Proposed legislation targets school vending machines

Tuesday May 5, 2009 (foodconsumer.org) -- While the nation is currently focused on the current flu pandemic, another epidemic has been touted by the Obama administration as a national health risk: obesity.

Senator Tom Harkin (D) of Iowa has co-authored a bill with Senator Lisa Murkowski (R) of Alaska that would monitor the quality of snack foods that are offered in school vending machines. According to Harkin, 32% of school children are overweight, while 16% are considered obese. The bill would seek to curtail the rising obesity trend by allowing the US Department of Agriculture to establish rules regarding vending machines. Citing research that states that obesity contributes to a plethora of chronic diseases, the senators are urging the federal government to step in and take preventive action.

Critics of the bill, such as Reginald Felton of the National School Board Association, believe that the federal government is overstepping its jurisdiction by interfering with what some believe is a state and local issue. He is quoted in Consumer Affairs as saying that if state and local governments feel the need to restrict offerings on school campuses, then they should feel free to do so, without a federal mandate pushing the issue.

Some states are handling the crisis on their own. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and his state legislature removed all junk food from school vending machines in 2006, replacing it with juice, milk, and healthy snack foods. Huckabee, author of “Quit Digging Your Grave with Your Knife and Fork,” lost 100 pounds after being diagnosed in 2003 with Type II diabetes due to his weight. Arkansas also calculates the BMI of every student in an effort to keep parents and teachers on top of the problem.

This is not Senator Harkin’s first attempt to pass this type of legislation in Congress. In 2006, he coauthored the “Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act of 2006,” which stalled as Congress recessed.

(By Rachel Stockton, and edited by Heather Kelley)