It won't be a moment too soon if you ask Renegade Lunch Lady Chef Ann Cooper, with whom I had the pleasure of appearing at a farm bill "teach in" hosted by Michael Pollan at Berkeley a few weeks back.

From today's Washington Post:

As part of a sweeping effort to help improve nutrition for schoolchildren and fight childhood obesity, the Agriculture Department is proposing for the first time to require schools to bring their cafeteria menus into compliance with the latest U.S. dietary guidelines.

While the USDA has limited the sale of soda and some junk foods in school cafeterias, it has not required schools to implement the 2005 Dietary Guidelines, which call for increased consumption of whole grains, fruit and vegetables. Nor does it regulate vending machines, a la carte menus, or other food and beverages sold in schools outside the cafeteria, although a bill introduced by Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) seeks to have it do that.

This development should also be read as an indication of the increased role fruit and vegetable growers are playing in this year's farm bill debate, starting with their clear influence on the Bush administration's farm bill proposal and Rep. Dennis Cardoza's EAT Healthy America legislation.

The key question is the one CSPI's Margo Wootan raises in the story:

The USDA proposes to spend $500 million in new, mandatory funding over the next 10 years for the purchase of additional fresh fruit and vegetables in school lunch and breakfast programs. The department also wants to shift $2.75 billion over the next 10 years to increase purchases of fruit and vegetables through its commodity programs -- a move that some said has little chance of success given the strong political forces likely to oppose such a change.

"Is Congress and the USDA going to have the political will to shift commodity purchases away from foods that children should eat less of, like meat, to fruit and vegetables, which children should eat more of?" asked Wootan. "The answer is that it will be very difficult."