This past Tuesday, Congress passed The Spending Bill, which included an Agriculture Department provision that declared a slice of pizza a serving of vegetables. Congress was originally trying to subsidize governmental school lunches for school aged children in recognizing that they are dangerously obese. However, the American Frozen Food Institute spent $5 million convincing congress that the government-subsidized pizza was healthy.
Although Congress has set a regulation on proportion sizes and what kind of tomato paste and is included, it is still absurd to think that pizza has been declared a vegetable. I can just imagine pizzas growing in a garden, beginning with a personal pan size and growing into a 42’ pizza in its adult size. Shall we also include pizza when teaching children about vegetables? Rather than finding other nutritional sources of food to help with the growing obesity problem, Congress was swayed by the American Frozen Food Institute to avoid the issue, and just declare their product a vegetable.
I found a cartoon that portrays this situation:
I found a cartoon that portrays this situation:
I too found this interesting. How can pizza be declared a vegetable? This is something that was ridiculed by all the late night shows last week. One of them even showed pizza growing in a garden. That's not what Congress is saying though. All this fuss was over tomato paste. Specifically, determining how much would count as one serving of vegetables. Currently, an 1/8 of a cup of tomato paste is said to contain as much nutritional value as a 1/2 a cup of vegetables. The Obama administration was hoping to make a change to school lunch regulations so that tomato paste would stop receiving outsized credit. In other words, they think that an 1/8 of a cup of tomato paste should be equal to an 1/8 of a cup of vegetables. Congress blocked that change so that tomato paste will continue to receive special treatment in school cafeterias. Obama's administration was trying to crack down on childhood obesity by reducing the amount of tomato paste that can be put on pizza in school lunches, but it seems that interest groups lobbying for corporations were able to make their voices heard and Congress voted in their favor.
ReplyDeleteSee the Washington Post article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/did-congress-declare-pizza-as-a-vegetable-not-exactly/2011/11/20/gIQABXgmhN_blog.html for more information on this topic.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE THIS EDITORIAL!
ReplyDeleteIt proved all of the comics I have seen on tumblr and facebook lately, and it made me look up more articles about this topic.
Your comment about the different sizes growing on plants is hilarious!
Seriously, I loved this editorial and I am so pleased that I got to read it.
I agree with you on the silliness of this new law.
A point I stated in my response to this was the fact that Americans will just glaze over the specifications of a "healthy pizza" and eat any pizza presented to them, thinking its healthy, just because congress says so.
I found this funny that it illustrates your vision: http://memebase.com/2011/11/20/internet-memes-pizza-vegetable/
:) I enjoyed this!