House Republicans are on record saying that, even without Herman Cain as their presidential nominee, the way to “improve” school lunches is to keep pizza and French fries on the menu.

 

Opposed to new nutritional standards proposed by the Obama administration, GOP lawmakers have offered their own rules which eliminate attempts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to cut back on salt, potatoes and other starchy foods served to students. Republicans also want nothing to do with getting whole grains introduced to school cafeterias.

 

And in a nod to the Reagan era try at getting ketchup reclassified as a vegetable, the GOP wants tomato paste on pizzas counted as a veggie. Current law states that two tablespoons of tomato paste on a federally subsidized school lunch pizza counts as a serving of vegetables. The Obama administration wanted to the minimum to half a cup of tomato paste to qualify.

 

The Senate, in a bipartisan move last month, voted to block the administration’s attempt to limit French fry inclusion on school lunch menus to twice a week.

 

Makers of frozen pizzas for schools, the sodium industry and potato growers lobbied Republicans to roll back the USDA’s new standards. GOP members of the House Appropriations Committee said they want to “prevent overly burdensome and costly regulations and to provide greater flexibility for local school districts to improve the nutritional quality of meals.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Pizza Is a Vegetable? Congress Says Yes (by Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press)

Congress Blocks New Rules on School Lunches (by Ron Nixon, New York Times)