Matt Zeitlin

Julian Sanchez, whilst discussing the healthy foods in public schools issue, concedes that paternalism in the context of public schools is appropriate, but shifts the debate over to one of federalism and value pluralism. His basic point that any decision regarding food choices could probably be made by state legislatures and local school boards, unless it is “obvious that there’s an Objectively Correct Answer to any question, and that we know it—should little Bobby be allowed candy, or kept to a strict wheat germ regimen?—then allowing local variation just means giving the rubes a chance to fuck it up.”

While I think that some decisions should be more local, the question of what’s in school lunches requires looking at the status quo situation. And in the status quo, schools are selling crappy food through vending machines, snack bars and “a la carte food lines.” And they aren’t doing anything to change it. Moreover, the federal government is already heavily involved in school food , because cafeteria food programs already need to meet Department of Agriculture nutrition requirements. So there’s a trade-off, either we can continue with certain health standards being applied in a piecemeal manner across the country, depending on the attitudes of local school boards and states, or we can just make the standards stricter now, for everyone. I guess one of the things that makes me a liberal as opposed to a libertarian is that I prefer the latter and don’t really see what’s so offensive about a centralized dictate — especially as opposed to the alternative.