government

School lunch sanctimony
11/03/2011 - 21:23

I know I've been blogging about public school lunch a lot lately, but I think it's a great example of everything that is wrong with the food system in America and what will happen if we allow the government to be in charge of more and more of the food system.

A few months ago I noticed that the USDA school lunch standards were restricting starchy vegetables (like potatoes), corn, and legumes. I neglected to blog about it, I suppose because I was so busy. Had the USDA read Gary Taubes?

Nope. Apparently, it was based on a report by the Institute of Medicine that recommended restricting them not for any problems with the foods themselves, but in order to encourage schools to try other vegetables. 

That seems a little sanctimonious to me, like something a moralistic grandmother would do. In the meantime, I don't see any USDA restrictions on fried food or chocolate milk. 

If you read the IOM recs, it's clear they are unable to think about food holistically. They are not seeing that it's not the potatoes or the chicken that's the problem, it's the fact that they are often breaded and/or fried. If only our problem was overeating potatoes and lima beans! And we could solve that be eating them less and making sure we get our chalk-colored fortified water, I mean 1% milk. It's laughable once you think about it. 

But never fear, don't forget the government guidelines are often a combination of paternalism and lobbying interests. This time, I guess they canceled each other out and the USDA abandoned the plan.

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Nutritious Delicious Illegal Food
01/23/2010 - 22:03

 You may wonder why I, as someone who does not consume milk, would care about The Raw Milk Revolution. But this book has important implications for anyone who eats outside the mainstream. While I do consider raw milk a relatively risky food, I think it should be up to individuals to make the choice whether to consume it or not. As far as the argument that children can't make that choice, are we going to prosecute every parent that feeds their child potentially deadly food? I don't think the government has enough money to go after all the parents who feed their children massive amounts of sugar. Besides that, this book makes the point that illness from raw milk is very very uncommon. Why is the government spending massive amounts of money going after small farmers and not the large companies that poison millions every year?

 
Brazil, Sci-Fi Dystopia with unfortunately similarities to food law in the US
 
The stories in the book of small farmers persecuted by government agents could be out of some sci-fi dystopia. The stories in the book of farmers driven to mental, physical, and financial ruination because of a suspected case of food poisoning are tear jerking. They remind me of another book I read, Mad Sheep: The True Story Behind The USDA's War on Family Farm, which tells of the shattered dreams of one family whose beloved sheep were seized and killed on the basis of faulty science.  
With the government turning its eyes towards produce safety, even those of us who don't consume or want to consume raw milk have to worry. If this is the way government handles food rights, we have much to be afraid of. 
 
Those of us less skeptical of government intervention may even be swayed by the fact that most safety regulations have no basis in actual science. The government has never proved that most of its regulations make food safer. They do a great job of hurting small businesses though. I highly recommend Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal by Joel Salatin, the farmer featured in The Omnivore's Dilemma, which chronicles how idiotic regulations hobble his ability to sell healthy food. 
 
With that, I give you a list of some foods we are missing out on. 
 
Paleo foods you can't eat because the government says so. 
  • Charcuterie: producing good sausages is hard unless you have lots of money because it has to be made in licensed commercial facility with an approved recipe. Some lucky people are able to get it illegally.
  • Lungs and thyroid tissue. I ate these foods in Central Europe and they were nutritious and delicious. They are illegal despite the fact that there are methods of slaughter that completely mitigate the risks associated with them.
  • Wild game, well unless you know a hunter. The venison at the store is farmed and often fattened on grains. You can buy true wild game from Scotland, where it is legal to sell, from D'artagnan. Sweden also allows the sale of wild game and it's not like wildlife has disappeared there. 

If you think of any more, please email me at mgmcewen @ gmail . com

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