Ri-Freaking-diculous

      I'm not a big proponent of the Occupy Wall Street movement. I generally support their cause, but, quite frankly, I don't have time for a new cause right now and I sure as heck don't have time to sleep in a park.

      But today, my interests are completely overlapping with those of Occupy.  And if you don't really "get" what the Occupy movement is all about, this is a perfect demonstration.

      The USDA recently published new guidelines requiring school lunches to include more fresh vegetables and fruits and fewer processed foods.  Sounds great, right?  Who WOULDN'T want that? 

      The makers of the processed crap foods that had been going into school lunches before.  Namely, ConAgra and Schwan.  These companies turn a big profit off stuffing our children with their cheap processed crap, and they're not about to give that up.  They don't really need to worry about that, though, because they have the one thing that truly matters. Money.

      Sadly, these days in the US, he who controls the money controls pretty much everything.  See, a politician can't get arrested without money and support from lobbyists.  And the division of wealth in out country has fractured so badly that the vast, vast majority of the money and power is controlled by very, very few. And if politicians want to get elected and stay in office, they have to toe the line of what the big bucks say.

      Don't believe me?

       Immediately following the publishing of the USDA's new guidelines, ConAgra and Schwan - two of the largest producers of processed crap for school lunches -  started leaning on Congress. Hard.  Then, a day or two ago, Congress did one of the most effing ridiculous things they've done in a while: They actually stated that processed, frozen pizza IS A VEGETABLE. 

      That's right, folks.  No need to worry about nutrition any longer!   Forget biology, nutritional science, and reality itself.  As it turns out, turning processed junk into health food is simply a matter of a vote.  And who the heck cares about diabetic school kids?  So long as the big corps get their greenbacks and the politicians in their pockets stay seated comfortably in Congress, everything will be ooook.

       I'm so freaking annoyed about this. The USDA guidelines were finally a much needed step in the right direction, only to be thrown right the heck back by something so effing ridiculous I can hardly believe it happened.  I am ashamed in the eyes of the world today and very saddened for our children.

      The old phrase goes, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." 

      Clearly.

      But I've always felt the need to add something along the lines of, "If you're outraged but not acting, you're a hypocrite."

      I will be looking up exactly which members of Congress voted on this idiocy.

      I am almost at a complete loss. This is just so nonsensical and stupid I could scream. Think I'm overreacting? Think pizza has enough veggies in it to meet nutritional requirements? Sure, maybe a homemade veggie pizza. But NOT the crap Congress was talking about. Just look at the list of ingredients. I'm not sure that even qualifies as food, let alone a vegetable. Pizza is a vegetable. And arguing over who got the bigger slice is math.

      So there's my little vent for the day.

Ef.

Read the Daily Mail article on this topic.

Finally, I'm thinking maybe this should have been posted under one of my subheadings.  What do you think?  Should this have gone under Ethical Eating or Recipes and Nutritional Information?