Pizza is now a vegetable! The United States Republicans want to categorize tomato sauce on
Pizza as a
vegetable, thus inspiring students to eat “vegetables”. Because pizza is a vegetable right?
On November 14th, 2011, The Associated Press published an article about a spending
bill put forth by House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee that
would attempt to undermine efforts by the Obama administration to
improve the nutritional value of public school lunches. The article
revealed that part of the bill would protect the status of tomato paste
on pizza as a vegetable.
The spending bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is
now.
The department’s proposed guidelines would have attempted to prevent
that. The changes had been requested by food companies that produce
frozen pizzas, the salt industry and potato growers. Some conservatives
in Congress have called the push for healthier foods an overreach,
saying the government shouldn’t be telling children what to eat.
Legal Precedence
According to Wikipedia, since tomatoes contain seeds they are
botanically considered a fruit but the United States Supreme Court ruled
in the 1893 Nix v. Hedden decision that tomatoes should be considered a
vegetable for trade purposes. During this time taxes were required for
all vegetable, but not fruit, imports and the Supreme Court ruled
against the Nix family’s attempt to recover back duties paid to the
Collector of the Port of New York.