The 5 Unfinished Items That Will Shape Obama's Food and Ag Legacy

[jettakd]

-By Tom Philpott| Wed Nov. 14, 2012 3:03 AM PST

President Barack Obama enters his second term with a complex record on food and farm policy. Eight months into the first term, I assessed the administration's record like this:

Like a tractor driven by a drunk, the Obama administration keeps zigzagging on food/ag policy-sometimes veering in the

Comments

[fenris_lorsrai]

The snack food thing is particularly thorny because its often the schools that are pushing to HAVE the machines in because they generate revenue for the school. Depending on contract structure, they either supplement the lunch program itself OR they are a source of revenue for athletics. Yeah, the soda machine is often owned by the athletic department...

In cash strapped districts, this is often a way to avoid cutting programs. and this isn't piddly money. it's often thousands of dollars in revenue for the school. with districts often unwilling to raise tax rates, this often fills in for some of the shortfall.

It's a nasty trap, particularly with athletics as they soda machine fuels health problems... but if its revenue was gone, much of the athletic department would be too, and you'd end up with the same health issues.

[jettakd]

I actually didn't know this at all! This definitely makes it a more complex issue than I thought it was previously. I honestly don't have a problem with some junk food or soda choices open to students (especially if they benefit the school system), but at the same time kids make meals off of those and yeah :( I hope this an be sorted out in the healthiest way that still benefits the schools.

[cindyanne1]

I know where I used to work, they were concerned about the vending machine snacks, so there for a while they had a cold food machine that served fruit, healthy sandwiches, cottage cheese cups, low fat pudding, etc.

They took it out after six months because they lost so much money on it. :\ The foods are just too perishable.

[ayashi]

My school used to have a vending machine (well it still might but I haven't been in 10 years), but you couldn't buy anything until after school was out. So you could use it as an after school snack if you were staying around, but couldn't make a lunch out of it. I'm sure a lot less kids used it though than would have if it were available during school hours.

Still, I only ever went to school with $1.50 - and that $1.50 could buy me a whole meal in the lunch line or a single drink at the vending machine (had it been available during school hours).

[cindyanne1]

My husband and I run a grain farm for a living and I would LOVE to see Monsanto get smacked around a bit.

[endlos_schleife]

I am in the process of writing an article on factory animal farms in my county in IA, and it's depressing as hell what large cooperation can get away with while small farms have to close down.

[aviv_b]

This is a huge issue for me. Yeah, I like cheap food, but I want to know that my food is safe

[maynardsong]

Never mind the animal's welfare even. Like, people have countered me when I point out the animals' plight with a "Yeah well, I care more about people than animals, sue me." And to that I say, "Yeah? Well guess who's also harmed by factory farming? How about the people who work there? The people who live there, who never got a say in the factory farm setting up shop where they lived? Who are often poor and of color and who'll suffer disproportionate health problems? And what of the superbugs created? Don't give me shit about how you care more about people, because if you must refuse to give a flying fuck about the animals, at least think of all the ways factory farming harms people."