You may have wondered why the USDA’s new Healthy Plate graphic, which replaced the food pyramid we all grew up with, specifically mentions dairy and is not vegetarian-friendly.
That’s because one of the defined roles of the USDA is as the marketing department of the farm industry.
It’s also supposed to be the regulator of the industry it’s the marketing arm of, which of course is inherently a conflict of interests. Thus you see Amish farmers being imprisoned here in our own country for selling milk, while in vast industrial farms, dairy cows stand knee deep in liquid manure and are fed growth hormones quite similar to the ones athletes are not allowed to ingest. Go figure.
But I digress. The food groups have to include dairy or meat if you don’t want them to, you can get the same quality diet from other sources, so let’s change the labels to represent their actual point instead of their marketed suggestions, and we come up with the one below. I like it. Print it out and put it on your fridge. Because you won’t be seeing it posted at the drive-thru ….
Click the image for a printable version.
