Harkin Introduces New Child Nutrition Bill

The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee held a hearing on child nutrition in schools. The purpose of the hearing was to allow members of the nutrition field to voice their opinions on the state of and future of nutrition programs. Panelists included:


> Ms. Janey Thornton, Child Nutrition Director for Hardin County School District;
> Ms. Teresa Nece, Director of Food and Nutrition at Des Moines Public Schools;
> Ms. Susan Neely, President and CEO of the American Beverage Association (ABA);
> Ms. Mary Lou Hennrich, Executive Director of the Community Health Partnership;
> Dr. Kelly Brownell, Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

The panelists referenced opportunities to improve nutrition in the Farm bill, which is up for reauthorization this year, but Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) went beyond that. He and other nutrition advocates believe that the growing issue of childhood obesity is problematic enough to warrant more immediate and significant action. According to Harkin, current federal regulations limiting the sale of junk food in schools are very narrow and have not been updated in almost 30 years, despite major changes in nutritional science during that time. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that, today, 99% of high schools, 97% of middle schools and 83% of elementary schools have vending machines, school stores or snack bars. The most common items sold out of school vending machines, school stores, and snack bars include soda and sports drinks, salty snacks, candy and high-fat baked goods.

To address the matter, Harkin used the hearing to unveil his new legislation on child nutrition. S. 771, the Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act of 2007, amends the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to improve the nutrition and health of school children by updating the definition of “food of minimal nutritional value” to conform to current nutritional science and to protect the Federal investment in the national school lunch and breakfast programs. Harkin has tried to pass similar legislation in previous sessions of Congress without success.

Harkin believes his bill will address antiquated standards and vending machines by requiring updated nutritional standards for all foods sold at school, and would apply those standards to all foods sold during the school day everywhere on schools grounds. However, food and vending industries, represented by lobbyists such as Neely, will likely lobby Congress to make sure that any new measure does not go too far in restricting what products can be sold in school vending machines.
Although no one verbally opposed the legislation, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) said he is worried schools will lose valuable income from vending machine and snack bar sales. Neely also mentioned other consequences of enacting policies that make serious cuts into the vending industry, citing that ABA’s members employ more than 211,000 people who produce U.S. sales in excess of $99 billion per year. According to American Economics Group, Inc., direct, indirect and induced employment in the beverage industry means over 3 million jobs that create $280 billion in economic activity. At the state and federal level, beverage industry firms pay more than $30 billion of business income taxes, personal income taxes, and other taxes with over $14 billion in taxes paid to state governments alone.

The fact is that no one is against child nutrition. The only worries come from fear of negative economic effects of regulating the food and vending industry. No Senator wants to be known as the person who is against healthy schools, but neither do they want to be held responsible for denying jobs and revenue to the food industry.
Harkin introduced a similar bill in the 109th Congress, but was unable to get the bill off the ground. With his own party in control of Congress, Harkin and his supporters are much more optimistic about passing the first real child nutrition measure in years. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) also introduced H.R. 1363 this week in the House, which is a companion to Harkin’s bill.

Resources:
Joseph S. Enoch, “Senate Eyes Stricter School Lunch Standards,” Consumer Affairs, March 6, 2007.
Author: SAS