Progressives see politics and opportunities for power in everything. Even the food you eat.

Matt Lamb reports at the College Fix.

‘Real food’ movement on campus funnels real money to left-wing causes

Stop GMOs if you want to give people ‘real power’

A movement to bring “real food” to Northwestern University may have less to do with improving nutrition than paying into the coffers of a host of left-wing special-interest groups.

A group of students called Real Food at NU rallied last week to convince the school to buy 20 percent of its dining-hall food from “real” sources by 2020, according to The Daily Northwesterner.

The effort is part of a national organization, the Real Food Challenge, which lists its criteria for real food as “local and community-based,” “fair,” “ecologically sound” and “humane.”

Miranda Cawley, co-director of Real Food at NU, cited the parent organization’s criteria for “real food” in an email to The College Fix.

She did not explain how eating real food would benefit students more than what they currently eat, such as by making them healthier. Cawley did not respond to followup requests for explanation.

The movement appears to ignore science-based evidence to judge what food is “real,” by disqualifying food that includes genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said that foods made with genetically engineered plants “are generally as nutritious as foods from comparable traditionally bred plants,” and that such plants are no more likely to be toxic or cause allergic reactions than traditional plants.

Katie Blanchard, an organizer for the Real Food Challenge, told The Fix by email her group frowns on food with GMOs because the “vast majority” use pesticides.

That means that “farmers have to depend on intentionally limited growing practices that require products from an equally limited set of companies,” Blanchard said.

She added that GMOs “privilege practices that consolidate power in the food system,” whereas real food leads to “more people having real power in the food system.”