Why shouldn’t the federal government play a role in the distribution of locally produced food? By definition, the food’s not going very far, so the job should be easy and I’ve got a suggestion about where to start: the local schools. Jamie Oliver’s been getting all the attention, but my wife, Anne, a physician and mother of two, anticipated his school lunch revolution by half a decade when she attempted to reform our school district’s fatty, salty, white-carbohydrate-loaded lunches. No cameras recorded her conversations, but the resistance she encountered was similar. “Our hands are tied by federal regulations,” Anne heard at every turn.

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