What would you consider to be a vegetable?

What would you consider to be a vegetable?

Some people use it as a word to describe people who are lazy, or worse, someone who is kept alive on a respirator and feeding tube. The dictionary defines it as a “plant or part of a plant used as food.” Most commonly, though, it is used to refer to the latter.

Like carrots.

Broccoli.

Brussels Sprouts.

Potatoes.

Lettuce.

Tomato Sauce.

Yes, tomato sauce. Much to my own personal dismay Congress has passed a bill that legally classifies tomato sauce as a vegetable so that it can be counted towards the percentage of federally funded school lunches required to be composed of vegetables.  This provision is part of a larger bill that would:

1. Block the Department of Agriculture from limiting starchy vegetables, including potatoes, corn and peas, to two servings per week. The two-serving limit was first proposed to cut down on french fries.
2. Maintain two tablespoons of tomato paste as the limit necessary to categorize it as a vegetable. The USDA had previously tried to require a half-cup of tomato paste to be counted as a vegetable, which was argued to be too large of an amount to make a pizza. Federally subsidized lunches must include a certain number of vegetables to be served.
3. Require more studies on the long-term sodium requirements set forth by the USDA guidelines.
4. Require the USDA to define "whole grains" before regulating them.

When this story showed up on my Twitter feed (Yes, I do get a large amount of my food news from my Twitter feed… don’t judge. It’s the information age.) my first reaction was somewhat similar to David’s, coming back from the dentist combined with a segment of “Really?” on Weekend Update with Seth Meyers.

Is this real life? Is this what we have come to that we are considering pizza sauce a vegetable? Really? Really Congress? We want to teach our children that eating processed pizza for dinner is the same as eating Brussels sprouts? Really? That’s like saying that broccoli-cheddar soup with a side of nacho cheese in a bread bowl is a vegetable. Really? Didn’t you ever hear that tomatoes aren’t even technically classified as a vegetable? It has seeds inside, which makes it a fruit!

Republicans on the House Appropriation Committee said the changes would "prevent overly burdensome and costly regulations and to provide greater flexibility for local school districts to improve the nutritional quality of meals." However I fail to see how pizza and spaghetti improve the nutritional quality of meals. Tomato paste is made of tomatoes, but in order to become the consistency of paste, they have to cook for hours, which then eliminates the vitamins and minerals that are a part of the untouched tomato. This bill further creates an incentive to cheapen the quality of school lunches, so that school districts can increase the profitability of their food service programs, thereby compromising the nutritional value of the meals they serve and the health of their students.

This is the first step down a dangerous road. Next thing you know, the Ag Industry will be lobbying for Congress to consider French fries a vegetable. Hey they’re made from potatoes… so why not?