The US House of Representatives dealt a blow to childhood obesity warriors on Thursday by passing a bill that abandons proposals that threatened to end the reign of pizza and French fries on federally funded school lunch menus.
The scuttled changes, which would have stripped pizza's status as a vegetable and limited how often French fries could be served, stemmed from a 2010 child nutrition law calling on schools to improve the nutritional quality of lunches served to almost 32 million US school children.
The action is a win for the makers of frozen French fries and pizza and comes just weeks after the deep-pocketed food, beverage and restaurant industries successfully weakened government proposals for voluntary food marketing guidelines to children.
"It's an important victory," said Corey Henry, spokesman for the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI). That trade association lobbied Congress on behalf of frozen pizza sellers like ConAgra Foods Inc and Schwan Food Co and French fry makers McCain Foods Ltd and J.R. Simplot Co, the latter best known as a supplier to fast-food company McDonald's Corp.
"Our concern is that the standards would force companies in many respects to change their products in a way that would make them unpalatable to students," Henry said.
Other AFFI members include H.J. Heinz Co, General Mills Inc and Kraft Foods Inc.
The school lunch provisions were a small part of a mammoth bill that provides money for all parts of the federal government. The House sent the bill to the Senate for final Congressional approval.
"They started out with French fries and now they have moved on to pizza," said Jared Polis, Colorado Democrat, who lamented the government's subsidy of unhealthy diets through school meals. "Pizza alone (without side dishes) ... common sense, it's not a vegetable."
Calls to Minnesota-based Schwan and its external public relations firm and ConAgra were not returned.
Mark Dunn, AFFI's chairman and J.R. Simplot's main lobbyist, referred requests for comment to a company spokesman, who declined to respond.
Pizza as a veggie
Polis mentioned French fries in reference to a provision in the bill that would have blocked the government from limiting servings of white potatoes to one cup per week in meals served through the roughly $18 billion US school meals program overseen by the US Department of Agriculture.
In addition to potatoes, USDA also proposed limits on starchy vegetables including corn, green peas and lima beans, while requiring lunches to serve a wider variety of fruit and vegetables.
Another provision bars the USDA from changing the way it credits tomato paste, used in pizza. The change would have required pizza to have at least a half-cup of tomato paste to qualify as a vegetable serving. Current rules, which likely will remain in place, require just two tablespoons of tomato paste.
According to a USDA report from November 2007, pizza and French fries were among the most commonly consumed lunch foods by participants in the national school lunch program.
Sam Farr of California, the Democratic leader on the appropriations subcommittee in charge of the USDA, said the interference with USDA rule-writing was "wrong" and "shouldn't be done". Still, Farr supported passage of the overall bill.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Wednesday that U.S. school children would still see more fruit and vegetables, more grains, more low-fat milk and less salt and fat in meals despite the language in the spending bill.
"First of all, we can assure parents of school-age children (that) USDA will do everything it can" to improve the nutritional quality of school meals, as required by the 2010 child nutrition law.
Vilsack was speaking via teleconference from Hanoi during a US trade trip.
Healthier school lunches are a cornerstone of First Lady Michelle Obama's campaign to end childhood obesity. Nearly one in three children in America is overweight or obese and the numbers are growing.
"Clearly more pizza and French fries in schools is not good for kids, but it's good for companies that make pizza and French fries," said Margo Wootan, nutrition policy director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group that advocates better food and nutrition policies.
Wootan said US food makers trumpet products they say are healthy while at the same time lobbying against regulations aimed at improving the nutritional quality of their products.
"A year ago, I was walking the halls of Congress arm-in-arm with the food industry, fighting for healthier school lunches," Wootan said. "Today, we are on opposite sides, and I'm battling to keep them from weakening school nutrition standards and school marketing guidelines and other provisions."
If you have ever had American standard lunches, this would be a godsend to you. They've taken all the best foods away because parents don't know how to teach their children to not eat everything in sight, at least they allow students to retain pizza.
