The food industry lobbyists have been working overtime, and Jamie Oliver reports on what they have been accomplishing:
A new Congressional bill that looks likely to pass quickly will slow down reductions in sodium by requiring further study on long-term requirements, block whole grains by haggling over the definition, and help pizza stay on the menu by allowing two tablespoons of tomato paste on pizza to keep counting as a vegetable.
Jamie Oliver isn’t the only person upset by Congressional corruption:
Many are outraged by these possible last minute changes, including Mission: Readiness, a group made up of hundreds of retired military Generals and Admirals who have been raising alarms about the readiness of our armed forces due to current childhood obesity. Amy Dawson Taggart, the director of Mission: Readiness, recently stated in a letter to politicians:
“We are outraged that Congress is seriously considering language that would effectively categorize pizza as a vegetable in the school lunch program. It doesn’t take an advanced degree in nutrition to call this a national disgrace.”
I consider the Mission:Readiness organization to be a national disgrace. Their only concern is in getting kids fit enough for eligibility to serve in the military, so they can then be sent overseas to be slaughtered by the thousands for no good reason at all. Mission:Readiness is “outraged” by tomato paste, pizza and the definition of a vegetable serving. I submit that their “outrage” is misplaced, and should be instead directed towards the star-spangled nails used to close all the flag-draped coffins.
(and tomatoes are fruits, not vegetables).
Mike: Consider this from the AP: “A new report by a nonprofit group says that up to 90 percent of young Philadelphia residents are ineligible for military service because of criminal records, obesity or lack of education.”
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7496118
I’d rather be a fat dumb criminal than a fit patriotic young corpse.
More on Pizza as a vegetable, from United Republic: http://unitedrepublic.org/2011/top-5-reactions-to-pizza-is-a-vegetable-controversy/
I don’t know about tomato paste, but I have seen many references, in the wake of the UC Davis incident, to pepper-spray now being classified as a vegetable, too.