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The USDA announces its revised school meal rules, in words that would make George Orwell proud:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today provided local food service professionals the flexibility they need to serve wholesome, nutritious, and tasty meals in schools across the nation. The new School Meal Flexibility Rule…reflects USDA’s commitment, made in a May proclamation to work with program operators, school nutrition professionals, industry, and other stakeholders to develop forward-thinking strategies to ensure school nutrition standards are both healthful and practical…This action reflects a key initiative of USDA’s Regulatory Reform Agenda, developed in response to the President’s Executive Order to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens.

Try and get your head around this.  The revised rules make school meals less nutritious.  They allow schools to:

• Serve flavored rather than plain low-fat milk (higher in sugar)
• Be exempt from serving whole grain-rich products.
• Have until the end of the 2020-2021 school year to reduce the salt in school meals.

This rule will be in effect for SY 2018-2019. USDA is accepting public comments for longer term use at www.regulations.gov.

I will never understand why adults would lobby to make school meals less healthful, but here is the School Nutrition Association praising the changes.  The Association cites survey data indicating that 65 percent of school districts are having trouble with whole grains and 92 percent with sodium requirements.

I love Margo Wootan’s quote (she is director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest):

The proposal is a hammer in search of a nail…Virtually 100 percent of schools are already complying with the final nutrition standards, including the first phase of sodium reduction.

Here are:

• USDA’s press release
• CSPI’s press statement
• American Heart Association’s press release

The USDA has just updated its agricultural statistics charts.

Some of the charts deal with trade issues.  I thought this one was especially interesting.

We (or farm animals) consume most of some commodities (pork, corn, beef).  Others are mainly for export (cotton, almonds,).

This is why trade matters to much to U.S. agriculture.

Belgium has produced a new food guide “pyramid,” upside down.  Its advice:

• Drink water
• Eat more fruits, vegetables, and grains
• Eat less dairy and meat, particularly those high in fat
• Eat a lot less junk food, sugary drinks, and alcohol

Nothing new here, really, except for making the advice so graphically clear.

As Quartz puts it, “the new food pyramid in Belgium sticks meat next to candy and pizza.”

USDA: take note.

International

For the past few weeks I’ve been collecting reports on food security.  I’ve already posted the most recent report on worldwide trends (not good) from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Here are two more on global trends:

• Progress and Challenges in Global Food Security: USDA/ERS researchers analyze the roles of trade, agricultural productivity, safety nets, and better data and measurement in achieving achieving gains in global food security.
• The World Food Crisis: The Way Out (2017/10th Anniversary Issue).  This comes from Right to Food and Nutrition Watch and includes their reports from the last 10 years.

In an editorial triggered by the FAO report, The Lancet announces a major effort to address global food security:

In 2018, The Lancet will launch four food-related initiatives: the EAT-Lancet Commission, the LancetObesity Commission, a Series on health and agriculture, and a Series on the double burden of malnutrition. Each of these projects will reinforce a different aspect of the global call for equitable and sustainable provision of food to be a priority: recommending how policy makers approach food systems inclusive of health, cultural respect, agriculture, production, transport, trade, and retailing.

U.S. Domestic

In the meantime, food security remains a significant issue in the U.S., as indicated by this collection of recent reports, mostly from USDA:

• Food Security in the U.S.: Food security—access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life—is one requirement for a healthy, well-nourished population. ERS plays a leading role in Federal research on food security in U.S. households and communities.
• Food Security in the United States: This product provides information about publicly available data from national surveys that include the U.S. Food Security Survey Module. Technical information is provided to facilitate appropriate use of the data, and links are provided to access data on line or to order the data files on CD-ROM.
• Household Food Security in the United States in 2016: An estimated 12.3 percent of American households were food insecure at some time during the year in 2016, lacking access to enough food for an active, healthy life for all their members; essentially unchanged from 12.7 percent in 2015.
• Statistical Supplement to Household Food Security in the United States in 2016:  This is the statistical supplement for USDA’s annual report on households’ access to adequate food for active, healthy living.
• Food Insecurity, Chronic Disease, and Health Among Working-Age Adults: Lower food security is associated with higher probability of 10 chronic diseases (e.g., diabetes, cancer) and is more strongly predictive of chronic illnesses than income in some cases.  In some cases, food insecurity is more closely related to chronic disease, than is income.
• Understanding the Prevalence, Severity, and Distribution of Food Insecurity in the United States  
• PBS News Hour Twitter Chat titled “What it means to be hungry in America:  ERS tweeted responses to questions from News Hour and shared links to ERS research. You can find a summary of that Twitter Chat here.
• The Effects of Energy Price Shocks on Household Food Security in Low-Income Households: This study shows that an unexpected rise in the prices of gasoline, natural gas, and electricity increases the probability of food insecurity and other food access problems, while an unexpected drop in the price of each energy source decreases the probability. Low-income households are more vulnerable to energy price shocks than households with higher incomes.  An Amber Waves magazine article was published in conjunction with this report.
• USDA’s National School Lunch Program Reduces Food Insecurity 
• Adults With Disabilities, Especially Mental Health Disabilities, Are at a Higher Risk for Food Insecurity

USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue says this about our new “trade breakthrough” with China:

The  point of US trade policy is to have open markets for our products.  USDA has a quick summary of our current balance of trade.  We are doing pretty well with it.

And here’s why:

Hence: Selling beef to China should up those numbers.

The Association of Public Land-Grant Universities has just released a report titled “Challenge of Change” about how the USDA can do a better job of funding research to solve important problems in food and agriculture.

The challenge:

 

Traditionally, the effort to achieve food security has been largely focused on the need to increase yields in order to produce more food. There is now broad recognition that production alone will not solve the grand challenge. All aspects of our food systems must be considered: nutrition, food safety, food loss, economic costs, individual behaviors, incentive structures, and societal factors affect not only production, but also access and utilization. There is also now an understanding that production increases must be achieved in the context of water availability, energy limitations, and environmental impact.

The report concludes that universities will need to change, so as to:

• Elevate Food and Nutrition Security to a Top Priority
• Align University Resources and Structures for Transdisciplinary Approaches
• Enhance and Build University-Community Partnerships
• Educate a New Generation of Students to be Transdisciplinary Problem Solvers

To achieve food security, food and agriculture will need to change to:

• Broaden the Focus Beyond Yields
• Change the Food System’s Incentive Structure
• Develop the Capacity of Universities in Low-Income Countries
• Leverage Technology, Big Data, and Information Science Information

This is an important report because it comes from land-grant universities .  These are currently responsible for supporting industrial agricultural systems and virtually ignoring—or firmly opposing—sustainable agricultural production methods.

A challenge for change indeed.  I hope land-grant universities listen hard.

USDA’s charts make it easy to understand basic aspects of farming in the United States.  This one covers about 175 years of American history.   The number of farms fell fast after the end of World War II and is still declining, while the size of farms increased.

Where are the jobs in the food and agriculture industries?  Mostly in food and beverage service and stores.

Farming?  A mere 1.4%.

I’m indebted to Jerry Hagstrom’s Hagstrom Report for letting me know about USDA’s new reorganization plan.

We get to file comments on the reorganization.

Now is our chance to tell this administration how important USDA agencies are and why they need to be strengthened.

Reading through the list makes me realize how many of USDA’s agencies do work that I admire and use frequently.

Reform?  Yes!

Ask for more resources for all of them!

Research

• Agricultural Research Service
• Economic Research Service
• National Agricultural Library
• National Agriculture Statistics Service

Education

• Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion

Food assistance and school meals

• Food and Nutrition Service

Food safety

• Food Safety and Inspection Service

Here are the relevant documents.  Let’s look at this as an opportunity to protect and strengthen these critically important agencies.

• USDA — Reforming USDA
• White House — Reorganizing the Executive Branch –We Need Your Input
• USDA — Report to Congress: Proposed 2017 Reorganization of USDA
• Secretary’s letter to Senate Agriculture Committee
• Secretary’s Memorandum: Advancing U.S. Agricultural Trade and Improving Service to Agricultural Producers
• Video: Secretary Perdue Announces Creation of Undersecretary for Trade and USDA Reorganization
• The Wall Street Journal — “Farmers Know the Benefits of Trade” column by Sonny Perdue

Addition: A reader writes: “Meanwhile in Iowa the legislature voted to eliminate the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. Governor Bransted did a line item veto and saved it sort of. Looks like it can live on in name only.  And the top scientist at the USDA probably won’t be a scientist.”