Supporting the Goals and Ideals of the Apple Crunch and the Nation's Domestic Apple Industry
SUPPORTING THE GOALS AND IDEALS OF THE APPLE CRUNCH AND THE NATION'S DOMESTIC APPLE INDUSTRY -- (House of Representatives - July 29, 2008)
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this resolution supporting the goals and ideals of the Apple Crunch and the Nation's domestic apple industry.
In an era that sees food serving sizes skyrocketing and in an America that is quickly forgetting the meaning of the phrase ``a la carte,'' it is important to continually encourage children to eat healthily. The goal of the Apple Crunch is just that, to promote healthier snacking by America's youth.
First established in Pennsylvania, the success of Apple Crunch has spread. Apple Crunch, the pinnacle of the celebration of Apple Month in October, is now in its 2nd year as a national practice, with schools and communities across the country joining in festivities.
During the 2006-2007 school year, more than 930 schools and 495,000 citizens in Pennsylvania alone came together to celebrate Apple Crunch. Schools, families, local communities, grocery stores, and the domestic apple industry all join together to encourage adding more fruits and vegetables to our everyday diets. Many schools have gone far past simply featuring apples on the dining menu, integrating apples into classroom lessons and even scheduling field trips to local farmers' markets.
The focus on promoting healthy eating in our schools is vital to the health
of our children and society. According to one of the organizers, ``By making fruits and vegetables fun for kids, our message of healthy snacking is going home and influencing the entire family.''
By joining in the Apple Crunch and bringing more attention to the goal of healthier snacking, we can move our country further towards the future of a healthier Nation.
I urge my colleagues to join in support of the Apple Crunch and embrace an easy and available step toward healthier living. After all, as true now as ever, ``an apple a day keeps the doctor away.''
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I need to respond to my colleague from Kansas, who made some comments earlier about working across the aisle to do something about drilling and providing additional supply.
It sounded, from her experience of going home this weekend, that the message is getting through to some of our Democratic colleagues, and I'm very glad to hear that.
She alluded to some legislation which we have dealt with in committee and on the floor in the past couple of weeks. She mentions the myth again of all these acres that the oil companies have that they have not drilled on and, therefore, we should take away their leases. Well, I think we have pretty well debunked that myth here on the floor and in committee, and I think the media has done a pretty good job of it too.
The oil companies have the greatest incentive to drill on land that they have leased now if there were oil under the ground there. They obviously are smart business people. They know the price of oil is as high as it's ever been. And if there were oil there, they'd be drilling. Obviously, again, our colleagues who are out of touch with how business works don't quite understand that or don't want to accept that.
On the issue of speculators, even in the Agriculture Committee when we had hearings, people who came in there who wanted to say that speculators were causing the high price of gasoline absolutely could provide no proof that that was happening.
What we have to do is increase the supply of oil to this country. Republicans have stood ready to work with the Democrats all year long on this issue, in fact, ever since the price of gas started going up, again, in direct relationship to the Democrats' being in charge of this Congress.
It's a sham what has been happening in this House in terms of our being able to vote on real bills that would increase the supply. These bills wouldn't have failed over and over and over again if that's what the bills were doing.
We are hearing increasing comments from Democrats, and we are glad to hear it. Again, we hope the American public continues to put the pressure on them so that they will bring pressure on their leadership. Certainly we want to work with them to increase supply.
It appears that they think the law of supply and demand can be repealed, but it can't. So I urge the leadership of the House to bring real bills, bills that would do something to increase the supply of oil and gas to this country, and we will vote with you. But we are not going to try to pass sham bills that do nothing to help the average American citizen.
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