MRMX says:

September 26th, 2007 at 9:48 am

“So what do greasy school lunches have to do with Craig, who is trying to have his guilty plea overturned.”

In my opinion, the ad is effective regardless of whether craig legalistically becomes unguilty or not.

like many americans, I wonder why schools, who have classes about nutrition, often fail miserably at providing menus that even come close to what they teach. so it must be “what happens behind closed doors” that’s responsible.

LaurenB says:

September 26th, 2007 at 11:32 am

Great ad! It’s about time for someone to expose the dirty relationship between agribusiness PAC money and senators who draft the Farm Bill. One detail this ad doesn’t mention is that Tyson Foods, the nation’s largest meat producer, scored $46.6 million in USDA commodity contracts, according to 2005 figures. Meanwhile, less than half of one percent of subsidies went into fruit and vegetable production. As cheap, unhealthy foods are then dumped on schools contributing to childhood obesity; it’s certainly no secret that Congress has run pathetically awry.

MRMX says:

September 26th, 2007 at 11:55 am

“There’s no conspiracy involved.”

the conspiracy (“to act in harmony toward a common end”) is to save money at the expense of keeping children healthy. the rise in diabetes suggests that many children aren’t as lucky as you’re children.

http://m-w.com/dictionary/conspire

Mark the sequel says:

September 26th, 2007 at 1:32 pm

MRMX,

Who’s going to pay for the arugula? The school districts? They have enough trouble paying for textbooks.

Children generally eat one meal a day at school, about 180 days a year. The other two meals matter just as much, if not more. To say nothing of the snacks they eat, the lack of exercise they get, etc., etc. You could serve the best, most nutritious school lunches imaginable, with the finest, healthiest, most pristinely organic veggies, and two things would happen -

1) Half the stuff would end up in the dumpster, because the kids wouldn’t eat it; and

2) The health of the children in question would not improve in any significant way.

Jay says:

September 26th, 2007 at 4:50 pm

as this is already kind of a managerie of various topics, I’d point out to Bill, Mark, et al. that Friday’s Wall Street Journay had an article discussing the increasing supply of ethanol and biofuels being the main reason prices at the pump have not reflected the recent increases in cost of petroleum. US renewable fuels (and the cursed Farm Bill that sparked/subsidized that movement) are apparently creating enough of a supply that it is actually helping to offset escalating “foreign oil” prices.

Mark the sequel says:

September 27th, 2007 at 9:48 am

Jay asks,

Do they still have gym class? Recess?

I can only speak for the schools in the Mounds View district (621). The answer to both questions is yes.

Jay also mentions a WSJ article. I, like bsimon, would like to see that article, too. My understanding is that gas prices have been steady or declining because of what’s happening at the refineries generally (summer restrictions going away, etc.) and not because of ethanol, although it may be a factor.

Jay says:

September 27th, 2007 at 10:51 am

I couldn’t link to it for some reason, but I cut and pasted an exerpt. The jist of the article is regarding a potential rise in prices at the pump, but spends some time pointing toward ethanol as a reason why we haven’t seen those increases already. Its a pretty short article….700+ words or so.

“Another reason for steady gasoline prices: the use of ethanol as an additive to gasoline is on the rise.

“While crude prices have soared, ethanol prices have dropped as much as 30% in recent months and are likely to drop more, Eitan Bernstein, an analyst with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., said in a report yesterday.

“Ethanol costs more than 60 cents a gallon less than gasoline, and gasoline suppliers can offset some of the rise in crude-oil prices by blending their gasoline with small amounts of the cheaper fuel.”

bsimon says:

September 27th, 2007 at 12:17 pm

I searched for “Another reason for steady gasoline prices” and came up with some kind of grain newsletter that was referencing the WSJ article. It also had a link, but only the first couple paragraphs are available without a subscription.