House Republicans are due to vote this week on an agriculture spending bill that includes a provision rolling back the nutritional requirements in school lunches, but First Lady Michelle Obama is already calling out the GOP.
In an interview with MSN, Michelle Obama called out the House Republicans for offering up some bad policy just as the US is batting an epidemic of childhood obesity:
It is our job as adults to make sure that our kids eat what they need, not what they want. I struggle with that in my own life, and I tell you, if I let my kids dictate what we have for dinner every day, it would be French fries, chips and candy, but we don’t run our households like that, and we can’t run our schools like that.
The first step is not to roll back the standards, but to help the schools that are struggling do a better job at making the meals more enjoyable for the kids. Good health and flavor go hand in hand.
What we need to do is lend a hand to the schools that are struggling, not roll back the standards and say, Oh, well. The kids don’t like it so let them eat cake. We can’t afford to do that.
Republicans are using the rising cost of fruits and vegetables as their reason to roll back the 2010 school lunch nutritional requirement that more fruits and vegetables be offered at meal time. The School Nutrition Association, which gets nearly two thirds of its funding from frozen and processed food companies, is working with House Republicans to roll back the standards.
This fight has nothing to do with the health and wellness of students. It is all about processed food giants like ConAgra Foods, Tyson Foods and Domino’s Pizza trying to push healthy food options out of the cafeteria.
President Obama has threatened to veto the entire agriculture bill if Republicans remove the nutritional standards, “The Administration strongly opposes language in the bill that would require the Secretary to establish a waiver process to eliminate current nutrition requirements for school breakfasts and lunches during the 2014-2015 school year for any school or district that demonstrates a net operating loss on school meals for at least six months beginning in July 2013. This would be a major step backwards for the health of American children by undermining the effort to provide kids with more nutritious food. More generally, the Administration strongly opposes the inclusion of any language in the bill that would override science-based standards that improve child nutrition.”
The price of fruits and vegetables has increased by 2.6%, but instead of offering more funding to school districts, Republicans are trying to make out kids fat, or fatter as the case may be. This isn’t about liberty, freedom, big government, or any of the other buzzwords that Republicans like to throw around. The debate here is centered around the Republican willingness to jeopardize the health and well being of children in the name of corporate profits.
The long-term consequences of childhood obesity include, “high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, joint problems, sleep apnea, fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes.” Over one third of American children and adolescents are obese. First Lady Michelle Obama is fighting so that they can have a healthy future while House Republicans are willing to turn overweight children into unhealthy adults in the name of corporate profits.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
You know as well as I do that yes the Republicans/Conservatives will vote to take from children AGAIN by lowering the standards for adequate meals in favor of more money for their corporate masters. And because Michelle Obama is trying to improve things they will claim that she is trying to take away their “God given liberties”…just what they always say…no matter the issue…
Republicans only care about children at inception until 20 weeks or so and then they’re on their own.
For some children this is the most sustaining meal they get each day. But of course the Repubs could give a flying f___ !
This fight has nothing to do with the health and wellness of students. It is all about processed food giants like ConAgra Foods, Tyson Foods and Domino’s Pizza trying to push healthy food options out of the cafeteria.
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Corporations are people and we know they have the peoples best interest at heart. So if the braindead who vote for these cretins don’t mind having fat ass kids then let them. It runs in their families anyway
Stuzzi If your trying to tell us that with 50 million on food stamps lunch is the best meal of the day these kids get, B.S. Than what the heck are the parents doing, sounds like your saying the parents aren’t doing there duty and feeding their kids, My daughter hated the school lunch, no flavor, no seasoning, no salt, No taste. Always hungry when we picked her up at 2:30, its not the school lunch making kids fat, its the junk food the parents are feeding them, did you know that on food stamps you can buy all the junk food like chips, cookies, coke, and all the rest, how nutritional is that, I thought the Nutritional Assistance program was to help the needy but it dang sure at Nutritional. Fix the real problem, the parants and the food stamp program.
Paul Krugman remarked that the Republican agenda has devolved to hurting the poor, the powerless, and the luckless, just to show they can, and that this agenda overrides even profitability. The evidence suggests he is correct.
Mike, in the sixties and seventies when I was in school we had fantastic meals in all of our schools public and parochial. The problem is not the “nutritional standards” real or perceived it’s about money. With proper funds for schools the proper old fashioned meals that I had could be possible. But the Right Wing does not want schools to operate properly unless THEY set the ancient curriculum and forced bible studies into PUBLIC schools. Also removing physical activities and P.E from schools is another reason for childhood obesity but the biggest problem Is Hours and hours on VIDEO GAMES!!!
It’s obvious your child has not eaten nutritious food and you probably feed her junk food which is not good for her brain. It takes a little effort on the part of a parent to make children eat healthy food. Once they learn about healthy food they eat it. But because the black man in the white house who has a wife who advocates for healthy food you are obviously against it. People like you need to learn how to feed your children good food and not junk food and turn off Fox and right wing radio because it destroys your brain like junk food does.
That’s a lot of stereotyping there. I am surprised you didn’t bring the pink Cadillac’s buying steak and lobster
It is the same old thing, and if Dems don’t get out and vote in 2014 it is going to get worse…a lot worse.
The GOP will take from the children, the poor, the elderly, the feeble and injured, etc., etc., because they are trading “us” for their corporate perks, contributions, and golden parachutes for CEOs. That is the bottom line. Our lives and our children’s lives are being traded for the 1% benefits.
You obviously have no idea, who that 47.6 million people include, do you. Not only the poor, but the elderly, disabled, military families, unemployed, and also the low income people that work at Walmart, McDonalds, etc.
Bought and paid for by the junk food and High Fructose Corn Syrup lobbies.
Joseph, I’m sure the R’thugs/Teabaggies will put Catsup as a veggie and note that’s all the veggie kids need for good nutrition.
Kudos to MO!!!
This is also politics as usual. Being against anything the Obama’s are for, even if it’s good for the health of children. It has never been clearer in the history that republicans DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, they only care about power and greed! I used to work with a RW nut ( the kind that listens to Rush and Beck ). He had his daughter start a brown bag campaign at her school because he refused to take part in the “socialism food program” at school. Plus, he was upset that they had to pay for their food when others ( the poor) got it for free! Their response is, they should stop being poor……..
Gee, daddy, may I grow up to be a sleazy piece of shit when I grow up?
Yes, my daughter, you certainly become a Republican.
Oh goody, goody. Do you think I will be able to take food out of the mouths of under and unemployed people and then later take it out of their children’s mouths TOO?
Yup, that’s my girl.
Honestly, Dad, I’d rather shoot myself than be ANYTHING like one of those morons.
Okay, honey, you can be anything you want.
Great! I’ll be like Jesus and be a liberal even though we’re Jewish.
Don’t forget, he was one of us, too.