This page was last updated on April 26, 2012.
Healthier meals a must; Unknown Vegan Advocacy Group; Beaver County Times; February 12, 2012.
When I wrote the original critique, as you’ll see below I noted “A quick Google search found this same letter tweaked by different ‘authors’ on … many other websites around the country [and] it’s fair to suspect it came from a vegetarian and/or vegan advocacy group.”
It appears the situation was worse than I thought. Not only did the named author apparently not write the letters (another letter is here), she did not submit them to the BCT. Here’s what the named author told me in an e-mail note: “I am a victim of identity theft and have been on the phone for two days with the BVT trying to get these letters permanently removed from the website. I did not know about either until a co-worker commented yesterday they saw ‘my’ letter posted online. I immediately called to find out where this letter came from. The person at the Times said it came in an email with something like ‘consciouseffort’ in the address. It had my name and address and a bogus phone number which he says he called and someone confirmed the letter was from me. He thought the number was a cell number but I investigated and found out that it is a land line in Chicago. When I called, I got a message in a man’s voice. … The message didn’t identify a person or group but just said ‘Leave a message and have a good meat-free day.’”
I confirmed the BCT removed the subject letters from its website. As a result, at the falsely-named author’s request I removed the critiques containing her name from The Bird’s Eye View, both on the website and on Facebook. I didn’t want this episode to be forgotten, however, so I re-published the critiques with the falsely-named author’s name removed. I have to wonder if any of the named authors of these spammed letters were authentic.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“I was delighted to read the new USDA guidelines requiring schools to serve meals with twice as many fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, less sodium and fat, and no meat for breakfast.”
[RWC] I’ll go out on a limb and guess [the named author] would not like readers to know she likely did not write this letter. A quick Google search found this same letter tweaked by different “authors” on FrederickNewsPost.com, BellinghamHerald.com, HonoluluWeekly.com, and many other websites around the country. I did not find the source of the form letter but it’s fair to suspect it came from a vegetarian and/or vegan advocacy group. Media outlets usually don’t like to publish form letters.
“The guidelines were mandated by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act signed by President Obama in December 2010 and will go into effect with the next school year.”
[RWC] The good news is the rule applies only to schools that choose to participate in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Program. As with other federal programs, schools don’t have to follow these rules if they don’t take federal taxpayer dollars. The 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution says, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved for the States respectively, or to the people.” The Constitution delegates no meal-content powers to the federal government. As a result, the federal government cannot mandate “USDA guidelines requiring schools to serve meals …” Schools and states don’t have to follow federal rules when they don’t accept federal taxpayer dollars.
“The new guidelines offer a welcome change from USDA’s tradition of using the National School Lunch Program as a dumping ground for meat and dairy surpluses. Not surprisingly, 90 percent of American children are consuming excess fat, only 15 percent eat recommended servings of fruits and vegetables, and one-third have become overweight or obese.”
[RWC] The letter failed to note the USDA estimates “the final rule is estimated to add $3.2 billion to school meal costs over 5 years.”
“These early dietary flaws become lifelong addictions, raising their risk of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
“In recent years, Hawaii, California, New York, and Florida legislatures asked their schools to offer daily vegetarian options, and most school districts now do. Baltimore’s public school system offers its 80,000 students a complete weekly break from meat.
“Parents should continue to insist on healthful plant-based school meals, snacks, and vending machine items.”
[RWC] Though readers probably figured it out by now, it appears [the named author] is a vegetarian or vegan and wants the feds to force her lifestyle choice on others.
© 2004-2012 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.