Corn is Evil

In education circles, people love to say that "it's all about the kids" - a good motto, if overused sometimes, and a helpful reminder of the purpose of all of those education policies. As hard as it is to keep education policy from being hijacked by adult interests, I have a hard time imagining that folks at the Department of Agriculture sit around thinking about the well-being of schoolchildren when they're implementing the National School Lunch Program. And, as Alice Waters describes in this NYT op-ed, the result is a program that feeds students unhealthy, processed foods that hurt, not help, the battle against childhood obesity and diabetes. And, for the education world, the fatty, overly sugary foods likely contribute to behavioral and attention problems in the classroom.

While it's difficult to change the meals parents feed their children, the free lunch program is an area over which the government has control, and it can be redesigned to provide students with at least one fresh, healthy meal a day. And, even better, it can also help support local, sustainable farming. So what is the hold up? Corn.

Okay, not just corn, but it serves as a symbol of the large agribusiness lobby that has an interest in keeping the free lunch program just as it is. As Waters explains, the Department of Agriculture pays big American food producers for their leftovers and then passes these foods--processed cheese, frozen chicken nuggets, pizza--along to schools at substantially reduced prices.

Fortunately, there is an ongoing revolution in food, led by people like Alice Waters and Will Allen, a 2008 MacArthur fellow, showing that good, healthy food doesn't need to be limited to those who can afford to shop at Whole Foods and that the interests of schoolchildren and local farmers can be joined in a way that improves both the environment and children's health. The federal government can make it easier, not harder, for people like Waters and Allen to introduce healthy food into schools by shifting away from the highly processed leftovers sold by large food producers and better supporting connections between schools and local farms.

Obama's pick of Tom Vilsack, a former Governor of Iowa, to head the Department of Agriculture does not bode well, however, for any dramatic changes in the National School Lunch Program. Maybe one day, though, the Secretary of Agriculture will turn away from the industrial farm lobby and say "no thanks" to the frozen chicken nuggets because, you know, it's really all about the kids.

Update: Our resident Iowan, Chad Aldeman, responded with this commercial from The Corn Refiners Association explaining the virtues of highly processed corn products:



Sounds vaguely familiar...