South Dakota happy being obese

South Dakota is 7th in the race to the top of obesity statistics while ranking above the US average in well-being.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is based on 2.2 million surveys, asking respondents to self-report their height and weight, which is used to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI), as well as questions about their well-being across five categories, including their sense of purpose, social relationships, financial security, community, and physical health. The report showed a strong link between obesity and lower overall well-being. [KELO teevee]

South Dakota's kids are fatter than ever.

In the farm-to-fork-crazed city of Portland, Oregon, campus gardens supply public school cafeterias and food service workers seek out chicken free of antibiotics. “We should not have what is served for lunch at schools decided by bureaucrats in Washington,” said Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., who wrote one of multiple bills that would ease the rules. “This has become a burden.” A letter from 19 past presidents of the School Nutrition Association urged the administration not to bend to the demands of their own group. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the American Heart Association have joined the USDA in campaigning against any weakening of the rules.

Read it here.

According to Ashley Miller, chronic disease epidemiologist for the Department of Health, the number of students who are overweight or obese has plateaued in the past several years. She says that 175 of the state’s schools submit weight and height measurements for the department to calculate the obesity rate of kindergarten through high school age students. Miller says the state’s 2013-2014 school data found that 15.8 percent of South Dakota students were obese and another 16.5 percent were overweight. A total of 175 schools submitted student height and weight data for this latest survey, which accounts for 31.5 percent of the all the students in the state. [WNAX]

Schwan's Food Service manufactures subsidized products from commodities then markets them to distributors like Reinhart and Sysco who sell them to school lunch programs.

Marshall, Minnesota-based pizza peddler Schwan's gives Republicans including South Dakota's At-large Representative Kristi Noem campaign cash. So do other industrial ag companies like Crystal Sugar selling salted fat to schools. Now she is paying them back.

Rep. Kristi Noem on Tuesday announced plans for legislation that reduces federal mandates on school meal standards, including the more stringent whole grain requirements that went into effect in July 2014 and the Target 2 sodium requirements set to be implemented in the coming years. [Mitchell Daily Republic]

Mother Jones tells readers why:

But opponents of the act argue that the requirements leave students with unappetizing choices that result in tons of waste. This notion was supported in a spring 2014 report from the Harvard School of Public Health, which found that nearly 75 percent of vegetables and 40 percent of fruit being served in school cafeterias were ending up in trash cans. But critics have pointed out that helping "struggling schools" is not the sole agenda of the SNA—its sponsors include Domino's Pizza, General Mills Foodservice, PepsiCo Foodservice, and Tyson Foods, Inc.—all of whom contract with school cafeterias and would benefit from less stringent nutritional regulations. [Allie Gross]

Progress has been made under current school lunch rules but as industrial agriculture lines Republican pockets South Dakota's children will again suffer from elevated risks to obesity.

Most South Dakota schools could be feeding food waste to chickens and hogs maybe composting for community gardens. Hot Springs, Philip and Midland enjoy geothermal water to heat greenhouses.