This week Rep. John Hoeven (R-NorthDaKocha) announced he was going to introduce a new bill repealing 2014 rules directing school lunch programs to contain more whole-grain foods and less sodium. Yes, rolling back a law from just one year ago, one that hasn't even been taken full effect yet. Yes, you might also consider this part of the ongoing war against First Lady Michele Obama's maniacal drive to make Americans maybe not die so much from eating like New York City subway rats.
The argument advanced by groups like the School Nutrition Association (SNA) goes that children find slightly healthier or less-salty food so off-putting that they won't eat it at all. The counter is that—you know what, let's not even bother here. I give up.
But critics have pointed out that helping "struggling schools" is not the sole agenda of the SNA—its sponsors include Domino's Pizza, General Mills Foodservice, PepsiCo Foodservice, and Tyson Foods, Inc.—all of whom contract with school cafeterias and would benefit from less stringent nutritional regulations.
Hoeven, too, is a friend of the food industry: In 2014, the senator received close to $20,000 from NORPAC Foods, Inc. (a frozen and canned foods company), $16,850 from American Crystal Sugar, $11,050 from Cargill, $10,600 from McDonald's Corps, and $10,000 from California Dairies Inc.
Yes, Domino's Pizza is deeply concerned about maintaining proper student nutrition, and don't even get me started on all the ways PepsiCo has shown their deep and abiding concern for your children.
You know, there are probably some very deep and important arguments to be had over how much decency in nutrition our little American tots can stand. But since the only way we're ever going to have that conversation is if the good people at Dominos, PepsiCo and Tyson pay lobbyists to have it on our behalf, I think we all know precisely how those arguments are going to go.
On the contrary, if all American law revolves around making each American industry or sub-industry happy in direct proportion to how much money they have contributed toward making that happen, and at this point we have many decades of experience showing that to be true, give it another decade and we'll be passing laws allowing companies to get rid of fracking waste by turning it into school cafeteria soup.