What’s safer, school lunch or fast food? Attached is a provocative study indicating the latter, at least in terms of beef served, in that it is more highly regulated/tested.  Click here for the article.I’m not interested in that debate right now, but rather want to put in a plug for all the cafeteria staff who work really hard to provide healthy, affordable food under tight budget constraints, with lots of health standards (at least on operations if not ingredients) and limited time, staff and equipment.

Sometimes in Vermont we hear well-meaning people say, “why don’t they serve local food every day?” – and the answer is, money, time, equipment …. and sometimes interest and know-how.

That’s where the farm to school movement comes in – there are lots of examples of schools that have schemed, negotiated, and stretched to find ways to integrate local/healthy, ecologically or organically grown food into their lunch offerings.

Right here in the Upper Valley, the Sharon Elementary School was serving meatballs from a local farmer this week – they have worked out a deal to get the meat at only a slight premium to commodity beef – and the kids love it, and they know it is not going to be recalled.

The farm to school movement can be thought of as one of those “nice” initiatives. I think its nice. I also think it is, in the words of Joanna Macey, “subversive.” Getting kids to understand where their food comes from, tasting local, whole foods, growing, cooking and learning about food and farms and soil and energy, will help to create future citizen leaders who will ask good questions, and bring some sanity back into the food systems that we rely upon three times a day.