Power Politics In Action: Congress Officially Makes Pizza A Vegetable

Hot lunch: How lobbyists, big food corporations, and their friends on Capitol Hill fried the Administration's school nutrition standards...

By Marian Burros

Not everyone remembers how the Reagan Administration was shamed into withdrawing its effort to put ketchup in the same category as a serving of broccoli or kale in 1981. But Dr. Marion Nestle, author and professor of nutrition at New York University, remembers it well. Which is why she says the Congressional bill passed on Thursday that has turned pizza into a vegetable “makes me crazy."

“It’s about profit. It has nothing to do with the health of children,” Nestle told Obama Foodorama.

The Agriculture Appropriations bill, part of the larger "minibus" that provides funding for FY 2012, was approved by the Senate on a 70-30 vote, just after the House agreed to it 298-121. It provides $18.2 billion for school lunch and breakfast programs but contains four nutrition riders, two of which prohibit the Agriculture Department from providing healthier food for children.

The proposed changes that would reduce fat, saturated fat, sodium and sugar, add more whole grains and increase the variety of vegetables and fruits in school meals are science-based recommendations from the National Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Congress had asked for the update to help reduce childhood obesity, one of First Lady Michelle Obama’s signature projects, the Let’s Move! campaign. But lawmakers appear to have had second thoughts, though both Mrs. Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack have repeatedly said the changes are essential to combat childhood obesity, pointing out that many children, particularly those that are disadvantaged, get up to half their daily calories from school lunch and breakfast. Better nutrition in schools is crucial for academic achievement and "winning the future," according to President Obama.

But spurred on by lobbyists for companies that might have their profit margin adversely affected by the proposed regulations, Congress is now requiring the USDA to back off from its efforts to require pizza makers to use more than 1/8 cup of tomato paste in order to call pizza a vegetable serving, and to reduce the use of potatoes (read French fries) in school lunches.

USDA wanted to reduce the frequency of potatoes along with other high-starch vegetables like corn, lima beans and peas because the IOM report said schools need to serve more orange and dark green vegetables.

The National Potato Council, in concert with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Mark Udall (D-Col), made sure Congress killed the proposed potato restriction: French fries will be available every day in school cafeterias. The potato industry points with pride to Mrs. Obama’s professed love of French fries, ignoring her admonition to treat them as an occasional indulgence rather than part of a daily diet. Many schools brag that they bake the French fries before serving. But that takes place after they have been fried at the facility where they were made.

Companies like ConAgra, the industrial agriculture giant, and Minnesota’s Schwan’s Food Service, which sells 70 percent of the pizzas served in school lunches, went all out to prevent a change in amount of tomato paste required to classify it as a serving of vegetables. Under the current regulations, tomato paste has a special exception carved out for it so that the 1/8 cup used on a pizza slice is comparable to the standard serving size of ½ cup of any other vegetable. USDA wanted to take away the special exception.

Pizza purchases from schools account for the largest part of Schwan's $3 billion in annual sales, so it is not surprising hat Democrat Amy Klobuchar, the company's home-state Sentator, sent a letter to USDA warning them to leave the pizza standard alone.

At the same time Schwan's was complaining about the pending change in the pizza regulation requiring more vegetable content, it was vigorously selling itself to school lunch directors as the company that could help them meet the proposed new rules, because it had added whole grain to its pizzas and reduced the fat and sodium content.

“We’re passionate about feeding children better," Schwan's president Jim Clough told Business Wire in August. But that passion does not extend to vegetables.

The company did not return repeated calls requesting comment.

ConAgra and Schwan's have also funded the website Coalition for Sustainable School Meal Programs, which has urged parents to help change the proposed regulations, particularly the one about pizza. Barry Sackin, a former vice president for public policy of what is now called the School Nutrition Association (SNA), is running the website and has worked with ConAgra and Schwan's.

The SNA is a trade association made up of the people who are responsible for school lunches. It also has industry members, like Schwan's and ConAgra, who pay hefty fees for membership. SNA is not happy with the changes USDA is proposing. It wants another year before the changes take affect: 2013 instead of 2012. It favors leaving the exception for tomato paste, claims there is not enough whole grain in certain sections of the country to use in school meals, worries that fresh leafy green vegetables are not available in certain part of the country in certain seasons and that if they can’t put enough salt in the food children won’t eat it.

