Give kids a healthy future

Dear friends,

More than 31 million children participate in the National School Lunch Program. Many consume as many as half their daily calories at school. Helping schools serve real food may be the most promising way to end child obesity - but it simply can't happen unless Congress invests in healthier food in the upcoming Child Nutrition Act.

Will you send an email to your legislators to help schools serve real food?

As an organization, Slow Food gets involved in policy when we see big problems with America's food system that can only be solved if citizens speak up. Teaching children to make good food choices will require hard work from parents, schools, non-profits, the private sector and government. But an enormously important step is to ensure that the National School Lunch Program isn't undermining those efforts, and is instead serving kids the healthy food they need to grow up into able, productive adults.

On a conference call this week, USDA Secretary Vilsack said that the most important thing citizens can do to get healthier food into their local schools is to urge Congress to pass a strong Child Nutrition Act. This issue has broad public support, he said, but it isn't appearing in the national media - so we need to make sure Congress gets the message.

That's where you come in. Now that Michelle Obama is leading the charge, Congress will begin updating the Child Nutrition Act this month. If legislators hear support from citizens back home, they'll have the opportunity to invest in healthier food, strengthen nutrition standards, and equip schools to buy local and cook meals from scratch.

So please take a minute to email your legislators today.

Thank you,

Gordon Jenkins
Advocacy Manager
Slow Food USA

Another Argument for Team Vegetarian: The Kids Are Doing It

I’m always looking for new reasons to argue for the benefits of a vegetarian diet. This latest bit is less convincing than, say, “it lowers your risk of heart disease by 60%.” But still, it’s encouraging to those who care about such things, that more American kids than ever are turning away from meat. One in 200, in fact. It’s certainly something. And yet global meat consumption is growing at a rate of 2% a year, with traditionally vegetarian countries mimicking our not-so-awesome eating habits, to not-so-awesome results.

So let’s review some of the better arguments for vegetarianism, shall we? Obviously, eating a mostly vegetarian diet isn’t always convenient. It can be limiting, especially if you consider yourself, as I do, a foodie. It also doesn’t always make you the best dinner guest, and can change social rituals a little bit (I love nothing more than a four-hour dinner of shared everything). But to me, the benefits outsize the compromises.

For those unmoved by such things, consider the most persuasive and high-stakes argument of them all: The UN report which found that cattle rearing produces more greenhouse gasses than the transportation industry. That means that cutting down on your meat intake will actually do more for the environment than trading in your SUV.Again in September, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pleaded with people the world over to at the very least curb their meat intake. Their one-meat-free-day-a-week suggestion was a little on the light side if you ask me, but it was something. Baby steps, right? The report doesn’t seem to have reduced meat consumption, though. Probably because altering our diet seems to be the one leap that otherwise environmentally conscious people want to make. Or is it?

Lately there’s been a rash of stories, columns and fun facts bringing vegetarianism back into the discussion. There are columnists like this, who say “not everyone can make the leap to full-fledged vegetarian,” but contemplates the limits of her “flexitarian” diet. Then there is this: the latest in the meat-eater-goes-veg magazine story. (We ran our own a while back—hilariously told by Justin Droms.) So we’ll see if the debate takes up more or less space in the coming months.In the mean time, there’s always the Lettuce Ladies.

via good.is