Food fighting around DC and the nation
The House Appropriations Committee is likely to release today a draft of the FY15 USDA funding bill. It could include provisions, sought by conservative Republicans, to delay or overturn school lunch rules. On Tuesday, House and Senate subcommittees are scheduled to mark up the spending bills. “We expect they will act on Tuesday May 20 to gut nutrition standards through the appropriations process,” says the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest in a on-line petition. “They might say they just want to provide schools with a little more ‘flexibility,’ but their changes would roll back standards on salt, whole grains, fruits/vegetables, and snacks.”
At Food Safety News, editor Dan Flynn says school lunch participation is down by 1 million students since the 2010 school lunch reauthorization, which requires schools to put more fruits, vegetables and whole grains into meals. “If this was intended as an experiment in behavior modification, it ain’t working,” writes Flynn, who says schools are forced to prepare food that students won’t eat. “Congress just needs to focus on what works.”
And in Connecticut, Gov Daniel Malloy will not sign a law that would ban chocolate milk from the lunchroom, says a spokesman quoted by NBC Connecticut. Chocolate milk would be swept up in legislation to reduce salt in school food.