A third of American children are obese or overweight, according to the government, and roughly 40 percent of the calories they eat are consumed in the school lunch period. Nutrition experts say if the nation wants to make progress on the obesity crisis among children, what they eat at lunchtime has to be addressed.
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With some nutrition experts rallying to the Obama administration’s side, the battle is shaping up as a contentious and complicated fight involving lawmakers from farm states and large low-income urban areas that rely on the program, which fed some 30 million children last year with free or subsidized meals. Food companies have spent more than $5.6 million so far lobbying against the proposed rules.
- School Lunch Proposals Set Off a Dispute at the NYTimes
"Courtney and Trace collecting flowers." Stillman's Farm Blog.
Already the fallout begins. We are hearing of farms all over New England announcing that they are done. Every employer knows you cannot replace your trained workers with just anyone and expect the work to get done correctly and efficiently. I am so afraid that the bureauocrats will wake up too late – after we have lost many farms in the state who depend on this workforce.
And has anyone stopped to ask the men who have held these jobs for so many years how they feel? Tilbert has put all his girls through college working here, what happens to him and all the others if this job is taken away. Where are the human rights considerations for these men, men who have come into our system legally for years and years? Clearly we, the employer, have no say over who we hire.
- From Stillman's Farm Blog, a family owned farm in Massachusetts. Suggestions for letters you can write to elected officials can be found here.
So much for the legal analysis. A more enlightening way to view this litigation is as a political statement. Yes, much significant litigation—indeed some might say all—is imbued with an ideological component. But litigation should not be brought by government agencies when the chance of success is so slight as to make the filing of the suit the only visible and hoped for outcome.
- Without Merit: Even as politics, the states' lawsuit against health care reform makes no sense
What needs to happen? Spending will need to be cut, and taxes will need to rise. They won’t need to rise just on households making more than $250,000, as Mr. Obama has suggested. They will probably need to rise on your household, however much you make.
- The Perils of Pay Less, Get More