We thought we fixed this when Ronald Reagan  declared ketchup to be a vegetable and most of our country laughed out loud.   But apparently not.

 http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2F2w9NMwavBAhxQgjDpoZ9NcufT5FYZsE

Late last night, Congress  unveiled change to the National School Lunch program that will allow a few dabs  of tomato paste to be considered a vegetable which means that a pizza  is back on our kids’ tables and obesity is here to stay.

Congress chose to look past the straightforward  recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences‘ Institute of Medicine and  the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and instead get in bed with the  American Frozen Food Institute and the National Potato Council to gut major  policy recommendations from the bill.   This unhealthy serving of  corporate special interests will hurt America‘s children — all 55 million of  our kids, particularly poor and disadvantaged kids who have to count on school  for their lunches.

Our nation’s schoolchildren deserve better. Tell  Congress to support the USDA’s work to improve schools meals. The health of our  nation’s schoolchildren is simply too important to be left to special interest  groups like the American Frozen Food Institute or the National Potato Council.

But don’t just listen to Earth Day Network on  this one. Over 100 retired generals and admirals recently declared that the  dire state of our nation’s school food is a national security concern. Why?  One-third of all applicants to the U.S. military are turned down because they  are simply “too fat to fight.”

The USDA had proposed school nutrition standards  that would have doubled the overall amount of fruits and vegetables and would  have increased whole grains and low-fat dairy, while reducing sodium, unhealthy  fats and excess calories. Yet, lobbying from special interest groups has once  again derailed some of these critically important improvements-improvements  that would have given our kids a fighting chance. 

Let the USDA finish its job of helping schools  improve the nutritional quality of their meals. Tell Congress to get off the  payrolls of those FAT cats and back on the side of our children.  http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=2qyDe9WZrcbUkgWGnKl%2FONcufT5FYZsE

– The Earth Day Network Team