McClatchy Newspapers, May 11, 2010
The White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity issued a blueprint Tuesday that’s thick with ideas but doesn’t put the hammer down yet on taxpayers or private industry.
A national soda tax? Worth further study, but not this year. New regulatory authority over food marketing to children, or changes to agricultural subsidies to make fresh fruit and vegetables cheaper? Possibilities down the road, but why not first encourage more voluntary steps by the private sector?
The 124-page report from the task force that President Barack Obama created three …

It was the ultimate photo op. Thirty-six smiling fifth-graders eating a healthful meal they’d cooked themselves at a picnic table in the First Lady’s Garden. The story line was as simple as it was seductive: They came. They planted. They harvested. In three short months, Michelle Obama had accomplished what other food advocates could only dream about. Good food was no longer just virtuous. It was cool.That was easy. Now what?
That’s the question Obama’s food policy team is working on this summer. The garden was always intended “as a jumping-off …