The first Ronald was the TV weatherman Willard Scott in his younger years.

Scott had been doing Bozo the Clown on local television.

When the show was canceled, an enterprising McDonald’s franchise asked him to come up with a clown figure that would lure the kids into the restaurant.

Ray Kroc, owner of McDonald’s, saw the clown, liked the idea and extended it to the whole country.

Adults bear an enormous responsibility for the obesity epidemic among children.

Yet there’s also no question that even conscientious parents and guardians, who really do try to do well by kids and teach them healthy life choices, are not playing on a level field.

They’re going up against billions of dollars spent every year in corporate marketing, all aimed at teaching kids to make exactly the opposite sorts of choices

The fast-food giant hit back at a group of 550 doctors and health-care professionals who took out ads in U.S. newspapers demanding that the company do away with its redheaded clown mascot and its other marketing towards kids.

“Stop making the next generation sick — retire Ronald and the rest of your junk-food marketing to kids,” said Dr. Steven Rothschild, an associate professor of preventative medicine at Rush Medical College in a release on Wednesday.

In Philadelphia parents are taking matters in their own hands to protect kids from making poor food choices.

The parents standing guard outside the Oxford Food Shop are foot soldiers in a national battle over the diets of children that has taken on new fervor. With 20 percent of the nation’s children obese, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed new standards for federally subsidized school meals that call for more balanced meals and, for the first time, a limit on calories. The current standard specifies only a minimum calorie count, which some schools meet by adding sweet foods

The Agriculture Department wants to change the content of federally subsidized school meals — 33 million lunches and 9 million breakfasts a day — by the fall of 2012. Beyond the calorie cap, the new standards would emphasize whole grains, vegetables and fruits and set tighter limits on sodium and fats

Do you think schools should help parents in this battle. In the end they are our future