Michelle Obama Throws Her Weight Behind Obesity

by Cameron Scott · 2010-01-19 16:38:00 UTC
Topics:

Her husband's popularity may be flagging, but Michelle Obama is as popular as ever, and she's decided to go all-in on childhood obesity.

Mrs. Obama told reporters in a White House that she wants a decline in childhood obesity to be her central issue and her legacy.

The First Lady plans to get involved as Congress reauthorizes the federal school lunch program, possibly even testifying on the Hill.

Her interest in childhood nutrition seems to have a personal bent to it; she's told the press before that the inspiration for the first White House garden in several generations came from her pediatrician's concerns that her daughters ate too much junk food.

Grist food writer Tom Philpott hopes that Mrs. Obama's pet issue is also "an appealing way to frame a massive problem with powerful vested interests behind it: a food system that churns out low-quality, environmentally ruinous food and robust profits for a few companies."

Certainly, the easy availability of woefully unhealthy "food-like substances" -- as Michael Pollan would call them -- in our country, and the relative dearth of ripe, unvarnished fruits and vegetables is part of the problem.

But however narrow her focus, Mrs. Obama will put a lot of momentum for sustainable eating. Enough, certainly, that it won't be easily dismissed as Left Coast sanctimoniousness.

Photo credit: White House via Wikimedia Commons

Cameron Scott writes The Thin Green Line blog at SFGate (San Francisco Chronicle).
PREVIOUS STORY:
Kraft: Don't Bury Cadbury's Ethics
NEXT STORY:
Victory! Smithfield Will Stop Using Cruel Gestation Crates

COMMENTS (2)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.