All Discussions Tagged 'at' - Zoobird2024-03-28T16:23:05Zhttps://www.zoobird.com/group/communityzoo/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=at&feed=yes&xn_auth=noEU's free fruit and vegetable sceme to start next yeartag:www.zoobird.com,2008-10-29:2129360:Topic:70632008-10-29T02:46:32.935ZMichael Levinhttps://www.zoobird.com/profile/MichaelLevin
This just in from today's Irish Times (<a href="http://www.ireland.com">www.ireland.com</a>)<br />
<br />
EU's free fruit and vegetable sceme to start next year<br />
In this section »<br />
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paves way for campus researchBishop criticises UCC decisionEarly snow on high<br />
ground as cold snap set to intensifyBus firm settles action with<br />
MinisterService for family who died in air crashSEÁN Mac CONNELL, Agriculture<br />
CorrespondentTHE €90 million EU…
This just in from today's Irish Times (<a href="http://www.ireland.com">www.ireland.com</a>)<br />
<br />
EU's free fruit and vegetable sceme to start next year<br />
In this section »<br />
€3bn plan to rebuild worst areas of LimerickStem-cell vote by UCC governors<br />
paves way for campus researchBishop criticises UCC decisionEarly snow on high<br />
ground as cold snap set to intensifyBus firm settles action with<br />
MinisterService for family who died in air crashSEÁN Mac CONNELL, Agriculture<br />
CorrespondentTHE €90 million EU free fruit and vegetable scheme for schools<br />
received the support of farm ministers in Luxembourg yesterday and will be<br />
implemented next year.<br />
<br />
Modelled on the Irish Food Board's "food dude" scheme, the European Commission<br />
pledged the money to fight obesity in Europe, where 22 million children are<br />
deemed overweight and five million suffer from obesity.<br />
<br />
The commission said in July it would pay for the purchase and distribution of<br />
fresh fruit and vegetables to schools, which would be matched by national<br />
funds in those member states that chose to make use of the programme.<br />
<br />
Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith pledged his support for the scheme. He<br />
said the experience in Ireland with the scheme, on which the EU programme is<br />
based, had been very positive.<br />
<br />
He said that the Irish Food Board's scheme encouraged primary schoolchildren<br />
to taste and enjoy fruit and vegetables and it would have reached 1,000<br />
primary schools by the end of 2008.<br />
<br />
"Our policies have consistently supported balanced diets. Low intakes of fruit<br />
and vegetables and milk by primary schoolchildren were established in a<br />
scientific study on children's diet carried out by Trinity and UCC with<br />
funding from my department and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.<br />
<br />
"These findings have been addressed by the relaunch of the school milk scheme<br />
with a wider range of products and the scaling up of the fruit and vegetable<br />
scheme from pilot status," Mr Smith added.<br />
<br />
In 2006, the then minister for agriculture Mary Coughlan announced the<br />
distribution of 1,000 refrigeration units free to schools to boost the<br />
dramatic drop in the free school milk scheme.<br />
<br />
When the school milk scheme was introduced in 1982, children in Irish schools<br />
drank 2.6 million gallons of milk, but by 2006, consumption had declined to<br />
only 825,000 gallons, a fall of 66 per cent. Under the revised scheme, 500<br />
fridges went to schools that were already operating the scheme and the 500<br />
others to schools that were opting to join the scheme<br />
<br />
Research had shown children were unhappy with the temperature at which milk<br />
was served in schools and many favoured fizzy soft drinks. The revamped<br />
scheme, which is being operated by the National Dairy Council, is now<br />
providing not only milk but other products like yogurts, low-fat and flavoured<br />
milks.<br />
<br />
The free fruit and vegetable scheme will run alongside the revitalised milk<br />
scheme which has been operating in 2,000 primary schools with the support of<br />
the EU and the Department of Agriculture.<br />
<br />
The farm ministers have been meeting in Luxembourg over the past two days to<br />
negotiate the "health check" of the Common Agricultural Policy (Cap), which<br />
will involve tighter budgetary controls and a redistribution of Cap funds.