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Commissioner/Farmer Opposes Nutrition Education Grant

Writer's picture: ERGERG

Updated: Apr 30, 2023


Antrim Commissioner Jarris Rubingh (pictured) is also a dairy farmer and serves on the Board of Health of the Health Dept. of Northwest Michigan. He is also on the Program and Evaluation Committee of the Board of Health.


In that committee capacity, he forcefully expressed his opposition (by citing 12 reasons) to a two-year culinary training and nutrition education grant - the 2023 Nutrition and Healthy Lifestyles Initiative. Not on diet or malnourishment grounds, but on philosophical and ideological grounds as to who is the beneficiary of the grant.


Reasons 1-7 are posted below.


Commissioner Rubingh argues that the Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities, for whom the grant is earmarked, advocates for climate change and Critical Race Theory among other tiring lefty causes.


The Commissioner is right to be concerned, opposed, and vigilant in exposing this WOKE nonsense. If only more of our elected officials were this articulate and forthcoming. We encourage Emmet County officials to use the reasoning in his missive - especially about government overreach - as a blueprint.





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10 Comments


kindway9
May 06, 2023

For more recent insight on the politicization of farm aid, see this editorial in the Washington Post about substantive waste. If you don't have time to read the entire piece, here's a key sentence: "Abundant evidence shows a disproportionate share of the benefits flows to relatively high-income farmers who, as a group, are better off than the average American household."


https://wapo.st/3HIQInC


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kindway9
May 06, 2023

Interestingly, Mr. Rubingh points out that schools, not the health department, should be in charge of curriculum design. Fair point, although one wonders why his position doesn't make room for what he erroneously terms "critical race theory." His recycled talking point about "wokeism" also undermines any legitimate claims he might have to merely be interested in responsible government. It is very likely that schools would support the grant and program--if the schools were consulted and found to be interested in the local farms/nutrition program, would Mr. Rubingh then throw his support behind the initiative?

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bfbridge
May 03, 2023

Wow, thank you for doing your homework, Mr. Rubingh!! I for one am glad you saved us taxpayers half a million dollars and didn't blindly funnel money to some random organization that's making promises it can't keep!

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Jamie MacKenzie
Jamie MacKenzie
May 02, 2023

The fact that Commissioner Rubingh wants smaller government shouldn't affect local schools' acceptance of funds they can use to help children make better nutritional choices. Obesity is a crisis that is driving a huge spike in health care costs. If we reduce it, we end up with smaller government. If local schools use locally sourced food, Rubingh should benefit as a dairy farmer. Meanwhile, Rubingh mentions Critical Race theory, without a shred of evidence that any public school teacher in N. Michigan has ever even mentioned it, much less taught it here. Setting yourself squarely against programs that try to reduce racism, homophobia, ableism, trans-ism, etc. is a profoundly un-Christian stance. Jesus wants us to help the least among us…

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bfbridge
May 04, 2023
Replying to

What do you think GCRC was going to do with the $500,000? Should we just blindly give money to organizations that have nice-sounding goals?

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cathyalbro
Apr 29, 2023

April 29, 2023

“Self-reliance is an important aim for any society that hopes to endure the challenges of the coming decades”. This quote is from THE PERMACULTURE HANDBOOK, by Peter Bane. We would be smart to take this advice and prepare our children for a world where self-reliance is a pillar of not just surviving but thriving.

Good nutrition is a necessary foundation of health. And much of the food our bodies need to stay healthy can be grown locally. Our reliance and overconsumption of unhealthy processed foods has led to a pandemic of obesity and other life-long health problems. And this has led to a shorter life expectancy and extortionary health care costs, which we pay for directly or…

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bfbridge
May 03, 2023
Replying to

How do you know the grant would teach children to be self-reliant in growing their own healthy food? My understanding is that the GCRC won't tell the BoH what they are going to do with the money.

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