I am all for entrepreneurship, but shouldn’t all brands in the beverage industry, in an effort to show our industry the integrity it deserves, lead by example. It is important the beverage industry put aside our differences and stand together when it comes to the welfare of our children.

So, if a product like Steaz sparkling green tea – which is going to be sold in schools starting in Senator Tom Harkin’s Iowa – has carbonation and added cane sugar, how can the beverage industry effect this the government’s decisions?

Do we really want to bring government ratings in to our industry because we could not police ourselves? This will happen if we are not careful.

Here’s a teaser: “Sublime in its simplicity, compelling in its story, Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has succinctly summed up the USDA nutrition guidelines as gobbledygook by dramatizing the absurdity of what is considered ‘junk food’ in schools. 5 questions. No big time zap. It’s a fabulous digital media use, worthy of a few “forward to a friend” challenges, among kids AND adults! C’mon, try it…you’ll LOVE this quiz.”

They’re clearly doing the bait-n-switch from sodas to sports drinks w/the bev. contract giants.

Also, re: we have an interview with the CEO of YoNaturals (a vending machine company trying to replace crud with healthier options in fitness facilities and such) posting in the next few days too, fyi.

Ironically, they’re NOT targeting schools at all, but I kinda wish they COULD to compete against the giants and get better content! They’re focusing on corp. lunchrooms and such to raise the bar…so I guess it’s less the ‘machine’ as the ‘content’ oui?

Also, thanks for the link as a ‘child advocate,’ in this post, though I clearly am, I suppose sometimes my rants sound a bit more like your lil’ Fumin’ Fuji’ guy, eh? Best, Amy

The used the money for a field house… but at the time the students were really upset because of course their opinion wasn’t asked.

Time has a way of messing with our memory but I sure remember my school lunches (early 60s Catholic school)as being a lot more nutritious. I even remember having to use the old “stuff the broccoli in the milk carton” trick so I could throw the stuff away without being spotted by Sister Mary Aquinas!! On the down side, however, I do remember getting 12 cents a day to take to school. That way I could buy a Coke at “little recess” and another at “big recess.” Some things haven’t changed.

This sounds ominously like the personal responsibility and choice arguments spun by food and beverage companies and restaurant associations. You can educate kids about good food all you want, but teenagers are teenagers. When they mob into Kroger’s at lunchtime, only the superdieting girls are going to head for the salad bar. Think about what you ate as a teenager and a college student. Even if I had known then what I know now about nutrition, I still would have guzzled cans of diet soda and noshed on pizza, sandwiches, and chips. I watched calories and clothing sizes, but I did not watch nutrition. Young people think they’re Peter Pans and cannot be bothered to read the backside of the box of granola bars to see if they contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. The personal responsibility/choice argument is perfect for food manufacturers and restaurants because a) they can peddle their poisons unrestricted and b) it doesn’t work – nutrition professor Dr. Marion Nestle admitted in her book “What to Eat” that as a working mom, she sometimes gave in to her kids in the grocery store and let them put snack foods in the cart because she was too tired to argue. Her book details all the insideous marketing strategies food companies use to get their products into your kitchens.

And think about this – more than 90% of the $25 billion in farm subsidies supports just five crops: wheat, cotton, corn, soybeans, and rice. These subsidies keep processed food and factory farm meat prices artificially low; meanwhile, we must pay full price for fresh produce and sustainably farmed meats and milk. Personal responsibility and choice, my a**.

“I agree that it’s not necessarily the fault of the manufacturers, eating well begins at home and most kids eat junk at home, too. “

I don’t have the link right now, but I recall reading a news story this summer claiming that kids actually ate less nutritiously at home than at school. This makes sense because school lunches, as awful as they are, must meeet federal nutrition guidelines. Parents, on the other hand, can serve whatever they like or can afford.

As long as high school kids are allowed to leave campus at lunchtime, there isn’t much we can do to improve what they eat, but middle and elementary school kids are captive customers. Since cafeterias don’t have to compete with fast food, there’s no excuse not to serve nutritous, wholesome foods.