WJFW Channel 12: Cranberry Growers Hope To Keep Juices In School Vending Machines, Lunches

Manitowish Waters - Juice, sauce, and craisins.

That's what cranberries from Northern Wisconsin turn into after harvest.

But cranberries aren't naturally sweet.

So they add sugar. That's what irks the USDA and first lady Michelle Obama. As part of Mrs. Obama's "Let's Move Campaign", she and the USDA are pushing for stricter guidelines for school lunches. 

Drinks with less sugar is part of the move.

Under the guidelines, cranberry drinks could be removed from school vending machines and lunches.

But Mike Bartling runs Bartling's Manitowish Cranberry in Manitowish Waters.

He disagrees with the whole premise. 

"It's an educational process," Mike Bartling, owner of Bartling Manitowish Cranberry Co. Inc., says. "[We want] to teach regulators some of the unintended consequences of some of their proposed legislation. Then ultimately regulation. We want to be lumped in with the things that are good for you, we know we're good for people, cranberries are good for people."

Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson is part of the Congressional Cranberry Caucus.

He says cranberry sugar content is no greater than other fruit juices.

He says the rule needs to be changed.

"They wrote the rule in terms of what would or wouldn’t be allowed in schools based on how much sugar is added," Johnson says. "Opposed to taking a look at what the total sugar content. Sugar is sugar, whether it’s naturally occurring or added."

Johnson says it's an oversight and should be fixed.

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