I hear it is back-to-school time out there in the rest of the world, which means it is a good time to plug next week’s Slow Food-sponsored Eat-In at Daley Plaza. 

Moving kids away from a diet of high-fructose corn syrup and processed meat byproducts would seem to be an a priori go0d, but even if you could care less about the health of those who will be wiping the drool from your chin in the nursing home, consider this:

Schools (along with hospitals and prisons) are the largest institutional purchasers of food in the country. And, for better or worse, consumer demand, in the form of dollars spent, is the most effective lever with which to effect system-wide changes in production and distribution. The state of Illinois has already figured this out; yesterday Governor Quinn signed SB 3990 — aka the Illinois Food, Farms, and Jobs Act —  into law.

States the bill, the result of two years of labor on the part of the Illinois Local and Organic Food and Farm Task Force: 

” 10% of food and food products purchased by entities funded in part or in whole by State dollars, which spend more than $25,000 per year on food or food products for its students, residents, or clients, including, without limitation, public schools, child care facilities, after-school programs, and hospitals, shall, by 2020, be local farm or food products.”

Ten percent may not seem like much — the bar for state-run prisons and universities is set at 20% — but in aggregate it’s a lot of money. The USDA estimates Illinois consumers spend $48 billion on food a year. Even ten percent of that, redirected, would build a pretty big lever.