The Government Doesn't Need to Force Feed Kids School Lunch

The Lake County school system in Florida is considering installing cameras on their cafeteria trash cans in order to study what foods their students are throwing away. The school system says last year these kids tossed $75,000 worth of vegetables into the trash. The federal government requires by law that students take a healthy lunchtime meal, and that everyone knows vegetables are healthy.

The problem is that the kids don’t want them. At least not at school. This story serves as a geeat illustration for just how much is wrong with the Nanny State that has been created by elected officials at the local, state and federal levels.

While the school system says they will not look to identify the students tossing their veggies, who believes that? Also, where does the federal government get off telling us what to eat and what to feed to our kids? This legislative dictat violates just about every basic right we have as citizens of the United States. And really, do we want to be told how to eat by the same bureaucracy that hasn’t been able to figure out how to profitably deliver mail despite having had a three century monopoly?

It is laughable that the federal government, that does nothing better than what can be done by the private sector, thinks they can force feed our children vegetables or any other food. And rather than common sense prevailing, we get school board members who are willing double down on the stupidity and throw more money away on a fruitless (pun intended) “study.”

These government forays into behavior modification have a perfect track record, a track record of failure that dates back to Prohibition. After all, nobody smokes cigarettes or takes drugs anymore. And illegal gambling has been eliminated. And over the past two decades with the awareness regarding obesity, obesity rates have increased and the overall activity level of people around the world has decreased.

The lesson to be learned by this school lunch debacle should be obvious to all, and despite the efforts of the ever expanding Nanny State, kids don’t respond well to being force fed.