This article appeared in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal. It seems that this administration is now at war with the potato. Yes, you read that correctly.
The Department of Agriculture (whose side are they on?) is preparing a new regulation that would virtually eliminate the white potato from school breakfasts and lunches. I suppose they can do that as, it is the Department of Agriculture that subsidizes those programs.
Apparently the USDA has discovered that white potatoes contain starch, and I can only assume from their proposal that starch is bad.
I’ll bet you didn’t know this.
Last year, the government said participants in the USDA’s program for low-income pregnant women and their children couldn’t use federal money to buy white potatoes. The Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, made the recommendation, arguing most people already eat enough potatoes and should be encouraged to eat other vegetables.
So, apparently, the frontal assault on potatoes has been in motion for a while.
This has greatly upset the folks in Maine, a state whose farmers grow a lot of potatoes. So much so, that,
[at] a March Senate hearing on the USDA budget, Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) hoisted a standard-fare brown-skinned spud in one hand and, in the other, a head of iceberg lettuce, which hasn’t come under explicit federal scrutiny. One medium white potato contains nearly twice the vitamin C “as this entire head,” she said, asking: ‘So my question, Mr. Secretary, is what does the department have against potatoes?’
In any event, here is the plan.
Under the USDA proposal, school cafeterias would have to limit starchy vegetables such as potatoes, … to a total of one cup per week for lunch. [emphasis supplied]
The white potato should feel no discrimination, however. The other vegetables under the “starchy one cup per week limit” are peas, lima beans and corn. I doubt your eight year old will miss the peas and the lima beans. And, as far as the corn is concerned, “Big Ethanol” will be happy to use it to further corrode your car’s fuel system.
Well, maybe all isn’t lost, after all.
Can anyone read the above and conclude that this isn’t an administration run amok?
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Is nothing sacred?
What next – apple pie?
I can see it now: The Government’s answer to rising food costs will be a list of which items to cut from your food budget first.
- Without mashed potatoes, where will they put the saltpeter?
Look on the bright side: The price of vodka made from potatoes may go down….. .
Those Mainiacs will not be liking this at all. He won’t be winning all those votes from them.
This is one screwed up federal government! The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. Potatoes? Give me a break! What’ll be next week, banana cream pie?
The votes of people who eat potatoes should not count as much as the votes of those who don’t.
Hummmm….Seems as though someone wants a glut of potatoes perhaps to provide an alternative power source? I mean, who hasn’t made a potato battery in 7th grade science class?
Yes, I’m sure that Doris the Lunchlady is going to measure out one cup/week/child. They’re basically banning white potatoes in schools. The “one cup/week” was just an attempt to keep potato farmers from stroking over this legislation.
I’m so grateful to this administration for tackling the really important issues facing this country.
p.s. Remember the flack that President George H.W. Bush took when he simply stated that he does not “like” broccoli? People went nuts–and he wasn’t trying to ban it through legislation. Seriously…this all just has to be a joke, right?
No Winnie ,we will all have to move to Idaho soon.
French fried arugula tastes like crap.
I wonder if those ribs etc. they served at the White House for that football game count as “good food”?
What are the Irish to do!
This is one irishman thats not putting up with it. I went out this morning and had some eggs and taters.
An Irish seven course meal is not a six pack and a cucumber. Guess I’ll just have the six pack.
Isn’t that how they dole out the rice rations in Cuba?
Big Brother run amok!! Did anyone see the great interview today with Cavuto versus some idiot that compared Ronald McDonald to Joe Camel? Hilarious!! On a recent trip to Citi Field, the concession stands post the calorie counts of ballpark food……. the guys & gals that sell the crackerjacks & other crap have 2 buttons attached, the price & the calorie count… does anyone think that this type of Nanny gov solves the problem of obesity? at a freaking baseball game?
You are correct WAG.. Starch is the part of corn (and potatoes) that is converted to alcohol and added to our gasoline to reduce mileage and ruin engines.
Food is a racist issue. There is an inherent “food police” averison to anything white, except milk, which, in the form mass-marketed to Americans, is a food for baby cows.
White flour, white rice, white potatoes, etc. The Food Police scream these are bad.
Historically, white bread was a prestige item considered easier to digest in many cultures. A little true research shows why.
Read nutritionists like Sally Fallon. Actually, processed grains are easier to digest. The whole grains are kind of rough. Our ancestors soften wholed grains and beans in water for hours and/or mixed with something acidic like yogurt or vinegar. The process makes them more digestible.
White potatoes are not a processed, bleached food anyway, and don’t need soaking. The Incas ate a lot of them. Potatoes as exist in nature are mildy toxic and do need to be cooked to be made digestible.
When the potato was introduced to Europe, it was discovered that its particles were less likely to cause tooth decay than whole grains. That’s common sense. The potato is softer than tiny rough grains like whole wheat.
Limiting consumption of potatoes is absurd and ignorant!