Michigan WIC whacks organic

Evidently, women, infants, and children in need don’t deserve organic 8

The Women, Infants, and Children program provides food aid to "low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk," according to the USDA website.

The federal government funds the program through grants to states, which then decide how to allocate the cash. Evidently, in Michigan -- a state undergoing severe economic strain -- some bureaucrats have bought into the whole notion that organic food is a luxury for the elite.

Check out this extraordinary document [PDF]. It lists product after product available to Michigan WIC recipients -- milk, eggs, carrots, tuna, cheese, boxed cereal, dried beans, peanut butter. And following each one, these words: "No organic allowed." (Never mind that organic tuna doesn't exist.)

Mothers using WIC in Michigan have to be especially careful about eggs. Avoiding organic eggs is only the beginning. Other no-nos include ones that are free-range, cage-free, or enhanced with Omega-3-rich feed. And get this: The eggs have to be white!

There's no end to it. Milk sold in reusable glass containers, or that's not homogenized (a process that may cause heart damage)? Forget about it. Milk from the heirloom Guernsey cow breed, said to be richer in calcium, protein, and vitamin A? Put it back, Mom.

If all that weren't enough, there are some weird anomalies. The document lists a few things that apparently can be bought organic, including "46 oz. unsweetened juices" and "frozen concentrate juices." Neither one bears the "no organic" edict.

But scroll down a bit to the "infant juices" category, and there it is again, in all its officious glory: "No organic allowed." Mothers are also forbidden from buying organic infant formula and cereal. (To be be fair, the program does encourage breast-feeding, but that option isn't always viable, as in the case of adoption and foster-parenting.)

Do these people figure that kids need a bit of pesticide residue in their fare to toughen 'em up for what's to come?

The "no organic" policy may not even be saving Michigan's WIC program much money. In a posting appearing on the Community Food Security Coalition's Comfood listserve, Diana Jancek, Market Manager of the Sweetwater Local Foods Market in Montague, Mich., did some price comparison in a supermarket. Here's what she found:

Allowed: Frosted Mini-Wheats (first three ingredients: whole grain wheat, sugar, high fructose corn syrup) Price: $3.63/18 oz.
Not Allowed: Meijer Organic Raisin Brain (all organic, no corn syrup) Price: 17 oz. $2.99

Allowed: Jif peanut butter, 18 oz. $2.18
Not Allowed: Meijer organic peanut butter, 18 oz. $2.59

Allowed: Fresh conventional carrots, 1 lb. $1.30
Not Allowed: Fresh organic carrots, 1 lb. $0.99

Allowed: Conventional white eggs, $1.69
Not Allowed: Conventional brown eggs, $1.89

Allowed: V8 tomato juice, 46 oz. $2.79
Not Allowed: Organic tomato juice, 46 oz. $2.99

Jancek added:

It almost seems punitive on the face of it; these are after all the most at-risk children in our population and we want to restrict their access to foods free of chemicals in their formative years?

It also bears adding that WIC-approved Jif peanut butter includes among its ingredients partially hydrogenated vegetable oil vegetable oil. This so-called "trans fat," designed to add "creaminess," have been shown to cause severe heart damage as well as diabetes.

For those who don't think low-income mothers should be nudged to make such choices, no matter what state they live in, Martha Noble of the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition points out that the USDA's Food & Nutrition Service is currently taking public comments on 2009 reauthorization of several child-nutrition programs, including WIC.

For instructions on how to comment, go here [PDF].

Note: This post has been modified to correct an error pointed out in comments by Katakanadian below. Fully hydrogenated oil, while a highly processed ingredient, is not a trans-fat. I regret the error, and appreciate the correction.

Grist food editor Tom Philpott farms and cooks at Maverick Farms, a sustainable-agriculture nonprofit and small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Follow my Twitter feed; contact me at tphilpott[at]grist[dot]org.

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  1. katakanadian Posted 5:27 am
    28 May 2008

    Biochemistry/Organic chemistry 101 reviewIt also bears adding that WIC-approved Jif peanut butter includes among its ingredients not only partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, but also fully hydrogenated vegetable oil.
    As I recall from my chemistry courses in university, fully hydrogenated fats are not trans-fats but that full saturation makes the (formerly) unsaturated fat into a saturated fat with no double bonds. Partial hydrogenation creates trans-fats by leaving some unsaturated double bonds and is much more dangerous.

