Fed Up Page #7

it's not just cheese.

This conflict between public health

and promoting agriculture

plays out across the board.

The U.S.D.A. says

to limit your sugar intake,

yet has provided

over $8 billion in subsidies

for corn-based sweeteners

since 1995.

It's fair to say that the government

is subsidizing the obesity epidemic

inadvertently,

through its subsidies of corn

which gets turned into

high-fructose corn syrup

and all those weird ingredients

that you see in processed food,

the maltodextrin, the xanthan gum,

all those words you can't pronounce.

So you have the government

in this crazy, schizophrenic situation,

where, on the one hand

they're subsidizing precisely

the foods that are making us sick,

and then on the other are now

on the hook to set the standards

for school lunches for our kids.

Chili cheese fries,

nachos, fried chicken...

all these fattening

and greasy foods

are just clogging up our schools.

School, we're supposed to be healthy.

My school has nachos

every day for school

and three-fourths of our students

in high school choose nachos.

All my bad decisions

are when I'm at school,

at lunchtime, at breakfast time.

'Cause there's no other choice.

Either you eat or you starve.

Today at lunch we had hamburgers.

You either had a chance to get

a cheeseburger or a sloppy Joe.

Neither one of them's

really that healthy.

Other options that they had

were this place called

the student store.

They have a daily special like Monday

is Papa John's pizza.

Tuesday is Chick-fil-A.

Wednesday is Arby's.

Thursday is Pizza Hut.

and Friday is McDonald's.

And then this is the slushie machine

that they have.

The school lunch program

has evolved in such a way

that it really is serving

the food processors

much more than it is

serving the students.

The government got

in the school lunch business

after World War II.

1946.

President Harry Truman signed

the National School Lunch Act

after a huge number of military recruits

were rejected because of malnutrition.

On February 18, I will present in detail

an economic program to Congress

reducing the growth in government

spending to reduce unemployment.

In 1981,

President Ronald Reagan

looking to limit the role

of government cut $1.46 billion

out of the child nutrition budget.

It will propose budget cuts

in virtually every department

of the government.

Many schools got rid

of their cooking equipment

and turned to the food industry

to make lunch cheap and simple,

kid-friendly favorites

that could be heated and served.

In 2006,

80% of all high schools

operated under exclusive

contracts with soda companies

and by 2012 more than half of all

U.S. school districts served fast food.

The food industry infiltration

of the schools is deplorable.

The schools have become

dependent on the money

and it's a bargain with the devil.

Some schools have become

like a 7-Eleven with books.

We are thrilled to be here

with all of you

as I sign the Healthy,

Hungry-Free Kids Act,

a bill that's vitally important

to the health and welfare of our kids.

In 2010 President Barack Obama

signed the bill

authorizing the U.S.D.A.

to come up with new standards

for the federally funded

school lunch program

in an effort

to make it healthier.

This had the effect of possibly

eliminating pizza from school.

Well, the Schwan Company in Minnesota

is a $3 billion private company

which accounts for 70% of the pizza

market in the U.S. school lunches.

They could not have pizza

eliminated from school.

So their senator in Minnesota,

Amy Klobuchar

wrote a letter to the

Department of Agriculture

to protect their frozen pizzas

in school lunches.

It had kind of

a complicated process

where the effect was to count

a slice of pizza as a vegetable.

It's common sense.

It's not a vegetable.

What's next? Are Twinkies gonna

be considered a vegetable?

Rather than having

a deliberative effort,

we have special interests inserting

these provisions into these bills

contrary to the public health.

In terms of the pizza issue,

we proposed a set of guidelines

and Congress essentially suggested

that they wanted

a slightly different approach.

Was that frustrating for you?

Well, it's a little

frustrating, sure.

- But at the end of the day...

- Tomato paste is a vegetable?

- Really?

- Well, it's... Well, uh...

Not in my household,

but, uh... but, I mean,

somebody could probably

make the, um,

the scientific argument that it is.

But it's not how

I perceive a vegetable.

By 2012, the revised

regulations were issued.

The U.S.D.A. increased

the lunch budget

for the first time in 30 years...

by six cents,

set a new maximum on calories

and doubled the required amounts

of fruits and vegetables,

which still includes

french fries and pizza.

It doesn't look like

the lunches have improved that much.

They have hamburgers and cheeseburgers,

chicken-fried steak and pizza today.

We have a main dish

every day that is very healthy.

We probably did about 25 of those...

out of, like, 350.

They kind of like...

"I'll have the pizza." And they'd

rather get fries and cookies.

But you can't choose for 'em.

They have to choose for themselves.

I don't know any child

who would rather have

vegetables over a candy bar

when both are placed

in front of them.

A lot of these

fast food restaurants

are still operating in school

cafeterias all across the country.

And it's...

it's not a good thing.

I don't agree with

all the new guidelines.

I wish they'd gone

a little further.

We could cure literally 80% of

the problem for children in school

if we went back to school cafeterias

where they prepared the food

in the school.

- What can I get for you, babe?

- Can I have a cheeseburger, please?

You sure can.

Thank you.

Have you lost any weight?

It's just kind of aggravating...

because...

I mean, my weight's not really going

the way it's supposed to go.

When we release our children

into the care of schools,

we expect that they're not

going to drink unsafe water

that will make them sick, we don't

expect them to breathe unsafe air

that will make them sick,

and we shouldn't expect them to eat

unsafe food that will make them sick.

The industry, I think, cares less

about what they sell in schools

than the opportunity they have

to market their brand.

We're paying a very dear price

for letting the food industry

act at will

in recruiting our children

as loyal customers.

I remember I went

to a preschool once

and the kids were sitting on

little chairs...

little red-and-white chairs.

that said "Coca-Cola."

What do they think?

Well, Coca-Cola's good.

It's part of preschool.

I should be drinking more Coca-Colas.

Marketers want to start

to target kids as early as they can.

Studies show that children

as young as two and three

start to recognize brands.

The problem is,

they don't see any commercials

for bananas, strawberries,

zucchini and broccoli.

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