A $2 Million Dinner Plate

By Rebekah Rast
Roughly 46 million Americans, 14 percent of the U.S. population, rely on the federal government’s food stamps program.

This is an 11 percent increase from one year ago and nearly 61 percent higher than the same time four years ago.
More than half of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s budget is nutrition assistance programs.

Despite the fact that the government is having to support more people than ever before on its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the possibility of a cut fiscal year 2012 budget by Congress, the Department of Agriculture is revamping an old marketing symbol.

The price tag on this symbol’s makeover: $2 million.

It has been decided that after two decades the food pyramid has not done its job. The new symbol, designed to resemble a dinner plate, contains wedges representing each food group. Much of the plate is taken up by food groups consisting of vegetables and fruits. A small round circle off to the side of the plate is said to represent dairy — a glass of low-fat milk possibly.

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