Nutrition Considered in Farm Bill

This week I read an article from the LA Times about the farm bill being passed through congress and how it should be altered to provide more nutritious meals for public schools to help prevent obesity. The farm bill sets the nation’s agricultural agenda every five years. The urge by parents, nutrition experts and physicians, to rewrite the bill delayed it until next year. This will give the advocates more time to educate people in wanting to revise this bill. In previous years, the issue associated with the farm bill was over subsidies, but now nutrition has become a major concern. The $288 billion bill would spend more on fruits and vegetables. Ann Cooper, a food coordinator at schools in Berkley, claims “If we want to significantly impact the long term health of our children, we need to change the food in the center of the plate, the entrée. The farm bill negatively impacts the entrée by subsidizing food we don’t necessarily eat, like corn and soy. There’s so much fat hidden I these highly processed foods that end up on our kid’s plates”. Senators Lautenberg and Lugar want to expand a pilot program that began with the 2002 farm bill that provides elementary schools with fresh fruit and vegetables for snacks. The program, which started in four states now serves 175,000 students in 14 states.
I believe that it is a good idea to revise this farm bill because obesity is a significant problem in our society today and will impact the lives of future generations. I believe school meals should be nutritious because some poor students may not get the nutrition they need at home so anything that would help is important. It is also important that money goes towards healthier food instead of subsides for farmers who do not produce foods that are healthy.