WASHINGTON — The latest food fight in Washington gets a spot on the main menu today as a vote is expected in the House on a bill that would curb how far the USDA can go in setting new guidelines for what goes in school lunches.
But some of the biggest opponents of the bill don’t seem to have their facts straight, The Daily has learned.
Corey Henry, vice president of communications at the American Frozen Food Institute, the major lobbying firm fighting the proposed new rules, said yesterday his group was upset that the USDA didn’t follow nutrition guidelines previously recommended by the Institute of Medicine.
“What the USDA would have done is introduced a very tight restriction that would have limited [schools’] ability to serve starchy vegetables to one cup, per student, per week,” said Henry.
“They’re supposed to look to the Institute of Medicine for recommendations. The IOM was not recommending that the school meal standard include a one-cup per student restriction on the use of starchy vegetables, so we don’t know where they got that recommendation. That is not an IOM-endorsed recommendation,” Henry told The Daily. “The USDA was not following the directions it was given by Congress.”
But when The Daily looked into the matter, Henry’s claim was half-baked.
Back in January, the USDA set about to update nutrition standards for school lunches based on the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010,” which was unanimously approved in the Senate and sailed through the House by a wide margin.
That legislation stated that the USDA was supposed to come up with new guidelines based on findings by the institute, which studied this issue for more than a year and a half and released a report in 2009.
Upon reviewing the report, however, The Daily found that the Institute of Medicine did indeed recommend one cup of starchy vegetables per week for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, which is the same as the USDA’s proposal, and contradicts Henry’s claim that the USDA had exceeded its reach in this matter.
When The Daily called Henry back, he insisted, “The IOM does not recommend starchy vegetable consumption for students to one cup per week, so the USDA is introducing a standard that is far more restrictive than any recommended by the Institute of Medicine.”
The Daily pointed out that this conflicted with the institute’s own report and Henry responded: “Our understanding is that the USDA is out of line with it and that is a point that has resonated for sometime now … It’s information that has been provided to me by various sources that’s been discussed here for some time.”
When asked whether the American Frozen Food Institute would change it’s position now, Henry said: “We certainly would not change our position.”
What isn’t certain is how many legislators may have been swayed by the frozen food institute’s faulty fact checking.
Henry later claimed he “misspoke” about the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation on starchy vegetables, but pointed out that his organization still questions the USDA’s recommendations on how to classify tomato paste, which would affect how much pizza can be served in kids’ lunches, since this guideline, he said, is not presented in the IOM’s report.
“USDA remains committed to practical, science-based standards for school meals as recommended by the IOM,” Aaron Lavallee, a spokesman for the USDA, told The Daily.
Given the partisanship that has divided Congress, one of the surprising things with this issue is that the opposition to these guidelines has not been drawn along party lines. Both Sens. Mark Udall, D-Colo., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, for example, have come out against the changes. Both senators come from major potato-producing states.
Instead, the battle lines seem to be drawn between the food industry and its lobbyists on one side and the USDA and nutritionists on the other.
“It’s shameful that Congress is more interested in protecting industry than protecting children’s health,” said Dr. Margo Wootan, the director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
But some of the biggest opponents of the bill don’t seem to have their facts straight, The Daily has learned.
Corey Henry, vice president of communications at the American Frozen Food Institute, the major lobbying firm fighting the proposed new rules, said yesterday his group was upset that the USDA didn’t follow nutrition guidelines previously recommended by the Institute of Medicine.
“What the USDA would have done is introduced a very tight restriction that would have limited [schools’] ability to serve starchy vegetables to one cup, per student, per week,” said Henry.
“They’re supposed to look to the Institute of Medicine for recommendations. The IOM was not recommending that the school meal standard include a one-cup per student restriction on the use of starchy vegetables, so we don’t know where they got that recommendation. That is not an IOM-endorsed recommendation,” Henry told The Daily. “The USDA was not following the directions it was given by Congress.”
But when The Daily looked into the matter, Henry’s claim was half-baked.
Back in January, the USDA set about to update nutrition standards for school lunches based on the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010,” which was unanimously approved in the Senate and sailed through the House by a wide margin.
That legislation stated that the USDA was supposed to come up with new guidelines based on findings by the institute, which studied this issue for more than a year and a half and released a report in 2009.
Upon reviewing the report, however, The Daily found that the Institute of Medicine did indeed recommend one cup of starchy vegetables per week for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, which is the same as the USDA’s proposal, and contradicts Henry’s claim that the USDA had exceeded its reach in this matter.
When The Daily called Henry back, he insisted, “The IOM does not recommend starchy vegetable consumption for students to one cup per week, so the USDA is introducing a standard that is far more restrictive than any recommended by the Institute of Medicine.”
The Daily pointed out that this conflicted with the institute’s own report and Henry responded: “Our understanding is that the USDA is out of line with it and that is a point that has resonated for sometime now … It’s information that has been provided to me by various sources that’s been discussed here for some time.”
When asked whether the American Frozen Food Institute would change it’s position now, Henry said: “We certainly would not change our position.”
What isn’t certain is how many legislators may have been swayed by the frozen food institute’s faulty fact checking.
Henry later claimed he “misspoke” about the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation on starchy vegetables, but pointed out that his organization still questions the USDA’s recommendations on how to classify tomato paste, which would affect how much pizza can be served in kids’ lunches, since this guideline, he said, is not presented in the IOM’s report.
“USDA remains committed to practical, science-based standards for school meals as recommended by the IOM,” Aaron Lavallee, a spokesman for the USDA, told The Daily.
Given the partisanship that has divided Congress, one of the surprising things with this issue is that the opposition to these guidelines has not been drawn along party lines. Both Sens. Mark Udall, D-Colo., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, for example, have come out against the changes. Both senators come from major potato-producing states.
Instead, the battle lines seem to be drawn between the food industry and its lobbyists on one side and the USDA and nutritionists on the other.
“It’s shameful that Congress is more interested in protecting industry than protecting children’s health,” said Dr. Margo Wootan, the director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