Good job congress, you've done something I appreciate, and I don't even attend school anymore.
Edit: all of you who are going to bash America can **** off, we've heard it before, and I doubt your country is as perfect as you are so ready to throw in our faces.
If you have ever had American standard lunches, this would be a godsend to you. They've taken all the best foods away because parents don't know how to teach their children to not eat everything in sight, at least they allow students to retain pizza.
Good job congress, you've done something I appreciate, and I don't even attend school anymore.
Edit: all of you who are going to bash America can **** off, we've heard it before, and I doubt your country is as perfect as you are so ready to throw in our faces.
You forgot your precious purple.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I COLOUR MY TEXT IN THE GENERAL CHAT THREAD JUST TO SPITE LUVITUS!
Nice America-Hate thread you've started, I'm glad we can talk about how amazingly stupid America is and laugh about how all your countries are so far and away superior in all aspects of your amazing lives, while America grovels at your feet.
This discussion has been here before, the only reason I can see that you bring it up once more is to rub it in our faces.
I didn't forget it I left it behind(I find it rude to post purple outside of chat), like you people give up any manners you may have to insult America at whatever chance you have.
Nice America-Hate thread you've started, I'm glad we can talk about how amazingly stupid America is and laugh about how all your countries are so far and away superior in all aspects of your amazing lives, while America grovels at your feet.
This discussion has been here before, the only reason I can see that you bring it up once more is to rub it in our faces.
****, Off.
Half of it is hate, another half is suggestions of improvement.
Furrys get more respect than America, and I've never seen someone who wasn't a furry even give half-assed respect towards them.
You'd be surprised.
Back on-topic,
I think pizza being a vegetable is only right if there is a logical way to grow it. Otherwise, I think it is a candidate of vegetable use.
However, I fail to see how this is a "blow against" the "war" on child obesity.
First off, Those children have parents, don't they? Shouldn't they, you know, be offering ****ING guidance on keeping healthy?. It's the PARENTS job, not the government. If anything, the government should stop offering the lunches in the first place since the kids aren't educated enough to make proper choices, and even if the school (and they often do) have health and wellness in their curriculum, of that child's parents are ignorant of it, then that effort to teach will be wasted. It doesn't matter how much you say to kids in school that fresh fruits, vegetables, grains, etc are healthy and they should avoid eating junk food, if the parents are going to give their kids junk food, the kids aren't going to protest. The lunch programs aren't flawed, the kids just don't have the ability to make healthy choices. And this isn't surprising.
Heaven forbid they remove restrictions on school's food choices, allow parents to choose alternative healthy lunch plans for their children or even advise them to pack their child's lunch if they notice they aren't eating right. Instead we get another example of insane political logic that further cements how brilliant our government is.
EDIT: Also once again passed a law in favor of companies over health.
Did you guys even read the article???
What the crap is wrong with you people.... READ IT BEFORE POSTING.
TL;DR version:
The article specifically mentions that pizza is considered a "vegetable serving" because of the tomato paste.
And right now it only requires 2 tablespoons of tomato paste... While the government was trying to change that to a half-cup.
So basically the law right now allows Pizza to be considered a vegetable serving...
The government was trying to CHANGE THAT - to FIX IT. If the bill had passed, pizza would no longer have been in the vegetable category.
The government was trying to pass the bill to correct the way childrens' school-lunch programs are serving very unhealthy foods.
And it's entirely true. School lunch-programs are a joke, and they are being served the unhealthiest foods imaginable, which are SUPPOSEDLY healthy for them according to the current guidelines.
But because of bribes (aka: lobbying), and possibly other reasons relating to the larger part of the bill, the bill did not pass.
And the unhealthy corporations which are selling those unhealthy foods to the schools using government (aka: taxpayer) money are celebrating now, because they won and they get to keep making kids fat, and buying off more politicians in the future with the extra money they'll make from the taxpayers.
