Congress would relax rules that call for schools to use more whole grains and to reduce salt in meals provided to students, according to provisions of a government-wide funding bill. Unveiled on Tuesday night, the bill also calls for USDA to study the nutritional content of vegetables available in the so-called WIC program before removing any of them from the program – a response to complaints that white potatoes were being singled out unfairly.
The provisions on school meals, Sections 751 and 752, are less sweeping than a proposal by House Republicans for a one-year waiver from school lunch reforms that call for more fruit, vegetables and grains and less fat, salt and sugar. North Dakota Sen John Hoeven was a leading proponent of more leeway on whole grains. Section 751 allows an exemption if schools “demonstrate hardship, including financial hardship, in procuring specific whole-grain products which are acceptable to the students and compliant with the whole grain-rich requirements.”
Section 752 would block rules for less salt in meals, food and snacks sold in schools “until the latest scientific research establishes the reduction is beneficial to children.” Section 753 sets out the requirement for study of nutritional content of vegetables for the Women, Infants and Children program. The lower-salt rule was to take effect in 2017, says Associated Press.
Says AP, “Many schools have complained that the whole grain standards are a challenge, especially when preparing popular pastas, biscuits and tortillas…preparation can be more difficult, especially with some whole wheat pastas that can be mushy and hard to cook.”
The spending bill cut back two of USDA’s largest conservation programs, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, to reduce feedlot and field runoff, and the Conservation Stewardship Program, which pays farmers for making soil, water and wildlife conservation part of their daily operations.
“We are witnessing the browning of the farm bill,” said Ferd Hoefner of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, who called the cuts a back-door attack on voluntary conservation. He said $4 billion was cut from conservation programs.
USDA would be blocked from creating a new and separate beef checkoff program, said DTN.
Politico said the CFTC will get a $35 million increase in its budget, to $250 million, but “Republicans won an important concession for the financial industry related to ‘swaps push out’ rules for banks.”
Appropriations Committee leaders said the “swaps push out” language would “protect farmers and other commodity producers from having to put down excessive collateral to get a loan, expand their businesses, and hedge their production.”
In a statement, the leaders said they included “provisions restricting the application of the Clean Water Act in certain agricultural areas, including farm ponds and irrigation ditches” and “a provision prohibiting funding for the Fish and Wildlife Service to issue further rules to place sage-grouse on the Endangered Species List – an action that could have severe economic consequences in Western states.”