Push Back on New School Lunches

Melissa Sandfort

Healthier school lunches, required for the first time this year, are getting some push back from students and teachers across the USA who say they are still hungry after eating the noon meal.

A new YouTube video parody, created by two teachers and some high school students in Kansas, has students singing We Are Hungry as they try to make it through the school day.

Other students from Massachusetts to South Dakota have spoken out about the new meals on websites and blogs, and some are brown-bagging it as a boycott to the healthier school meals. At the heart of the hoopla: New government nutrition standards, which went into effect this year in a bid to combat childhood obesity, require schools to serve more variety and larger portions of fruits and vegetables. And for the first time, there are limits on the calories that can be served at meals based on students’ ages. Plus, there are limits on the amounts of grains and proteins that can be served over the course of a week.

The standards raise the nutrition bar for the first time in more than 15 years. Schools must meet the standards to get federal meal reimbursements.

Moms out there – what do you think? I think kids need more protein and “good stuff” you can only get from meat, and the more vegetables you put on their plate, the more vegetables they can just throw away. And what about adding an extra 15 minutes onto the lunch hour so they have time to exercise? Either wolf down your food and get exercise or take your time and sacrifice exercise and now, protein. Let’s hear your thoughts, moms.

Agribusiness, Food, USDA

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

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    Zimfo Bytes

    Never Give Up

    Chuck Zimmerman

    The founder of the Rainforest Cafe, Steven Schussler, Schussler Creative, opened the new NAMA Fall Conference as keynote speaker. He was here to talk on “It’s a Jungle in There: Inspiring Lessons, Hard-Won Insights and Other Acts of Entrepreneurial Daring.” His is a great story. Steven is also the author of the bestselling book, “It’s a Jungle in There.”

    Steven visited with me before his presentation and was the first interview on my new iPhone 5! Just had to throw that in there.

    I asked him to give me one take away for NAMA members. He told me, “Never, ever, under any circumstances, ever give up.” Steven says it can take years to reach success and I can’t agree more.

    You can listen to my interview with Steve here: Interview with Steve Schussler

    2012 NAMA Fall Conference Photo Album

    Ag Groups, Audio, NAMA

    2012 NAMA Passing of the Gavel

    Chuck Zimmerman

    The NAMA Fall Conference is all about celebrating leadership. We got a dose of that this afternoon when we had the passing of the gavel from 2012 NAMA President, Beth Burgy, Broadhead, when she passed the gavel to 2013 NAMA President, Paul Redhage, FMC. Paul will actually take the reins in January but this new conference offered a great opportunity to showcase the transition. Paul welcomed all the “leaders” attending the new NAMA Fall Conference and recognized the new leaders and committee members who put together this new conference format. He says that if you wonder where the Fall Conference will be just look to whoever is President that year. Since Paul lives near St. Louis as a Gateway Chapter member it will be in St. Louis in 2013.

    After the passing of the gavel it was Paul’s turn to present Beth with a commemorative award for her term of service as President. I spoke with Beth about being President. She says that her whole career has been tied to her involvement with NAMA and she still hasn’t processed the fact that she has just served as the organization’s President. Congratulations to Beth for a great year as NAMA continues to grow.

    You can listen to my interview with Beth here: Interview with Beth Burgy

    2012 NAMA Fall Conference Photo Album

    Ag Groups, Audio, NAMA

    NAMA Board Meeting

    Chuck Zimmerman

    The board of the National Agri-Marketing Association is hard at work prior to the NAMA Fall Conference. We’ve got good attendance and are getting reports from all our chapters as well as conducting the business of the association.

    One of those items of business is the election of new officers and executive committee members for 2013. That has been done and here’s the slate:

    President – Paul Redhage (Gateway Chapter/FMC Agricultural Products)
    President-Elect – Kenna Rathai (Chicago Chapter/Kenna B. Rathai Communications)
    Secretary/Treasurer – Marvin Kokes (Rocky Mountain Chapter/NCBA)
    Vice President – Sheri Segar (Chicago Chapter/DTN/The Progressive Farmer)
    Vice President – Amy Bugg (MoKan Chapter/AdFarm)

    I’ll be posting a report on how this new Fall Conference has come together. It’s my understanding that we have significantly higher attendance than the last Fall Trends in Agriculture conference.

    I’ve got a photo album started which you can find here: 2012 NAMA Fall Conference Photo Album

    Ag Groups, NAMA

    More on AFBF Candidate Questionnaire

    Cindy Zimmerman

    Labor and estate tax are two areas where the two presidential candidates hold differing views in issues important to agriculture, according to results of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) questionnaire released yesterday.

    “If there’s an area where they diverge in their approach, it would be helping to solve agriculture’s labor shortage,” said Linda Johnson, AFBF Director of Policy Research. President Obama says a system to hire foreign workers should “only be used when U.S. workers are not available” while Governor Romney believes the “current system for issuing visas to temporary, seasonal workers is broken.”

    While both candidates agree the estate tax system needs reform, Linda says there was clear distinction between the two on how that should be done. “Romney said he would eliminate the estate tax as president,” she said. “Obama wants to return the top tax rate on estates to 45% but said he would reinstate the $7 million per couple tax exemption.”

