School Food

Have you seen Supersize Me ?

It's a shocking documentary. The narrator, Morgan Spurlock, vomits on camera. He also has vital organs shutting down--just because he eats nothing but McDonald's food for a month.

But by far the most shocking thing of all, however, is the footage of school lunches. By 2005, we all know that eating deep fried, high-chemical soulless crap hastens us all to the grave. Agreed? Yet we actually pay our hard-earned tax dollars to encourage our children to not only eat but to also become addicted to exactly this kind of food. Our school lunch programs are shameful, and who knows how much various diseases and disorders (and ADD) could be reduced by offering only healthy food, like fruits, vegetables, whole grains to school kids.

People are finally starting to do something about it. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver now appears to be on the case. Ditto Arnold Schwarzenegger. And Stonyfield Farm has an action plan for parents which is one of the coolest business/political buddy systems I have ever seen (from a company whose founder, I have read, was the biggest individual supporter of Howard Dean's run for president).

The school lunch problem is so central to the American obesity/health crisis, that I am suspicious of any chef, doctor, author, pundit, etc. who publicly purports to want to solve this problem but is not working to be part of the solution. It's the 800-pound gorilla in the corner. (Or is that somebody's kid?)