Sid Miller rebukes Food Nazis

"For each one shall bear his own load."
Galatians 6:5

One small step to rollback central planning:

Within the next couple of months, the Texas Department of Agriculture could be poised to repeal a state policy that bans deep fat fryers and soda machines on school campuses and places limits on the time and place that junk food can be sold there. In addition, Miller is proposing an increase in the number of allowed fundraiser days – when cupcakes and other sugary, fatty foods can be sold during the school day – from one to six per school year.

His critics are calling foul, saying that Miller's actions are counterproductive in a state struggling to contain child obesity rates. But the commissioner believes that repealing these parts of the Texas Public School Nutrition Policy will simplify things, pulling the state into line with less-strict national standards. Currently, there are no federal restrictions on deep fat frying as a preparation method.

“It’s simple. If a school district doesn’t agree with any of these changes, then they don’t have to implement them," Miller wrote in a statement, referring to the policy changes. "That’s the beauty here.”

Miller hinted in January that deep fryers would be one of his priorities, and he officially proposed the change in March. A public comment period closed earlier this month, and Miller's nutrition team is now reviewing more than 200 comments. He is expected to announce this summer whether the commission will move forward with the changes.

....

“I don't think there is any way he could have studied the issue or he never would have done this,” said Combs, who said it was “unimaginable” that Miller would go ahead with these repeals. “I am actually baffled and sorry that Commissioner Miller did what was not good for kids. If you give children bad choices, they will make them.”

The Partnership for a Healthy Texas, a statewide coalition of more than 50 organizations working to prevent obesity, filed an open letter in opposition to the proposed changes. In the letter, the group challenged the merits of local control in questions of childhood nutrition.

"Schools are one of the key environments where our state can work to defeat child obesity," the organization wrote. "Fit, nourished children perform better, miss less school, have fewer behavioral challenges, and are more likely to grow up to be healthy, working adults."

[Author's Note: Emphasis added.]

Read the whole thing here.

This website's only additional recommendation to Commissioner Miller would be to go further.  The Texas Department of Agriculture should fully repeal the "fundraiser" regulation.  Why should central planners have any role in this process to begin with?!?

Finally, while she did a fantastic job as Comptroller, that line from Susan Combs is ASTONISHING!!!