Farm Bill Food Fight

[The Grand Nudger]

It seems to me that the word "fresh" might preclude canned goods..but some lawmakers disagree..........

Some lawmakers want to add frozen, canned, pureed and dried produce to the menus of the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program for schoolchildren.
It’s a proposal Maine GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin says will help American children “be able to eat healthy all year round with nutritious products from across the country,” according to The Associated Press.
Adding packaged and processed fruits and vegetables to the fresh produce snack program is not only “a huge win for our school children,” Poliquin said, but would enlarge the consumer market for blueberry farmers in Maine and other produce industries.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/froz...ce-program

.......yes, yes, think of the kids...and maines blueberry market.  

We participate in our kids schools farm to table program..which uses funds to buy from local suppliers. Most of what they get is donated by families like ours, though, because there's just not enough money in it to buy enough produce. This guy wants to scoop up some of that already insufficient funding for his constituents canned blueberries. Frozen tater tots and blueberry mush for all! Maybe someone ought to tell that asshole we grow highbush here, too?

[vorlon13]

I love frozen tart cherries . . .


(sorry, I digress)

[The Grand Nudger]

Oh absolutely...bringing it round, though... schools have funds allocated for the purchase of frozen and canned goods.  They;re already buying his shitty blueberries.  He wants a chunk of that much, much smaller fresh produce funding.  The rationalization by way of kindergarten hostage is offensive to sentient thought on it;s face.  

On the plus side...at least he's overtly lobbying for his constituency, even if it makes him look ridiculous. That;s worth something.

[Minimalist]

Whenever there is a bad idea there is always a republicunt at the bottom of it.

[The Grand Nudger]

I find it ironic that the party of white fright is always looking for a way to steal my job and outsource it.

[Angrboda]

What was the original intended purpose of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program for schoolchildren?

[The Grand Nudger]

Nutrition and education...and education in nutrition, lol.  It came to our attention that tater tots, kraft mac, and canned fruit medley might not be setting up students for success.

The program was palpably designed to get away from the product that the rep is peddling, at a penny to many dollars, mind you.

(there have been further studies on student behavior since that are amusing in their own right. When kids have a "mixed plate" of old school lunch and fresh school lunch..and only a few minutes to eat..they tend to consume the high cal/high sugar items first and leave the nutrition on the plate. A straight up expression of monkeybrain, right there...but it;s how it plays out, and it shows the difficulty still ahead...even if the program was adequately funded and protected from raiders and profiteers like the honorable gentleman from maine.)

[Angrboda]

Nutrition and education...and education in nutrition, lol.  It came to our attention that tater tots, kraft mac, and canned fruit medley might not be setting up students for success.

The program was palpably designed to get away from the product that the rep is peddling, at a penny to many dollars, mind you.

(there have been further studies on student behavior since that are amusing in their own right.  When kids have a "mixed plate" of old school lunch and fresh school lunch..and only a few minutes to eat..they tend to consume the high cal/high sugar items first and leave the nutrition on the plate.  A straight up expression of monkeybrain, right there...but it;s how it plays out, and it shows the difficulty still ahead...even if the program was adequately funded and protected from raiders and profiteers like the honorable gentleman from maine.)

So, then, it wasn't aimed at subsidizing a particular segment of the agricultural market. If that's the case, I can see a case being made for including frozen fruits and vegetables in the school lunch program, given that most of those satisfy the nutritional aspect of the program.

[Fireball]

I forget which administration it happened in (rep, though), but at one point there was discussion to classify ketchup as a vegetable. While sorta true...it ain't fresh vegetables, which was the point.

[The Grand Nudger]

Nutrition and education...and education in nutrition, lol.  It came to our attention that tater tots, kraft mac, and canned fruit medley might not be setting up students for success.

The program was palpably designed to get away from the product that the rep is peddling, at a penny to many dollars, mind you.

(there have been further studies on student behavior since that are amusing in their own right.  When kids have a "mixed plate" of old school lunch and fresh school lunch..and only a few minutes to eat..they tend to consume the high cal/high sugar items first and leave the nutrition on the plate.  A straight up expression of monkeybrain, right there...but it;s how it plays out, and it shows the difficulty still ahead...even if the program was adequately funded and protected from raiders and profiteers like the honorable gentleman from maine.)

So, then, it wasn't aimed at subsidizing a particular segment of the agricultural market.  If that's the case, I can see a case being made for including frozen fruits and vegetables in the school lunch program, given that most of those satisfy the nutritional aspect of the program.

They already are.  Canned and frozen fruits and veggies receive the majority of the funding. The fresh program is a program -within- that program. The rep is concerned with the pennies trickling away from his constituencies revenue stream.

He thinks that some of those pennies should be his pennies, nevermind the benjamins in his wallet.