It's time to just say no to junk food in schools

By Sen. TOM HARKINand Sen. LISA MURKOWSKI
KNIGHT RIDDER/TRIBUNE
Former President Bill Clinton and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee recently announced a voluntary agreement with the soft-drink industry to get sugary sodas out of America's schools. This is a positive breakthrough -- and good news for parents concerned about skyrocketing rates of childhood obesity and diabetes. However, this agreement only covers beverages. This means that school kids will continue to be inundated with other types of junk foods via vending machines and other in-school sources.
Obesity, poor nutrition and diet-related diseases are public health threats of the first order. According to the National Academy of Sciences, the obesity rate has doubled among preschoolers and adolescents and tripled for kids between ages 6 and 11 over the last three decades. For kids born today, it is estimated that 30 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls will develop diabetes. Many scientists are predicting that the current generation of children may well be the first in American history to live shorter lives than their parents, largely because of poor diets and diet-related chronic disease.
Advertising, marketing
Because of pervasive junk-food advertising and marketing, it is engrained in our kids, virtually from the cradle, to desire and demand foods high in sugar, fat, salt, and calories. But surely our public schools should be a sanctuary from this saturation junk-food culture. Schools should be a place where parents can be sure that their children are receiving wholesome, nutritious foods and beverages.
Once upon a time, this was the case. School children ate only nutritious lunches and breakfasts prescribed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But, over the decades, schools have increasingly provided a steady diet of junk food. In addition, USDA's authority to set school nutrition standards for all food sold at school has been dramatically reduced.
This is largely because of a decades-old court decision and subsequent congressional inaction. Because of this decision, the secretary of agriculture is virtually powerless to prevent vending machine and similar sales from canceling out the good nutrition in USDA-sponsored school meals. USDA can set standards for food sold in the cafeteria and during mealtime, but not for any other foods sold in schools.
A recent, eye-opening study tracked a group of fourth-graders, who ate only USDA-backed school lunches, as they went on to fifth grade, where they gained access to school vending machines, snack bars and other food sources. As fifth-graders, they consumed 33 percent less fruit, 42 percent less vegetables, and 35 percent less milk than they did the previous year as fourth-graders. Plus, they ate 68 percent more fried vegetables and drank 62 percent more soft drinks and other sweetened beverages.
Today, there are effectively no meaningful federal limitations on junk-food sales in school. This erodes the best efforts of parents, threatens the health of our kids, and undermines the nearly $10 billion in taxpayer dollars that we spend annually to reimburse healthy meals provided through the School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs.
Outdated nutrition standards
We are sponsoring the Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act. This bill would require USDA to update its outdated nutrition standards. And it would allow USDA to set standards for all foods sold in schools regardless of the time and place that they are provided. This means that, in addition to federally subsidized school meals, USDA could set appropriate standards for vending machines, snack bars, and other food sources.
Our bill would give legal force to the voluntary agreement announced by President Clinton. And in addition to applying to sugary sodas, it would set standards for all types of junk food now readily available in schools.
Sen. Tom Harkin is a Democrat from Iowa and Sen. Lisa Murkowski is a Republican from Alaska. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.