Johnson Announces “Real Food, Real Freedom”
Sioux Falls, S.D. – Today, gubernatorial candidate and Congressman Dusty Johnson announced “Real Food, Real Freedom,” an innovative plan designed to ensure nutritious food is available to all South Dakotans. The initiative focuses on personal responsibility, local agriculture, and smart state policy to strengthen families and communities.
“We should be making it easier for South Dakota families to make healthy choices,” said Johnson. “As Governor, I’ll work to ensure taxpayer dollars are used to purchase healthier, whole foods, rather than processed sugar. We can also do more to make sure South Dakota’s producers, both large and small, can more easily enter the market to sell their products, and make sure South Dakota’s schools are incentivized to buy meat locally. It’s time to let South Dakota feed South Dakota.”
“Real Food, Real Freedom” consists of three pillars:
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Removal of pop and candy from SNAP-eligible purchases: Under the plan, pop and candy would be eliminated from the list of items that can be purchased through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in South Dakota. South Dakota would request a federal waiver to redirect benefits toward milk, protein, fruits, vegetables, grains, and other wholesome foods. Johnson supports legislative efforts, including a plan soon-to-be announced by Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt (R-Sioux Falls) and Sen. Sydney Davis (R-Burbank) to establish the framework for pursuing the waiver.
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Eases the government burden on selling farm-fresh food: The plan would cut red tape on local producers, from small-scale vegetable growers to ranchers selling meat directly to families. Johnson pledges to enable expanded local-producer sales to grocery stores, simplify licensing and labeling rules for small processors and direct-to-consumer sales, and modernize inspection laws to make it easier to sell vegetables and locally processed meat while maintaining food safety.
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Expand access to local meat in South Dakota schools: “Real Food, Real Freedom” will encourage and incentivize schools to serve local beef, pork, chicken, and other locally grown meat in school lunches, building off Johnson’s congressional work in this space. The initiative will bring education, agriculture, meat processing, and nutrition leaders together to ensure flexibility for local school districts and connect producers directly to food-service buyers.
“By letting common sense and safety guide our decisions, rather than burdensome bureaucracy, we’ll give South Dakota producers and families the chance to thrive,” Johnson continued. “South Dakotans shouldn’t need a stack of government forms to sell a quarter beef, and they shouldn’t be subsidizing junk food. ‘Real Food, Real Freedom’ gets all of us on the right path.”
To learn more about “Real Food, Real Freedom,” please click here.
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Dusty continues to roll out good ideas. Doesn’t South Dakota want someone who’s interested in actually governing to be the Governor? Notice the silence from Hansen and Doeden…
!!!!
RFK Jr may be off base on vaccinations, but he is right on target with junk food. Great job, Dusty!
Absolutely agree. America’s obesity epidemic needs to be addressed. It’s impacting everything from healthcare to military readiness.
Dusty working with Taylor Rehfeldt on this? I have a feeling this won’t be the last time they are working together. Lt. Governor?
Maybe great minds just think alike! Or maybe not and she’s going to be Lt
This should happen. Seen it before though. Big food producers will hire lobbyists to say “poor kids shouldn’t be deprived of having a treat” from time to time. Let them have some candy and cakes and pop so they feel like normal kids they say. It’s astounding to me that this is still allowed.
Do you guys still list ketchup as a school lunch vegetable? Seems like you still do.
Seems like a nanny-stater to me.
Are you literate?
All good ideas.
Not a single item has a damn thing to do with access. I see increased bureaucratic nanny-state part 1, removing quality controls but not incentivizing increased production for part 2, and a part 3 that remains blissfully ignorant the actual economics and scale of school lunch. Prep time is limited and the school serves more meals in less time than any restaurant in town. What works in your home kitchen won’t translate to 300-1500 meals to be served inside a 50 minute window.
I’m sick of his feel-good ineffectual bs earning him salivating praise from the army of dum-dums so thoroughly weened on idiocy that Hansen and Doeden’s brand of ignorance is their only point of comparison. When your heads that far up your own rear end off course a normal stool seems like a significantly better dietary option than day old diarrhea.
Wow, I’m so glad you didn’t overreact.
These are all common sense, good ideas that should get widespread support but somehow you’ve made that sound like a bad thing.
Common sense? Try paying higher beef prices then raising school lunch prices and then seeing if families that already don’t pay will pay more and schools with thousands in unpaid lunch bills can make up the difference. They already have a budget shortfall on lunches. But sure, local ranchers and small farmers will be able to meet bulk prices because he said so.
