Those Evil School Vending Machines

Such an obvious federal solution to an evil local problem: We sure wouldn't want the nutritionists responsible for school cafeteria food to be "undermined" by vending machines.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Agriculture Department would be given the power to regulate all food sold in schools -- including vending machine snacks -- when Congress renews child nutrition programs, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee said on Tuesday.

[SNIP]

Agriculture Committee work on child nutrition will begin with a draft that gives the USDA the authority to oversee all food in schools, so nutrition programs are not "undermined" by junk food in vending machines, Harkin said at a confirmation hearing for the head of the USDA's nutrition programs.

Earlier this year, Harkin co-sponsored a bill focused on setting nutritional standards for food in school vending machines and stores to combat childhood obesity rates.

The incoming head of the nutrition program, Kevin Concannon, testified that in his work as a food stamp director for Iowa, Oregon and Maine, he experienced "push-back" from local school boards over his attempt to regulate (translation: demonize) snack vending machines.

The new legislation will correct this imbalance of power so that no longer can local school officials threaten the authority of federal bureaucrats!

Hey, Kevin and Tom! What about those schools that allow students to leave campus for the nearest McDonalds, Sonic or Burger King? Are you going to sit still while your omniscient nutritional guidance is flouted?

Mark my words, the war against Big Hamburger has been joined. The Obamatrons are just warming up.

The Feds Take on Cheerios

The Obamatons are firmly ensconced at the Food and Drug Administration.

Cheerios, the world’s best-selling cereal, isn’t so wholesome as its maker General Mills Inc. claims, U.S. regulators said.

Packaging and Internet advertising for the toasted oats violate federal law with promises to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, according to a warning letter posted on the Food and Drug Administration’s Web site today. General Mills, ordered to fix the issues or risk product seizure, said it would try to resolve the letter with the regulator.

[SNIP]

The FDA started its Cheerios review after the National Consumers League, a Washington-based advocacy group, complained in a September letter that the cereal’s health claims made it out to be a drug, Sundlof said.

The warning letter represented the FDA’s first action against a “mainstream food product” in more than nine years and showed the agency is exerting its authority under President Barack Obama, said Bruce Silverglade, director of legal affairs for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, in Washington.

“Consumers are influenced by food claims on labels,” Silverglade said in a telephone interview today. “To the extent that they’re misleading, it’s as bad as a doctor giving out poor medical advice.”

"As bad as a doctor giving out poor medical advice"?

Risk product seizure?

Will Obama now try to take over General Mills in the "public interest"?

I don't know if you've ever watched a press conference for the "Center for Science in the Public Interest" but these people are wackos. Maybe not certified, but definitely fringe elements. Want to alternately laugh and be disgusted at the same time? Check out CSPI's "Then Worst and Ten Best Foods" web page where they will tell you that Dove Ice Cream will kill you, and recommend broccoli instead. When you're in the mood for ice cream, who the hell wants broccoli?

Maybe Cheerios isn't the health food its advertisements claim, but I never believed that Wonder Bread built strong bodies 12 ways, or that Lucky Charms was "magically delicious." I doubt if too many people do.

We're Americans, dammit, and we are used to outrageous ad claims. We are not the helpless little children that the lefty do-good'ers and government bureaucrats claim. We do not equate Cheerios ads with doctors' warnings.

Leave us alone. Let us have our Cheerios without the frickin' warning labels. Quit trying to legislate away our Whoppers and Quarter Pounders.

Let us die happy, and free!