As school nutrition officials gathered around a conference table in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on May 27, Michelle Obama’s trademark hug-a-stranger vibe was notably absent. “This is unacceptable,” she said curtly. “It’s unacceptable to me not just as First Lady but also as a mother.” What was (32) Obama was an attempt by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to ease school nutrition standards she helped pass in 2010. “The stakes couldn’t be higher on this issue,” Obama said, noting that 1 in 3 U.S. children will develop Type 2 diabetes. “The last thing we can afford to do right now is play politics with our kids’ health.” But in the nation’s capital, even kids’ health can be political. In Congress, the interests of farmers and food companies regularly (33) with the concerns of parents and the nutritional recommendations of the USDA. Nor is the school-lunch fight new: The standards the First Lady is fighting to preserve have already been weakened once before (34) food-industry opposition. This was, to some extent, inevitable. Ever since she made school meals a signature issue early in the President’s first term, the First Lady has tried to join forces with the food industry on initiatives to shrink package sizes and include healthier fare on kids’ menus. In exchange, she has moderated her criticism of junk food and acknowledged that there is nothing wrong with the occasional (35) . (She notably handed out sugar-sweet marshmallow Peeps at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll and has called french fries a favorite food.) But that tenuous alliance has been (36) as House Republicans, food-industry groups, and other stakeholders have pushed to allow schools to delay the new federal standards. In 2011, Republicans held up funding for new rules in order to extract concessions favorable to the potato and cheese industries. The First Lady’s critics also argue that the rules are inflexible and full compliance is too costly for some districts.