Feds: Fatty Meat Is Bad for You. Now Shut Up and Eat Your Government-Provided Fatty Meat.

A great catch by Cato's Sallie James, who notes these two news items from yesterday:

1) Don't eat fatty meat, say new US Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed guidelines:

[The report's] findings: People should consume more vegetables and whole grains, and less fatty meats, salt and sugar…The guidelines in turn will form the basis of the USDA's updated food pyramid, scheduled to be released in spring 2011. They also determine the nutrition standards for all federal nutrition programs, including the National School Lunch Program, which feeds more than 30 million children a day.[emphasis James']

2) We will now use your taxpayer dollars to buy fatty meat, and then hand it off to the poorest, youngest, most obese segments of the population:

The U.S. Agriculture Department plans to buy as much as $14 million worth of dark meat chicken products to help producers facing a glut in stocks and decreasing prices, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Tuesday…The government purchase… will be used by food banks, school lunch programs, and other food assistance programs.

As James notes, it's even the same agency in both cases.

Hey look, we made a video about this!: