On yesterday's cable news, Maryland Juice caught mention of a vote by Congress to classify frozen pizza as a vegetable in public school lunches. By nightfall, I began to research whether it was a true story or just more sensationalist cable news. My initial digging turned up two articles verifying the basic gist of the alarming news, so I decided to use the story to highlight how good intentions and our modern legislative process can lead to ridiculous outcomes. The New York Times had this coverage:
Three days later, Kristin Wartman, a Huffington Post food writer piled on with this criticism:
In a victory for the makers of frozen pizzas, tomato paste and French fries, Congress on Monday blocked rules proposed by the Agriculture Department that would have overhauled the nation’s school lunch program.
The proposed changes — the first in 15 years to the $11 billion school lunch program — were meant to reduce childhood obesity by adding more fruits and green vegetables to lunch menus, Agriculture Department officials said.
The rules, proposed last January, would have cut the amount of potatoes served and would have changed the way schools received credit for serving vegetables by continuing to count tomato paste on a slice of pizza only if more than a quarter-cup of it was used. The rules would have also halved the amount of sodium in school meals over the next 10 years....
Food companies including ConAgra, Coca-Cola, Del Monte Foods and makers of frozen pizza like Schwan argued that the proposed rules would raise the cost of meals and require food that many children would throw away....
Nutrition experts called the action by Congress a setback for improving the nutritional standards in school lunches and addressing childhood obesity.
Three days later, Kristin Wartman, a Huffington Post food writer piled on with this criticism:
