Today, the Trump administration announced plans to roll back measures that mandated a certain amount of vegetables and fruits in the meals provided by schools to students. According to the Agriculture Secretary, he claims the new proposal will allow schools, “common-sense flexibility” to give students “nutritious and appetizing meals”. What is the implication here? That the mandate, to include more vegetables and fruits resulted in less nutritious or appetizing meals?
Of course, the changes are veiled under the pretense that “schools and school districts continue to tell us that there is still too much food waste”. So the agriculture secretary is just trying to avoid food waste. The result, of course, will be more processed foods served to our children. Processed foods, more often than not, result in more calories and sugar. Both are known to be causes for childhood obesity and even diabetes. And while the agriculture secretary’s motives may simply be of more money and in helping his big-agra friends and contributors, the results will be the same.
My suggestion? Invest in big-agra, and use the money you make to send your kid(s) to school with homemade, unprocessed, healthy lunches.
