Vegetarian Star

Colorado representative Jared Polis revealed his suggestions to put more vegetarian and non-dairy options in school lunches could cost around $50 million a year, but insists the benefits would outweigh the costs in health care savings.

Polis was in Denver, Colorado recently promoting his bill, The Healthy School Meals Act.

“One of the things I’ve always been dismayed by is the nutritional value of the meals schools serve,” Polis said.

He also emphasized the importance of offering non dairy options to the 10-20% of children who are lactose intolerant.

Although the National School Lunch Program requires schools to always offer cow’s milk, a 2004 reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act and National School Lunch Act allowed schools to offer non dairy alternatives as long as they were equal to nutrition in milk.

However, the USDA does not cover any additional price difference, and as a result, schools aren’t able to offer alternatives like soy or rice milk.

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Mayor Bloomberg’s Favorite Vegetable Is… from NYDN Brawl for the Hall on Vimeo.

New York city’s mayor Michael Bloomberg was recently out promoting vegetable gardens in schools.

He also promoted iceberg lettuce, which really shouldn’t have a PR staff, considering it’s got half of all the good vitamins and nutrients like Vitamin C, folate and beta carotene than other lettuces like romaine.

“It may not be fashionable, but it’s real American,” Bloomberg said of his lettuce preference.

Thankfully, with the help of Rachael Ray‘s Yum-o! organization, NYC students will get to plant more than iceberg lettuce in their school yards.

Yum-o! helps students either build a garden or connect to an already existing garden, as well as offer cooking and nutrition classes.

Of course, Bloomberg has other vegetables he likes.

Watch the clip to hear them.

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Rachael Ray recently went to Capitol Hill to spend four hours speaking with lawmakers on the need to make changes to the Child Nutrition Act, according to the New York Times.

Specifically, they need to put their money where the mouths are!

Ray called the reimbursement rates for school lunches “ridiculous.”

“How could you go to any state in the union and say you are not for an extra couple of cents to eradicate hunger, to make our kids healthier, stronger, better focused?” she said. “It doesn’t make any sense that you would even have to have a long conversation about that, to me.”

The celebrity chef known to incorporate many vegetarian entrees in her cooking repertoire has already worked with the New York City school system to create healthier changes, such as pasta dishes with whole wheat pasta instead of white.

New York senator Kristen E. Gillibrand wants an increase in spending by $.70 per child, while the current bill is aiming for a mere $.06.

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Sarah Palin gave a speech at the National Rifle Association (NRA) convention where she criticized animal rights activists, advocates of limiting hunting in Alaska and anyone she considered to be threatening the second amendment.

After all, they’re all shooting deer in Hollywood.

“I have bad news for those groups,” Palin said, according to the Charlotte Observer. “Bambi’s mother is dinner – even in L.A.”

“Where do those people think their venison comes from? The deer didn’t die of natural causes. It wasn’t road kill.”

Why aren’t Palin and fur wearing Kelis BFFs already?

Besides protection, Palin may feel guns are a key aspect of social gatherings.

She once had a baby shower at an Alaska gun range.

Makes you wonder how some really celebrate a “shotgun” wedding.

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The most unhealthy school lunch sitting in the cafeteria these days is beef and cheese nachos.

Given the amount of animal fat, cholesterol and dairy in such a meal, it’s easy to understand why.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine analyzed the school lunches on menus from 18 elementary schools across the country and found meatloaf and potatoes, cheeseburgers, cheese sandwiches and pepperoni pizza didn’t trail far behind the beefy nachos.

A bill introduced by representative Jared Polis, the Healthy School Meals Act or H.R. 4870, is trying to change this.

If passed, it would provide funds to school districts to purchase healthier items and place more vegetarian entrees and non dairy beverages on the menus.

H.R. 4870 can’t come soon enough!

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President Barack Obama received a report that says Americans buying and eating organic can reduce their exposure to environmental chemicals that increase their risk of cancer.

In the report, titled “Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now,” the President’s Cancer Panel says that exposure to these chemicals is minimal in organic foods and consumers should verify the product is organic by looking for the USDA label.

“The American people — even before they are born — are bombarded continually with myriad combinations of these dangerous exposures,” the letter said. “The Panel urges you most strongly to use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our Nation’s productivity, and devastate American lives.”

“Many known or suspected carcinogens first identified through studies of industrial and agricultural occupational exposures have since found their way into soil, air, water and numerous consumer products… Some of these chemicals have been found in maternal blood, placental tissue, and breast milk samples from pregnant women and mothers who recently gave birth. Thus, chemical contaminants are being passed on to the next generation, both prenatally and during breastfeeding.”

Now that the government has given the thumbs up to organic, let’s hope for an overhaul in the food system to make it more affordable and accessible to all!

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If you live near the Discovery Channel, you may have noticed a series of posters in bus stations put up by Defenders of Wildlife, timed to coincide with the network’s shareholders meeting May 5.

Defenders of Wildlife is hoping Discovery will cancel Sarah Palin‘s tentatively titled show, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” citing the politician’s track record on animal and environmental issues is not appropriate for a station designed to celebrate nature.

The various ads read with catchy and critical words for Palin like, “Don’t Promote Someone Who Turned Alaska’s Cry Of The Wild Into A Cry For Help,” and urges viewers not to watch the show and Discovery to drop it from its program.

The series of ads can be viewed here.

More than 500,000 people have sent communication to Discovery officials, saying they do not support Palin hosting a nature show about Alaska.

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Journalist and author of Animal Factory, David Kirby, thinks Barack Obama should fight factory farming more aggressively and suggests taking this stance could even help him win votes in the next presidential election.

Obama was helped tremendously in the 2008 election by winning over Iowa, says Kirby in an article from the Huffington Post.

Kirby says Iowa sided with Obama due to his stance on changing policies in factory farming, which many conservative Americans see as an attack on hard working small farmers and personal property.

If Obama is to retain this support, changes in factory farm policies are needed, and Kirby provides a few ways in which the United States president can help both animals and constituents.

One way to do this is by limiting subsidies to corporate farms, which receive as much as 5 billion annually.

“If right-wing opposition to corporate bailouts runs so deep, then Obama should get some mileage from his promise to end the multibillion-dollar corporate farm subsidy boondoggle,” writes Kirby.

Kirby also thinks Obama should also tackle the monopoly big corporations have over the food industry and redirect programs to help small family farmers, something also valued by conservatives.

Read more at the Huffington Post.

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