AgSec Vilsack: no intention of banning bake sales

by Walter Olson on December 13, 2010

As the Associated Press reported recently, the school nutrition bill to be signed by President Obama today includes provisions giving the federal government authority to regulate (among much else) the frequency of school bake sales. Following a public furor, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack now says he has no intention of using the authority to do that — which may or may not signify much over the long term, since cabinet secretaries depart regularly and his successors will be free to revisit the issue. [ABC/KBOI, Kyle Wingfield/Atlanta Journal-Constitution] Local governments in places like New York City and even Iowa have lately been regulating or abolishing bake sales on nutritionist grounds. I joined Ray Dunaway on Hartford’s WTIC NewsTalk 1080 this morning to discuss the update.

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{ 7 comments }

1 Chris 12.13.10 at 10:38 am

With the ban on bake sales and the recent outlawing of animal cruelty videos, we are well on our way to righting our faltering ship.

2 Ed 12.13.10 at 12:50 pm

Right.
Now we need to ban thinking about unhealthy topics.

3 mojo 12.13.10 at 1:30 pm

And NO WHITE BEARS, dammit!

4 Foxfier 12.13.10 at 1:58 pm

Well, golly, if they say they’re not going to use the power, or don’t mean to, what’s the harm– right?

5 Chris Hoey 12.13.10 at 2:34 pm

Didn’t the proponents of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Hubert Humphrey to name but one, say it wouldn’t be used to give preferences in hiring and promotions (Affirmative Action)? How did that work out?

6 Martha 12.13.10 at 3:47 pm

My kids’ elementary school has already banned bake sales. Or rather, they have the sale, but you can’t bake anything for it. Instead of, say, baking choc chip cookies, they make you buy a factory manufactured brand-name package of choc chip cookies. Then right before the sale, the volunteers staffing the sale will break open the packages and put X cookies in little baggies to sell. The claim is that the prewrapped stuff is “safer.” As though no bad guys could adulterate food that was once inside a package.

7 kimsch 12.14.10 at 1:24 pm

We can do bake sales for the PTO, but we can’t bake cupcakes for our children’s birthdays. For those we have to provide store bought. What a crock.

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