How Lobbyists Turned Pizza into a Vegetable

19 Nov, 2011

By now, most of us have seen the headlines. They’ve ranged from “Is Pizza Sauce a Vegetable? Congress says Yes” to the more childish, “Congress to USDA: Pizza is So a Vegetable, Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah.”

News outlets have had a field day over a recent proposal from Congress that suggests pizza sauce should qualify as a vegetable within the National School Lunch program. And most have oversimplified the story.

The typical news story went like so: The nutrition advocates want healthier school meals, but Republicans don’t believe the decision should be up to the feds. Simple, right? Here’s one example:

Conservatives in Congress say the federal government shouldn’t be telling children what to eat. They say requirements proposed by the president went too far, costing budget strapped schools too much. Local schools are caught in the middle.

Meanwhile, some food policy writers — Mother Jones’ Tom Philpott and Ed Bruske aka The Slow Cook, for example — have done a better job of explaining the massive industry lobbying at play.

And while it is easy to compare this current craziness to the infamous Reagan-era “ketchup-is-a-vegetable” school lunch proposal (which did not pass), it might be helpful to insert a bit more history, analysis, and political context into the discussion.

History: As much as the GOP would like to hang this on Obama, the effort to improve the quality of school meals dates back decades. In the mid-1990s, a huge battle was finally won to bring school nutrition in line with the federal government’s own dietary advice. Since then, science evolved and the standards needed updating.

Meanwhile, school vending machines are increasingly loaded with soft drinks and candy. Then, in 2004, (yes, under the Bush administration) Congress authorized the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to improve nutrition standards for school food. Finally, in 2009, at the request of the USDA, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report with very specific school lunch recommendations — based on science. So this process dates back to long before Obama (despite the GOP’s habit of blaming him for every problem since the dawn of time).

Common sense: If you stop and think about it, shouldn’t all food assistance programs (i.e., those paid for with taxpayer dollars), at the very least, comply with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans? Remember the feds’ new MyPlate diagram, which recommends half the meal be comprised of fresh fruits and vegetables? Yes, those guidelines.

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