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  2. VTpowderhound Posted 7:32 am
    28 May 2008

    big agraThis strikes me as a sop to big food manufacturers & processors, who aren't big into organics. Isn't Kellogg based in Michigan?
    As always...follow the money.

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  3. Tom Philpott's avatar

    Tom Philpott Posted 7:58 am
    28 May 2008

    I don't know, VT....To me, it sounds like a bureaucracy panicking over low resources and lots of folks in need. As I understand WIC, every state gets a certain amount of cash, and when it's spent, it's gone. Hence the zeal to pinch pennies. During tough times, the government should be devoting more funds to these key programs, not pushing bureaucrats into insane policy choices. It does, however, seem like state WIC officials overreacted in this case.    

    Victual Reality

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  4. KenG Posted 10:59 pm
    28 May 2008

    Is the Comparison VaildI think the comparisons may be a little biased.
    Why compare store brand organic raison bran with name brand sugar cereal? Organic or not, Meijer store brands are pretty horrible.
    Day in and day out, brown eggs are more expensive than white and are nutritionally identical. Why not disallow them?
    As for the carrots, the only time I've seen organics cheaper than regular is when they are out of date and about to be thrown out.
    As for the tomato juice, if V8 sold organic it would be much more expensive. You can't legitimately compare brands without looking at the range.
    I don't see a convincing case that the WIC rules are inappropriate.

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  5. Liz Borkowski Posted 11:47 pm
    28 May 2008

    on the plus sideAt the national level, at least, the program's been moving slowly in the right direction. USDA has finally reconfigured the WIC food package to include fruits, vegetables, and whole grains (by reducing the amount of egg and dairy products). By August 2009, each participant will be getting $6-$10 a month for produce, out of a total of about $39. This may not sound like a lot, but it's a big step forward.
    The WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program has also been successful in helping participants get fresh, locally grown produce. Participants in the 46 participating states can get coupons good for $10 - 30 worth of farmers' market fruits and vegetables each season, on top of their regular WIC benefits. It would be better if the benefit amount were higher (the maximum was increased from $25 to $30 in 2004), especially now that food prices are increasing so quickly.
    WIC is far from ideal, and there are certainly ways the state governments can make bad choices about implementation. Overall, though, it's a great program. The more people realize this, the easier it will be to strengthen and improve it.

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  6. cbloom Posted 4:06 pm
    30 May 2008

    wic makes me sicIt's bad enough that we're subsidizing people's bad reproductive choices, but here in Mesa Arizona the farmers market line is half illegal immigrants participating in the programme de wic(pregnant, of course, with an already large family of anchor babies as well) so we get to subsidize the Catholic church's call for more members. I will never spend another penny at a farmers market that is subsidized by wic.

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  7. Anastasia Posted 3:41 am
    06 Jun 2008

    couponsMichigan's list does seem awfully silly, although all WIC lists are a bit silly. My little sister (not an illegal immigrant, but having babies nonetheless) was elegible for WIC, and I went shopping with her once. They listed exact sizes of cereal boxes and such, so that she couldn't choose a larger box that was on sale.
    I think they need to re-do WIC so that each state or area can specify "1 jar of peanut butter, up to $2.00 covered", depending on average price in that area. Then the mother can apply that $2.00 to a larger jar or to an organic PB or whatever she wants.
    A few other comments: What is with the egg specifications? Why the heck are they encouraging pregnant women to eat tuna anyway!? And, the milk part is valid because that's the current law, like it or not.

    For more scientific discussion on GMOs, visit my blog: GeneticMaize.

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  8. MAD MAC Posted 11:17 pm
    07 Jun 2008

    BloomI sympathize with your position, but the kids involved are hardly at fault. In situations where people are morons, making stupid life choices, it really puts any kind of compassionate society in a bind. You want to help the less fortunate, on the other hand, you don't want to encourage more idiotic behavior. Some issues have no simple answers.

    Victory in Pattani

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