Hawaii Delegates Vote for Pizza As School Lunch Vegetable
UPDATED1 11/21/11 10:47 a.m.
WASHINGTON 鈥斕鼺orget the Hamakua tomatoes, and Kauai taro. Throw two tablespoons of canned tomato paste on a pizza and you have yourself a vegetable.
That’s the definition that Congress is using anyway.
In passing a this month, Congress thwarted President Barack Obama’s attempt to change rules that allow schools to characterize pizza and French fries as vegetables.
After pushback from the food industry, lawmakers included a provision that enables public schools to bypass proposed federal Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines that would have required a wider variety of fresh fruits and vegetables in cafeterias. They argued the changes would be too expensive, a claim that . Critics have drawn comparisons to President Ronald Reagan’s ketchup and relish as vegetables as a way to keep costs down in the 1980s.
All four of Hawaii’s congressional delegates voted in favor of the bill, which keeps the tomato paste standard intact and bans a limit on starchy vegetables like peas, potatoes and lima beans that the Obama administration sought to impose.
Obesity rates have tripled in the past 30 years, and a earlier this year shows that Hawaii is now one of 40 states in which at least 40 percent of young adults are considered overweight or obese.
鈥淥ur keiki deserve the healthiest school lunches we can provide, that鈥檚 something I鈥檝e long fought for,” said Rep. Mazie Hirono. “I didn鈥檛 support everything, like blocking the improvements for school lunches, in the spending bill.”
Hirono says the overall bill earned her support because it keeps the government running through Dec. 16 and makes investments in agriculture and family nutrition programs.
Rep. Colleen Hanabusa also indicated that the parts of the bill that she supported 鈥斕齧illions of dollars for a Native Hawaiian housing program and infrastructure investments, for example听鈥 outweighed her concern about school nutrition provisions.
“It is unfortunate that my Republican colleagues felt the need to include unnecessary policy riders in this measure that provides important funding for our state,鈥 Hanabusa said.
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Obama into law on Nov. 18.
