The Potato: Friend or Foe?

The Potato - an enemy of the State?

When I heard that the United States Government was working to BAN people receiving government assistance and schools from buying potatoes, I took a step back. Could this be true? Could Big Brother be that -- intrusive? It turns out that it's true and the government is taking steps to eliminate potatoes from the diets of welfare recipients and children who eat school lunch. Since when did the potato become our enemy? Will potatoes eventually be banned from consumption in the US?

The Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, recommended that the U.S. Department of Agriculture stop participants of the federal Women, Infants and Children program, known as WIC, from buying potatoes with federal dollars. The institute also called for the USDA-backed school lunch program to limit use of potatoes. This is a program that Barack Hussein and Michelle Obama are pushing hard to see implemented. I wonder if any of it has to do with the fact that the potato producing states have not voted for him or his cronies? The State of Idaho would be CRUSHED economically by this decision.

Under an interim rule, the USDA agreed to bar WIC participants from buying potatoes with their federal dollars. Potatoes are the only vegetable not allowed. Next year, the agency will roll out a final rule on the WIC program, which last year served 9.3 million children and pregnant and breast-feeding women considered at risk for malnutrition.

Associated Press (LINK)

GLEED, Wash. - Potato growers are fighting back against efforts to ban or limit potatoes in federal child nutrition programs, arguing the tuber is loaded with potassium and vitamin C and shouldn't be considered junk food.

One Washington man is so exasperated by the proposals that he's in the midst of a 60-day, all potato diet to demonstrate that potatoes are nutritious.

"We're just really concerned that this is a misconception to the public that potatoes aren't healthy," said Chris Voigt, head of the Washington Potato Commission. "The potato isn't the scourge of the earth. It's nutrition."

The USDA is expected to release changes to the federal school lunch program by the end of the year. The program subsidizes lunch and breakfast for nearly 32 million needy kids in most public schools and many private ones, and those schools must follow guidelines on what they serve.