Unfunded mandates are poor policy. If this is how he’ll make policy decisions as a governor, no thanks. Just because it sounds like a good idea doesn’t mean it is when you think it through a few steps. Seems a lot like a high schooler offering free pizza to get elected student body president.
You must not be able to read. There is no mandate in the press release.
Sounds to me like you’re upset that this is a good idea that didn’t come from one of your candidates of choice. There are no mandates listed. And the schools will not pay higher beef prices. Buying a whole beef right from a local butcher shop is cheaper than buying frozen boxes off a truck and better quality to boot. Better yet ask your school to join the beef program where ranchers can donate a beef to the school through a participating butcher. Our school does and we’ve donated twice now, along with several other ranchers. What a blessing for our children to have the highest quality protein to eat! And then instead of being a negative Nelly, maybe pay for the processing of that beef do you can feel good about yourself. Dusty will make a wonderful governor!
Glad your plan is to donate. It’s not. Really a plan and your math ain’t mathing for large school systems. These aren’t serious solutions and pressure on schools to buy local without the ability to match huge bulk prices is an unfunded mandate. But if you think giving away your beef for free, two whole cows is a long term solution, keep on keeping on.
Why not just make sure that big companies are paying adequate wages so people don’t have to use SNAP? What’s the percentage of Walmart employees on SNAP? How much does their CEO make? Just checking.
A great point, Kathy. It is difficult to stomach people ranting about the family in need of assistance spending taxpayer dollars on a candy bar when those tax dollars are subsidizing the profits of corporations like Walmart who refuse to pay living wages while their executives make unfathomable amounts of money, and their revenue continue to climb.
News flash: the vast majority of us are closer to needing SNAP than we are to achieving the amount of wealth we would need to for the people in power to care about us. Dusty included.
The Federal Minimum Wage of $7.25/hour is enough to supply an individual who works 40 hours a week, 2080 hours a year, with a gross income of $15,080. The Federal poverty level for an individual is $15,650. Obviously this is a problem.
The income eligibility limit for SNAP benefits is set at 130% of the FPL, or $20,345. That works out to $9.78/hour. Raising the minimum wage so that a single person who works full time is ineligible for SNAP benefits might be a goal.
According to Google AI, Walmart associates start at $14-19/hour, so Walmart is not the problem.
Employers don’t pay their employees according to how many dependents they have, or the size of their household. It’s not your employers’ fault if you have more children than you can afford or your spouse loses his job..
$14-$19/hour is not a livable wage. Corporate greed is 100% the problem.
You are making my point by digging in and defending Walmart. You have been so conditioned to hate the poor that you will side with a corporation and people who literally cannot comprehend what life is like for the average American. My point is that the rage is misdirected at people who have to turn to social safety nets when it is more appropriately directed at the 1%. THAT is where the real waste, fraud, and abuse are.
I don’t hate the poor. The poor are defined by the Federal Poverty Level. For an individual with no dependents, that is $15,650/year, or $7.52/hour. That is an objective fact.
Apparently people in government have determined that this is a livable wage. You don’t. Feelings are subjective, and what feels livable to you probably feels insufficient to somebody else. I have encountered people with household incomes over $300,000 who think they are middle class. They don’t believe they are among the rich. The mean household income in this country is now about $85,000/year, the median is $150,000/year. I am sure there are people struggling to pay their bills who fall in that range, and they feel they are poor, not middle class.
Nobody cares about your feelings.
Or yours.
facts matter, feelings don’t
some government agency has determined the FPL.
it’s all maths
for a one person household, the FPL is $15,650
add $5500 for each additional person
is $21,150 ($10.17/hour) enough to support two people?
is $26,650 ($12.81/hour) enough for a family of 3?
is $32,150 ($15.46/hour) enough to support a family of 4?
Can a family of five live on $37,650 ($18.10/hour)?
If Walmart is starting their associates at $14-19/hour, they are paying them enough to keep them above the FPL
Before politicians start insisting that employers pay their employees more, they need to look into how the government defines poverty. The employers are not the ones doing that.
grudznick has been warned my visage and demeanor is unsuitable for these Walmart jobs, with which I disagree, however I understand those greeter fellows make plenty of rack for such an easy job. All employers must pay the minimum at least…that’s why they call it a minimum. They’ll be fine and if they don’t think so grudznick says they should go get a different job that pays what they want. 2% unemployment, you know, so workers can be picky.
Love the bit about expanding access to local meat in South Dakota schools. Until it was axed by the “beautiful” bill, there was a program that would have paid a billion dollars to American farmers and ranchers to get local food to schools and food pantries. Maybe Dusty didn’t like that one so much because he wasn’t so up the ass of that administration.
Indeed worth wondering about for sure. Thanks.