J.D. Tuccille Talks About the Foolishness of Ordering School Kids To Change Their Diets on RT's The Big Picture

The other day, I was on RT's The Big Picture to discuss with host Sam Sacks the USDA's ongoing project to get kids to eat their fruits and vegetables. Now that kids have been throwing away their government-mandated healthier lunches and seeking solace at the vending machine, the USDA is trying to block that end-run by issuing yet more rules (PDF) for snack foods in schools. As is often the case, the nanny state guidelines are rooted in top-down theories about how people ought to live rather than any firm grasp of the impossibility of herding millions of peope in that desired direction. I pointed out that, no matter how paternalistically awesome the intentions might be (and the USDA rules are definitely more in line with what we know about nutrition than what I see some of my son's classmates shoving into their pie holes), you can't get there from here.

As Sam mentions at the end of the segment, we didn't have a chance to discuss agricultural subsidies, under which the government often underwrites exactly the foods it then tells people not to eat.

I come in at about the 30-minute mark.