Ketchup as a vegetable
The ketchup as a vegetable controversy refers to a proposed United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Drug Administration directive, early in the presidency of Ronald Reagan, that would have reclassified ketchup and pickle relish from condiments to vegetables, allowing public schools to cut out a serving of cooked or fresh vegetable from hot lunch program child-nutrition requirements.
History
Reagan's FY1982 budget proposed $57 billion in spending cuts, with $27 billion of those cuts to entitlements. The budget was later modified and passed as the Gramm-Latta Budget which cut $1 billion from the school lunch program and tasked the USDA with coming up with a solution that maintained nutritional requirements for school lunches in spite of the lower funding.[1] On September 3, 1981, the Secretary of Agriculture proposed classifying ketchup and pickle relish as vegetables to save money on school lunch programs.
Reaction
The proposal to classify ketchup as a vegetable met with outrage from nutritionists and Democrats.[2] Compounding this outrage, on the same day that the USDA announced the cost-cutting proposal for school lunches, the White House purchased $209,508 worth of new china and place settings with the presidential seal embossed in gold.[3]
Charges of greed and indifference were made by media and pundits. The administration responded their concern was to address "plate waste" and to serve what students would actually consume. Focusing more unwanted attention on the matter, a mid-level political appointee at the USDA touted the directive's language as an example of the "New Federalism" (returning rights to the state level) touted by Reagan during the 1980 presidential campaign, in that the final decision to implement would be made on the state level. Reassignment of that employee the following month led to charges of a political firing.
Reporting on the proposed directive, Newsweek magazine illustrated its story with a bottle of ketchup captioned "now a vegetable".[4] The proposed directive was criticized by nutritionists and Democratic politicians who staged photo ops where they dined on nutrition-poor meals that conformed to the new lax standards. After that, the Reagan Administration's policy was never implemented.[5]
Similar efforts
In 2011, Congress passed a bill that barred the USDA from changing its nutritional guidelines for school lunches. The proposed changes[6] would have limited the amount of potatoes allowed in lunches, required more green vegetables, and declared a half-cup of tomato paste to count as a serving of vegetables, rather than the current standard of 2 tablespoons. This meant that the tomato paste in pizza could continue to be counted as a vegetable in school lunches. [7] The move resulted in widespread mockery, with headlines saying Congress declared pizza to be a vegetable. It was also criticized heavily, since the change was lobbied for by food companies such as ConAgra, and was a substantial blow to efforts to make school lunches healthier.[8]
See also
References
- ^ Hayward, Steven F. (2009). The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution, 1980-1989. Random House. ISBN 1-4000-5357-9. pp. 187-188.
- ^ Weinraub, Bernard. "Washington Talk." New York Times 28 Sep 1981, LatePrint.
- ^ Loizeau, Pierre-Marie. (2004). Nancy Reagan: The Woman Behind the Man. Nova Publishers. ISBN 1-59033-759-X. pp. 93-94.
- ^ "Who Deserves a Break Today?." Newsweek 21 Sep 1981: 43. Print.
- ^ Did the Reagan-era USDA really classify ketchup as a vegetable? - straightdope.com
- ^ "Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 9 / Thursday, January 13, 2011 / Proposed Rules p.2494 - Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-12-03.
- ^ Baertlein, Lisa, House protects pizza as a vegetable
- ^ Wartman, Kristin, Pizza is a Vegetable? Congress Defies Logic, Betrays Our Children