Sad thing is, some of you guys think this sort of problem is exclusive to the U.S. government...
Well, I've got news for you: It's not.
source
Dear America, WTF?
Sincere, the World
Good job congress, you've done something I appreciate, and I don't even attend school anymore.
Edit: all of you who are going to bash America can **** off, we've heard it before, and I doubt your country is as perfect as you are so ready to throw in our faces.
You forgot your precious purple.
This thread has so much discussion valueNice America-Hate thread you've started, I'm glad we can talk about how amazingly stupid America is and laugh about how all your countries are so far and away superior in all aspects of your amazing lives, while America grovels at your feet.
This discussion has been here before, the only reason I can see that you bring it up once more is to rub it in our faces.
****, Off.
I didn't forget it I left it behind(I find it rude to post purple outside of chat), like you people give up any manners you may have to insult America at whatever chance you have.
Half of it is hate, another half is suggestions of improvement.
I've seen enough of the people on these forums to know two things are hated more than any else,
Comic SansBronys and America.Furrys get more respect than America, and I've never seen someone who wasn't a furry even give half-assed respect towards them.
You'd be surprised.
Back on-topic,
I think pizza being a vegetable is only right if there is a logical way to grow it. Otherwise, I think it is a candidate of vegetable use.
However, I fail to see how this is a "blow against" the "war" on child obesity.
First off, Those children have parents, don't they? Shouldn't they, you know, be offering ****ING guidance on keeping healthy?. It's the PARENTS job, not the government. If anything, the government should stop offering the lunches in the first place since the kids aren't educated enough to make proper choices, and even if the school (and they often do) have health and wellness in their curriculum, of that child's parents are ignorant of it, then that effort to teach will be wasted. It doesn't matter how much you say to kids in school that fresh fruits, vegetables, grains, etc are healthy and they should avoid eating junk food, if the parents are going to give their kids junk food, the kids aren't going to protest. The lunch programs aren't flawed, the kids just don't have the ability to make healthy choices. And this isn't surprising.
That's it, I'm moving to Europe.
Lawmakers have made a major facepalm.
NECKBEERD FORUM
MEAT IS NOT A VEGETABLE.
CHEESE IS NOT A VEGETABLE.
TOMATO IS NOT A VEGETABLE.
PIZZA.
IS NOT.
A MOTHER.
****ING.
VEGETABLE.
Chumhandle: electronicAssassin
Congress constantly ****s things up. All the time. Also half of them are drunk.
U mad?
EDIT: Also once again passed a law in favor of companies over health.
Here is a somewhat biased and the slightest bit misleading article to shed some light http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/did-congress-declare-pizza-as-a-vegetable-not-exactly/2011/11/20/gIQABXgmhN_blog.html
What the crap is wrong with you people.... READ IT BEFORE POSTING.
TL;DR version:
The article specifically mentions that pizza is considered a "vegetable serving" because of the tomato paste.
And right now it only requires 2 tablespoons of tomato paste... While the government was trying to change that to a half-cup.
So basically the law right now allows Pizza to be considered a vegetable serving...
The government was trying to CHANGE THAT - to FIX IT. If the bill had passed, pizza would no longer have been in the vegetable category.
The government was trying to pass the bill to correct the way childrens' school-lunch programs are serving very unhealthy foods.
And it's entirely true. School lunch-programs are a joke, and they are being served the unhealthiest foods imaginable, which are SUPPOSEDLY healthy for them according to the current guidelines.
But because of bribes (aka: lobbying), and possibly other reasons relating to the larger part of the bill, the bill did not pass.
And the unhealthy corporations which are selling those unhealthy foods to the schools using government (aka: taxpayer) money are celebrating now, because they won and they get to keep making kids fat, and buying off more politicians in the future with the extra money they'll make from the taxpayers.
Sad thing is, some of you guys think this sort of problem is exclusive to the U.S. government...
Well, I've got news for you: It's not.