who also had the same idea, but never did anything with it. That makes your idea a front-runner, from the start.
Case in-point. In my experimentation with the nutritional counsel of Dr. Neal Barnard (MD), it became clear many groceries do not stock low glycemic whole wheat bread flour. If bread flour were not milled so finely (to weapons grade powder), its glycemic index would drop dramatically, and those who want low GI bread could make it, themselves. Kroger picked up the suggestion, and has it under study, now.
Get out of our personal lives and just do what all Americans ask of you. Our Government agencies try to control the population to much with their "studies" and politics!
@MagnumDr-- All Americans finally have a voice with the USDA, which for years was a proxy and front office for manufacturers of junk food-- not the American people.
What Americans ask for, they voted for, and the USDA nutritional measure is made under legislation their representatives put into place-- as noted in the article.
@Hynotoad72-- see my post above about the invasion junk food over decades, and official indifference to nutritional needs of children.
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MagnumDR said, "The USDA is supposed to tell us what foods may be bad for our health, not to "dictate" when and where we will eat the things they don't recomend. These people are oversteping their boundries of power they have ans should not be allowed to force anything on the American citizens!"
-------
Looking for direct democracy? Go back a few thousand years to Athens, and even that did not include all citizens. Today, the closest, viable political system is what we have, a representative democracy. Our government's elected officials-- via congress-- provide funding for meals many local school systems simply would not provide.
The 2010 federal legislation to improve school-based nutrition arose from the need to provide at least one meal daily with sufficient value for normal child and adolescent development. This is a huge benefit for all children, but especially those from lower-income families whose home seldom provides healthy food. (And we wonder why behavioral problems are so prevalent and test scores are so low?)
The actual "vote" to place junk in school vending machines came years ago from minders of educational system budgets who sought new sources of revenue, not from parents. These officials watched junk vendor presentations which deceitfully minimized the nutritional damage and maximized the revenue to schools, and they made a quiet decision to sell out both students and their parents. Theirs was not a completely transparent decision, by any means.
The USDA action comes after a long period of neglect and studied indifference to American consumers and their needs. Back then, under predominantly GOP presidents, the USDA was lapdog to the food industry-- the reigning GOP idea was government was to serve as a "friend of business clients" and their few wealthy owners, not the vast constituency of American parents and their children.
Thanks to the efforts of Ms. Obama and many in the public health and medical community, that retrograde and corrupt situation is being remedied to represent the needs of most of the country-- school children, in particular. But this is not a debate about proper nutrition, and a scientifically-sound diet never meant substituting ketchup for one of the vegetables on the school menu (Reagan). Clearly, this is public policy based more on science, not patronage-- in this case, by officials representing a majority of the American public.
*PS-- The USDA is by no means perfect on many of its decisions, and under Secretary Vilsack, frequently reverts to its lapdog behavior with Monsanto marketing of corporate agricultural GMO products. But the USDA school lunch initiative is at least one step in a better direction.
Let the parents decide.
Ironic, isn't it...
But introducing major change demands methodical, patient effort. For every product improvement you could suggest, stop grumbling and take action-- write down your suggestion, first, in a few clear and simple sentences, and then call the grocery (during business hours). Make your suggestion by calling the customer service line most groceries provide. Some groceries (Kroger, Publix and Food Lion, for example) place their comment and customer service numbers on many of their house-brand packages.
The point is most groceries are delighted to hear about suggestions for improvement. If you have a good idea, think of the many others who also had the same idea, but never did anything with it. That makes your idea a front-runner, from the start.
Case in-point. In my experimentation with the nutritional counsel of Dr. Neal Barnard (MD), it became clear many groceries do not stock low glycemic whole wheat bread flour. If bread flour were not milled so finely (to weapons grade powder), its glycemic index would drop dramatically, and those who want low GI bread could make it, themselves. Kroger picked up the suggestion, and has it under study, now.
Government is bought and paid for, which is how vending machines with the big brand names got into schools in the first place.
What Americans ask for, they voted for, and the USDA nutritional measure is made under legislation their representatives put into place-- as noted in the article.
@Hynotoad72-- see my post above about the invasion junk food over decades, and official indifference to nutritional needs of children.