State laws on school vending: the need for a public health approach.

School nutrition has taken center stage in the national debate over how to reverse rising rates of childhood obesity. State legislative activity, sluggish at fi rst, has quickly intensifi ed in recent years. Summary reports from services such as the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)1 and picked up by the media tend to paint a positive picture of the momentum. For example, the NCSL reports that 2005 was “a watershed year for state legislation dealing with school nutrition.” Similarly, for 2005, the Health Policy Tracking Service (HPTS) reported “this year alone, 42 state legislatures have enacted or proposed measures that require or recommend nutritional guidance for schools.”2 Legislative activity, fueled in large part by a determined grassroots movement, has emerged with relatively meager resources, in contrast to amply funded industry interests. However, a closer look at the laws themselves is critical to prevent an exaggerated perception of progress from overshadowing reality. This article reviews several of the state laws that have been enacted thus far, and the compromises that enabled their passage. Much more needs to be done to improve school food. Moreover, the emerging patchwork quilt of laws strongly suggests a need for a more thoughtful public health approach that includes sound legal analysis outside of the realm of political compromise. Most of the school food debate focuses on the sale of soda and snack foods, collectively known as “competitive foods” because they are sold outside the federal school meal program and compete with the sale of school meals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defi nes competitive foods as foods offered at school, other than meals served through school lunch, school breakfast and after-school snack programs.3 For public schools participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), the USDA sets nutrition standards those schools must follow in order to get reimbursed by the federal government.4 With the exception of one regulation that does not allow the sale of soda or certain candy—dubbed “foods