One point I will make now is that maternity/paternity leave does not begin to address the problem of kids being raised without a parent at home, since even liberals wouldn't ask companies to provide 18 years of paid parental leave.

It might promote nursing, but the studies linking formula feeding with obesity are deeply flawed, just like the ones linking breastfeeding to IQ. There is correlation, but not causation.

In our society today, it is overwhelmingly affluent women who are willing and able to nurse their babies, either because they can afford to be SAHMs or because they have careers that permit flexibility and privacy on the job. Poor women have to put theirs in daycare and get back to work at jobs where they don't have private offices where they can have the nanny bring the baby in for a nursing session every two hours.

Women who are affluent, educated and either SAHMs or highly paid professionals nurse their babies, and those babies grow up to be healthy, normal-weight children. It's not the breastfeeding that makes them fit and slim, but the continued good nutrition their affluent mothers provide throughout their entire childhoods.

One point I will make now is that maternity/paternity leave does not begin to address the problem of kids being raised without a parent at home, since even liberals wouldn't ask companies to provide 18 years of paid parental leave.

It might promote nursing, but the studies linking formula feeding with obesity are deeply flawed, just like the ones linking breastfeeding to IQ. There is correlation, but not causation.

In our society today, it is overwhelmingly affluent women who are willing and able to nurse their babies, either because they can afford to be SAHMs or because they have careers that permit flexibility and privacy on the job. Poor women have to put theirs in daycare and get back to work at jobs where they don't have private offices where they can have the nanny bring the baby in for a nursing session every two hours.

Women who are affluent, educated and either SAHMs or highly paid professionals nurse their babies, and those babies grow up to be healthy, normal-weight children. It's not the breastfeeding that makes them fit and slim, but the continued good nutrition their affluent mothers provide throughout their entire childhoods.

One point I will make now is that maternity/paternity leave does not begin to address the problem of kids being raised without a parent at home, since even liberals wouldn't ask companies to provide 18 years of paid parental leave.

It might promote nursing, but the studies linking formula feeding with obesity are deeply flawed, just like the ones linking breastfeeding to IQ. There is correlation, but not causation.

In our society today, it is overwhelmingly affluent women who are willing and able to nurse their babies, either because they can afford to be SAHMs or because they have careers that permit flexibility and privacy on the job. Poor women have to put theirs in daycare and get back to work at jobs where they don't have private offices where they can have the nanny bring the baby in for a nursing session every two hours.

Women who are affluent, educated and either SAHMs or highly paid professionals nurse their babies, and those babies grow up to be healthy, normal-weight children. It's not the breastfeeding that makes them fit and slim, but the continued good nutrition their affluent mothers provide throughout their entire childhoods.

One point I will make now is that maternity/paternity leave does not begin to address the problem of kids being raised without a parent at home, since even liberals wouldn't ask companies to provide 18 years of paid parental leave.

It might promote nursing, but the studies linking formula feeding with obesity are deeply flawed, just like the ones linking breastfeeding to IQ. There is correlation, but not causation.

In our society today, it is overwhelmingly affluent women who are willing and able to nurse their babies, either because they can afford to be SAHMs or because they have careers that permit flexibility and privacy on the job. Poor women have to put theirs in daycare and get back to work at jobs where they don't have private offices where they can have the nanny bring the baby in for a nursing session every two hours.

Women who are affluent, educated and either SAHMs or highly paid professionals nurse their babies, and those babies grow up to be healthy, normal-weight children. It's not the breastfeeding that makes them fit and slim, but the continued good nutrition their affluent mothers provide throughout their entire childhoods.

You actually bring up the whole idea that was arrived at a few years ago; it will take simple baby steps over the course of years to make the changes toward having healthier schools. We just can't do this with broad strokes. Unfortunately, in that time, a lot of kids will continue to be obesse (sp) and un-healthy.

On the other hand, I don't like how the last 2 public schools my kids attended provided free donuts before testing. Disgusting. I would never let my children buy lunch at the public schools. The food is not fit for human consumption AND it is loaded with sugar, which makes the children addicted to more sugar. Go figure!

It's about scale. Food that's trucked in to New Mexico is often the cheapest because it's produced on a massive scale. But most New Mexico growers are small so their prices tend to be higher.

We have had some success with things like apples (and carrots?) that school districts have bought in bulk from New Mexico growers through the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program that Sen. Bingaman supports.

Which brings me back to my point about the solutions to obesity being complex and small.

The purchase of those apples was made possible by an investment in a huge walk-in cooler that allowed the schools to store the apples and mete them slowly over many months.

A small investment in infrastructure, such as coolers, can help schools buy local produce, and can help convince small rural stores to stock fresh fruits and vegetables.

But here's something to think about: There are tons of men out there who would kill to stay home and be full-time dads. But they can't. You know why? Because men still make more money than women.

If a family can afford to have one parent stay home, it's almost always the woman, and it's often because her salary is smaller, and therefore more expendable.

If we as a society decide that we want to have families with one parent who raises kids full-time then we are going to have to make some serious changes. How would families be able to afford to do this? Because most can't now.

We would to ensure pay equity for men and women, to allow dads to parent their kids if they want to, and to allow women to pursue their careers if they want to.

We would need to slash the cost of health care, seriously slash it, so that families didn't need two salaries to afford it.

And we would need guaranteed maternity/paternity leave.

Among other things.

I do admit that over the last few years I have lost track of where the school lunches stand in terms of being healthy here in NM — after that debacle with the senate/house bill a few years ago I left the matter in aggravation. What I know since then has just been from conversations with various friends still in politics (although, once again I find myself pulled back in with the upcoming Governor's race). Anyhew, despite Gov. Richardson's good intentional dictatorial attempt to proclaim healthy lunches (hey, I actually like his style, don't get me wrong) we still have a childhood obesity problem, and there are still problems with school lunches, also despite the strides made by some individual schools. I agree with you on this matter — there is still room for improvement. At the same time, it has been a long and difficult road before now, even despite the fact that this is not rocket science if you look at it from a practical view point. And, it would be possible to do it cost effectively if local agricultural producers were used as suppliers over buying food hauled over long distances. That would also boost the failing local agriculture of NM.