Congress, at long last, is turning its reactionary eye onto the vast amount of junk food widely available in American public schools. Bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the Senate to push the USDA into upping the standards it sets for what ends up on lunch trays and in vending machines.

Dangerous weight is on the rise in kids. This week, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the rate of obese and overweight kids has climbed to 18 percent of boys and 16 percent of girls. Four years ago, the number was 14 percent.

Lawmakers blame high-fat, high-sugar snacks that compete with nutritious meals in schools.

“Junk food sales in schools are out of control,” Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, said Thursday. “It undercuts our investment in school meal programs and steers kids toward a future of obesity and diet-related disease.”

Could this be the beginning of a national Upchuck Rebellion?

“…[A] big change is coming. With little fanfare, a grassroots ‘farm-to-cafeteria’ movement has been spreading from school to school. More than 400 school districts and 200 university cafeterias are now building their menus (and, in many places, their educational curricula) around fresh, local ingredients, much of which is organic. In nearly every case, the change has come because some parent, farmer, nutritionist, or other individual rose up to ask, ‘What the hell is going on here?’”

Check out the Farm to School website to learn more and see if you’re state is on board yet.