    Listen to or download my interview with Linda about the questionnaire here: Linda Johnson, AFBF

    AFBF, Audio, politics

    New School Lunch Getting Failing Grades

    Cindy Zimmerman

    The bell had barely begun to ring in the new school year when complaints starting coming in about USDA’s “healthier” school lunch menu guidelines and the chorus is getting louder.

    The new guidelines feature lots more healthy fresh fruits and veggies, which is great, but they also cut the portion sizes and the amount of protein served to students, which is causing concerns among parents of student athletes who are coming home hungry at the end of the day. I was first alerted to the issue by Missouri agvocate, hog producer and blogger Chris Chinn in a post she wrote on August 20. Both of her children are involved in sports and were complaining about being hungry after school so she looked into the new changes and was not too happy with what she learned.

    I am in favor of kids eating healthy, and I think they should eat fruits and vegetables. What I don’t agree with though is their “one size fits all” style of feeding kids. According to the USDA meal pattern a kindergarten student who is 5 years old will receive the same amount of food as my 11 year old son who is in the 5th grade. I remember what my son ate as a kindergarten student, he didn’t eat very much. If he ate half of a peanut butter sandwich he was full. What really disturbed me was seeing that my high school student would only receive approximately 10-12 oz. of protein a week. No wonder she was starving when I picked her up. How is restricting her protein going to help nourish an athlete’s active body all day long until after games or practices? Not to mention meat promotes healthy brain development and contains zinc, iron, choline, and vitamin B, all essential for a healthy body.

    So I asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack about this during his press availability at the Farm Progress Show. “First of all, moms need to know that school districts have a lot of flexibility,” Vilsack said. “There are a number of menus that are available to schools and they get to choose from those menus and some menus have varying degrees of protein levels.”

    The issue appears to be a matter of cost. Fresh fruits and vegetables are often more expensive than lean protein. Less expensive protein sources like cheese, eggs and peanut butter are very restricted, if not eliminated, under the new guidelines. Therefore, even though the school lunch program is subsidized, school budgets are getting squeezed by the new guidelines. “That’s one of the reasons why we provided the first increase in school lunch reimbursement to schools in 30 years,” Vilsack said.

    The main reason for the changes is to try and curb childhood obesity, so the guidelines require schools set a maximum caloric level based on certain age brackets. The first age bracket, as Chris notes, is kindergarten to 5th grade. Details of the school lunch program are available from USDA on-line.

    Listen to or download Vilsack’s comments about the school lunch concerns here: Secretary Vilsack on School Lunch Concerns

    Audio, Food, USDA

    New Products from Monsanto

    Chuck Zimmerman

    During the recent Farm Progress Show Monsanto’s Crop Protection Marketing Lead, Steve Knodle (left), sat down with me to talk about what is new with Monsanto.

    Steve says there are a number of new announcements from Monsanto this fall. One of them is Warrant Herbicide for pre-emerge use in soybeans and cotton for residual weed control. He says that it is very important for farmers to consider using a pre-emerge product.

    Another announcement is the Monsanto Roundup Ready PLUS, Weed Manager PLUS mobile application. This is a tool for use in the field when making weed management decisions. You can find it in the Apple App Store and Google Play.

    Finally, Steve talked about Acceleron Seed Treatment that will offer a new generation fungicide for soybeans and cotton that will help avoid poor emergence and stand development due to fungal diseases.

    Listen to my interview with Steve to learn more about what’s new with Monsanto here: Interview with Steve Knodle

    2012 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

    AgWired coverage of the 2012 Farm Progress Show is sponsored by New Holland and Monsanto Roundup Ready Plus
    Agribusiness, Apps, Audio, Farm Progress Show, Seed, weed management

    E-marketplace Connecting Farmers

    Melissa Sandfort

    A new website recently launched, www.Sproutrade.com, is a U.S.-based niche e-marketplace to connect farmers, growers and agriculture companies in a similar way as they might through broad e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon. Essentially, it is a way for farmers, growers and agriculture companies to market their products directly to consumers and other companies, via an online platform.

    One of the primary advantages is that the site helps farmers, growers and agriculture companies create an online presence without the need for the creation of an individual website or e-commerce platform. Sproutrade.com takes care of all these details, and even provides each company with their own individual page within Sproutrade.

    Click here for more.

    Agribusiness, Farming, Internet

    Raven Introduces Envizio Pro XL

    Chuck Zimmerman

    The Envizio Pro XL is what was new with Raven at the Farm Progress Show. In the tent to show it off was Ryan Molitor, Marketing Manager. Ryan says the new display is larger and easier to use according to customers. The product can be used for all seasons of field work.

    The Envizio Pro XL will enhance a user’s experience through its brilliant, extra-large 10.4” color touchscreen display. It operates on the proven and reliable Envizio™ operating system which features language support for customers in the many global markets Raven serves, and growers will benefit from the simple-to-use interface, multi-product control and VRA capabilities. The Envizio Pro XL field computer is the perfect controller for Raven’s advanced product lineup such as Slingshot®, SmartYield™, SmarTrax™, OmniRow® or OmniSeed™.

    Listen to my interview with Ryan here: Interview with Ryan Molitor

    Don’t forget that you can get the Raven Product Guide App for you iPhone/iPad or Android device.

    2012 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

    AgWired coverage of the 2012 Farm Progress Show is sponsored by New Holland and Monsanto Roundup Ready Plus
    Agribusiness, Audio, Equipment, Precision Agriculture