Guest Editorial
By Arden Tewksbury
(Oct. 2015) If some of the United States House Ag Committee members have their say, you might see a change in the school lunch program next year.
At an open hearing on Oct. 7, several key members of the House AG Committee were very critical of some aspects of the current school lunch programs. These Congressmen were urging the US Secretary of Agriculture to make changes in the lunch program that would allow schools to once again serve whole milk to school students.
The Secretary made it very clear that despite what the dietary recommendations are from the dietary advisement committee, the USDA has the final say on the school lunch program.
On Tuesday, Oct. 6 officials of the Progressive Agriculture Organization made more than a dozen visits to the offices of key members of the House Ag Committee.
I was impressed that information we discussed and passed out to some of the key members closely paralleled our feeling regarding the whole milk issue when these Congressmen testified.
The Fox News service has issued an excellent video of some of the hearing. I would urge everyone to listen to their report, and pay close attention to the critical remarks that a long-time member of the Committee, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) had to offer.
For over a year Pro-Ag has been passing out scores of papers to consumers, urging them to get behind the effort for everyone to use more butter and whole milk. A substantial amount of information we passed out was developed by our good friend Nina Teicholz, author of the best-selling book “The Big Fat Surprise.” Nina also has some videos of her interviews with MSNBC and Yahoo news, all available on the FACEBOOK page of Progressive Agriculture Organization.
Only time will tell if all of our efforts, along with the efforts of many of the House Ag Committee members will pay off.
While we are working relentlessly on the school lunch program, we never once failed to review with members of Congress the deplorable milk prices being paid to dairy farmers across the United States.
Everyone must accelerate their efforts on lobbying Congress regarding the school lunch program and certainly on the deplorable milk prices being paid to dairy farmers.