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Action Alerts & Updates

Help break the dairy industry’s monopoly on school lunch programs; tell the USDA that our kids deserve healthier options!
August 4, 2008

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is holding public hearings on the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) throughout the country, and the public is now invited to give its input on the current program. For people who care about children and animals, this invitation provides a great opportunity to speak up and ask the USDA to make plant-based alternatives to cow’s milk a part of its programs.

Currently, virtually all children participating in the NSLP are automatically served cow’s milk—despite the fact that as many as eight million school children are lactose intolerant, and countless others avoid cow’s milk for health, religious and ethical reasons—due to a long-standing federal policy stipulating that schools will only be reimbursed for meals containing a serving of cow’s milk. The effect of this stipulation is that in almost all schools participating in the NSLP, alternatives to cow’s milk—such as healthy soy and other plant-based milks—are unavailable to children.

Denying children easy access to dairy alternatives is especially damaging to minority populations—particularly African Americans and Hispanic children—who are not only more likely to be lactose intolerant according to the National Institute of Health, but also make up a greater percentage of those dependent upon on the NSLP for good nutrition. The end result of this inequity is that while the dairy industry reaps profits from the NSLP, school children (and cows on dairy farms) suffer unjustly.

Fortunately, the USDA is now asking for public input on ways it can improve the NSLP. This invitation provides us with a golden opportunity to break the dairy industry’s monopoly on school lunchrooms and ask for nutritious, wholesome alternatives to cow’s milk!

HOW YOU CAN HELP

1. You can ask for plant-based milks, such as soy or rice, to be included in school lunches either in writing or in person by attending one of the following meetings (more details on the meetings here).

   Boston, MA – June 10
   Austin, TX – July 15
   Baltimore, MD – August 6
   San Francisco, CA – August 6
   Atlanta, GA – August 20
   Chicago, IL – September 10
   Denver, CO – September 11

2. You can also submit your comments electronically by October 15, 2008, by visiting the USDA online.

3. You can mail or fax your comments on the NSLP (be sure to reference Docket # FNS-2008-0011 in your communication) to:

   Mr. Robert M. Eadie
   Chief, Policy and Program Development Branch
   Child Nutrition Division, Food and Nutrition Service
   Department of Agriculture
   3101 Park Center Dr., Room 640
   Alexandria, VA 22302-1594
   Fax: 703-305-2879

Additional points to make in your communication with the USDA:

• The most commonly consumed varieties of milk—2 percent and whole milk—are high in saturated fat, a known risk factor for obesity and heart disease, America’s leading cause of death.

• A 2001 review of available studies by researchers at Harvard University found that dairy intake “is one of the most consistent dietary predictors for prostate cancer in the published literature. In these studies, men with the highest dairy intakes had […] up to a fourfold increase in risk of metastatic or fatal prostate cancer relative to low consumers.”

• A 2004 study in the International Journal of Cancer found a two-fold higher risk of serous ovarian cancer—the most common and deadly subtype—among those with the highest lactose (milk sugar) consumption compared to those with the lowest consumption.

• Conversely, the National Cancer Institute at the U.S. National Institutes of Health asserts that isoflavones in soymilk can actually protect against cancer.

• A study by the Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine demonstrated that when soymilk was made available to students, it was well-received, and the nutrition of the overall student body improved as children previously choosing not to drink nutritious beverages at lunch began consuming soymilk.