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[Miggy]

Surely a more sensible route would be to abandon this arbitrary nonsense about fruits and vegetables and simply stipulate that school lunches must provide X% of a Y calorie diet's required nutrients (just run through the whole list) without exceeding Z calories, averaged over the course of a week? If you want to be fancy, add on a maximum fat and cholesterol limit as well, and maybe sugar and starch, too. Let individual schools pick whatever they like within those limits, knowing full well that all of them are going to pick the same options because one or two manufacturers will provide preconstructed meals that meet these requirements.

Give me 50 bucks and a couple hours with the internet, I'll even fill in the goddamn variables, Congress. Maybe if you're polite about it I'll do the fancy version, but this is a bargain either way you look at it.

I think the problem is, they did this but very superficially. Their meals must contain a certain amount of vegetables/fruit, bread, milk and so on. These are all healthy things required in a healthy diet, right?!

But then the bureaucracy will kick in. Potatoes are vegetables right? Well, fries are made from potatoes, so fries must be vegtables. There's your serving! Hey, we need to serve them milk? Well, apart from all of the sugar and cocoa we put in chocolate milk, there's only milk in that! Another item checked off!

I posted This link in the WTF thread, with my favourite quote:

Under a proposed rule, a vegetable serving of tomato paste would have to be a whole one half-cup serving, not two tablespoons, as it is now.

But, opponents of the rule argued, that would render a slice of pizza inedible. “It would basically be swimming in tomato sauce,” said Corey Henry, vice president of communications at the American Frozen Food Institute. “No school kid in his right mind would want to eat that.”

I feel this also requires the mandatory link to Jamie Oliver's food revolution. I think episode one covers pretty much every problem that the system has.

[Truean]

So there's hope; it's not some conspiracy to try to feed you the cheapest stuff possible

Na. I'm pretty sure last week's lasagna is this week's short string spaghetti, is next week's sloppy joes, is the week after that's "surprise."

[Luke_Prowler]

You know, they wouldn't be having this problem if they'd stop cutting the education budget

[shadenight123]

You know, they wouldn't be having this problem if they'd stop cutting the education budget

and if they'd cut their salaries instead, right?
fight lost in the beginning.

moving on, one thing which people can actually do is to buy fruits and vegetables before hand and give it to the pests.

[GlyphGryph]

I think the problem is, they did this but very superficially. Their meals must contain a certain amount of vegetables/fruit, bread, milk and so on. These are all healthy things required in a healthy diet, right?!

But when you define restrictions in vague, wishy-washy terms like "vegetables", of course they're going to find loopholes big enough to drive a truck through.

[MonkeyHead]

Jamie Oliver had some massive success with the Blair administration over here years ago, going as far as there becoming legal guidelines and financial incentives for schools to work towards. Thing is, legal minimum nutritional levels were put in place whilst school budgets were (and continue to be) cut, meaning most schools couldn't afford to offer lunches that were good enough. This resulted in large numbers of schools putting thier canteen services out to tender, with private companies winnig contracts all over the UK. These companies had no problem budgeting for healthy foods, but needed to turn a profit, meaning then that most healthy foods were not affordable by most pupils when compared to kids bringing thier own foods in or going off site to the local chippy. The infamous "mums selling burgers through the fence" issue highlights that pretty well. Story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2006/sep/20/schoolmeals.schools

There are wider issues at play here than just offering kids better food. Diet is affected by education and socioeconomic factors. Kids from a young age need to be taought how to eat healthy, as otherwise some parents will willingly shovel crap into thier childrens bodies.

[Nadaka]

Education and Socioeconomic factors are also affected by diet. The human brain is a high performance engine, and if doesn't get enough high quality fuel it will choke and sputter.

[MonkeyHead]

So, idiots eat crap, which in turn makes you an idiot, so you eat more crap...

Feedback loop FTW.

[Truean]

Education and Socioeconomic factors are also affected by diet. The human brain is a high performance engine, and if doesn't get enough high quality fuel it will choke and sputter.

Wait, I've seen this movie

[MetalSlimeHunt]

District Court Judge and certified badass Lynn Hughes has actually read the US Constitution, and thus ruled that warrant-less mobile phone data tracking is unconstitutional.

Sweet jegus, look at that ruling. It's not even a full page long with all of the fluff included. Lynn Hughes for Supreme Court Justice!

[Truean]

District Court Judge and certified badass Lynn Hughes has actually read the US Constitution, and thus ruled that warrant-less mobile phone data tracking is unconstitutional.

Sweet jegus, look at that ruling. It's not even a full page long with all of the fluff included. Lynn Hughes for Supreme Court Justice!

Wow. That's actually quite awesome. Unfortunately, I'm unsure how well it will hold up on appeal, but I really really hope it does. I hope there is enough there to distinguish that from a pen register on a phone. A pen register is a thing the phone company has telling what calls you made and were received. I know the government can get those things easily because you "make them public" or some such crap. I truly wonder what her distinction was.

Once again this is stupid practically. Say the prosecution wants to use this to tag someone to a given location via the GPS in the phone or somesuch. Congrats, you've just created a booming economy selling alibis! Hey kids, wanna hang out at the mall for a few hours while I rob a store gets robbed? $10 to walk around the mall with my cell phone in your pocket, $40 to shut the hell up about it! You know you were gonna hang out there anyhow....

Instant alibi....

[Andir]

Education and Socioeconomic factors are also affected by diet. The human brain is a high performance engine, and if doesn't get enough high quality fuel it will choke and sputter.

Wait, I've seen this movie

I was thinking Idiocracy... the beginning (if I remember correctly) leads us to believe the world is satiated by junk food.

[ECrownofFire]

Meanwhile, in the wonderful public school system...

http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-transgender-student-suspended-for-using-wrong-bathroom-20111117,0,5958937.story

Poudre School District Board of Education President Nancy Tellez says the staff bathrooms provide an equal opportunity for transgender students to use any of the seven staff bathrooms spread throughout the school.

Sounds a little... familiar...

[Heron TSG]

Instant alibi....

There's already bribery and threats of violence for imaginary alibis, I don't think the phone thing will hurt much more than that already does.

[Sheb]

And anyway, it's easy to solve: just take off your phone batteries before doing anything bad, or leave it behind. It's already something we activists normally do.