Green Leafy ... Pizza

Congress says today that pizza is a vegetable.

The USDA wanted to discount the idea that a few tablespoons of tomato paste qualifies as a vegetable, but food companies balked at the change.

According to Republicans of the House Appropriations Committee, the change would "prevent only burdensome and costly regulations."

Corporate food lobbyists are behind the legislation. From the Associated Press:

"The final version of a spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year. These include limiting the use of potatoes on the lunch line, putting new restrictions on sodium and boosting the use of whole grains. The legislation would block or delay all of those efforts.

The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. USDA had wanted to only count a half-cup of tomato paste or more as a vegetable, and a serving of pizza has less than that.

Nutritionists say the whole effort is reminiscent of the Reagan administration's much-ridiculed attempt 30 years ago to classify ketchup as a vegetable to cut costs. This time around, food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools, the salt industry and potato growers requested the changes and lobbied Congress."

So, the next time the school kiddos take a trip to the farmer's market, help them find the heirloom pizza stand and remind them that no child is ever left behind!