http:\/\/www.bozemandailychronicle.com offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.\n <\/p>\n
Saying it is an effort to support American agriculture, a new piece of legislation from U.S. Sens. Tim Sheehy, a Montana Republican, and Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, would require schools to submit a waiver to the federal government before buying food not produced in the United States.<\/p>\n
Two previous laws create incentives for schools to participate in the National School Lunch Program, which requires them to purchase food from American producers to the maximum extent possible.<\/p>\n
The United States Department of Agriculture would be in charge of the new waiver process, as the school lunch program is part of that agency. The bill would additionally expand the American produced requirement to the Summer Food Service Program, Child and Adult Care Food Program, and the Special Milk Program. It would also add additional reporting requirements.<\/p>\n
In a press release, Sheehy said it will help build a \u201cmore secure\u201d domestic food chain and said it backed food producers, \u201cnot foreign competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense for American schools to purchase imported food when the very best beef and agricultural products are produced right here at home, including in my home state of Montana,\u201d Sheehy said in a press release. \u201cBuying U.S.-grown agricultural products not only protects the health and well-being of American kids, but also supports our nation\u2019s economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schiff, also quoted in the Sheehy release, said schools purchasing American produce is \u201ccrucial\u201d to supporting farmers and the country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
Agricultural lobbying groups have lined up behind the bill, including the Farm Bureau Federation, which represents many large agricultural producers. \u201cBuy American\u201d is a key policy area for the Farm Bureau.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerican farmers and ranchers raise the highest quality crops and livestock in the world,\u201d Cyndi Johnson, Montana Farm Bureau Federation president, said in a statement in the press release. \u201cJust like farmers nationwide, we here in Montana are proud of the products we grow so we appreciate the effort to highlight the importance of delivering this healthy, delicious food to kids in our local schools and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bill also comes as a cyclospora infection has impacted much of the country this summer, with the source of the outbreak potentially from Mexico, according to the Associated Press, sourcing federal officials. Food illness outbreaks can be difficult to source, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
http:\/\/www.bozemandailychronicle.com offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced. Saying it is an effort to support American agriculture, a new piece of legislation from U.S. Sens. Tim Sheehy, a Montana Republican, and Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, would require schools to submit a waiver to the federal government before buying food<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[37138,417,14785,71,5889,5373,5331,5329,5327,5330,5328,12703,28214,486,8350],"class_list":["post-48487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montana","tag-adam-schiff","tag-agriculture","tag-american-farm-bureau-federation","tag-food","tag-food-industry","tag-food-politics","tag-montana","tag-montana-dining","tag-montana-food","tag-montana-grocery-stores","tag-montana-restaurants","tag-primary-sector","tag-tim-sheehy","tag-united-states","tag-waiver"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117413936108833960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}