When the First Lady gathered hundreds of professional chefs at the White House in June of 2010 to launch the Chefs Move to Schools initiative, she asked them to help schools improve the meals they served. But many of the chefs were surprised to discover that the professional lunch ladies resented their efforts.

“Members of the School Nutrition Association don’t have any power,” said Nestle. “Unlike anything else in school they have to run a break-even enterprise and the only way to do it is having lots and lots of kids eat their meals, so they pander to lowest common denominator.”

The Chefs Move program, run by USDA, now has 3,700 chefs enrolled, according to Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass. But there are more than 90,000 schools participating in the federal school lunch and breakfast programs.

The other riders in the bill: Sodium and Whole Grain...

There are two other riders to the Ag bill that seem designed to slow down the process of changing school lunch rather than an outright prohibition of changes. One requires USDA to provide scientific evidence that reducing sodium is important for health reasons. That shouldn’t be too hard: the Institute of Medicine has already done that. The other requires a definition for whole grains, and USDA already has a definition.

A USDA spokesman said the Agency sees “no barriers to implementing those parts of the regulation.”

House Republicans claim these four nutrition riders will save $6.8 billion over five years, a claim USDA vigorously disputes.

According to the Agency spokesman, the changes “will have little to no affect on the cost the new standards.”

Mrs. Obama could not have imagined that her efforts to reduce childhood obesity would cause such forceful reaction from the food industry, its assorted front groups and its friends in Congress.

Another anti-Obama front group...

The Coalition for Sustainable School Meal Programs is not the first front group fighting against healthier food. The Sensible Food Policy Coalition, whose members includes PepsiCo, Kellogg and General Mills, has been working to quash the government’s voluntary nutritional guidelines for advertising food to children, quite similar to the core principles of Let’s Move!.

The coalition wants to substitute the food industry’s far less stringent standards for the guidelines put together by the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, USDA, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last month, there was a hearing in the House in which the members made speeches, using text provided by the coalition’s members.

“What corporations want is free reign,” said Nestle. “They want to market anyway they want, to put any kind of junk food in kids and they’ve got Congress to back them up."

"The idea the Senate is passing laws about potatoes, putting riders on bills and the senatorial staff members are writing letters to USDA about the amount of tomato paste on pizza is power politics in action.”

Though Mrs. Obama agressively championed the school nutrition legislation that offered the improved standards for meals, the East Wing would not comment on the recent developments in Congress, instead referring queries to USDA.

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Update, 11:00 AM: In Bali, Indonesia, today, President Obama signed the bill into law.

Ed. note: Dr. Nestle was recently named by Forbes magazine as one of "The World's 7 Most Powerful Foodies" -- #2 to Mrs. Obama's #1 spot on the list. Burros, the author of this post, was actually the journalist in the Reagan era who coined the idea that "ketchup is a vegetable," which is now part of the food culture lexicon.

*Obama pizza at top of post was created by British food artist Prudence Strait for the Daily Mail. Photo by Alistair Heap.

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Pollan in Forbes: First Lady Michelle Obama Is "World's Most Powerful Foodie"

Two critical White House partners are also on the list...
Bestselling author and sustainable food advocate Michael Pollan has created a list of "The Word's 7 Most Powerful Foodies" for Forbes magazine, and First Lady Michelle Obama takes the top spot in a field of acclaimed contenders. According to Pollan, the individuals are the "most powerful voices" in the "movement to reform the American food system." Two of the other powerful foodies on Pollan's list have close ties to the White House: Urban farmer Will Allen is #4, and Jack Sinclair, Head of Grocery for megagiant Walmart is #5. (Above: The photo of Mrs. Obama that appears on the list)

Pollan names the First Lady the World's Most Powerful Foodie because "her Let's Move campaign has moved the food issue to the top of the national agenda, shining a bright light on the links between childhood obesity and America's fast food diet."

Last April, Mrs. Obama was named to the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world for the Let's Move! campaign.

Walmart's Sinclair, who does all the purchasing for the corporation, is a crucial partner for Mrs. Obama. Walmart has made the largest private-sector commitment to the Let's Move! campaign, pledging to build markets in food deserts, re-formulate its private-label foods to reduce calories, sodium and fat, and drop prices on "healthy foods."

Allen, a MacArthur "genius," is also crucial to Mrs. Obama's goal of eradicating all US food deserts by 2017. He's the founder and CEO of Growing Power, an urban agriculture non-profit and land trust headquartered in Milwaukee that teaches impoverished communities to grow food. He's been involved with the Let's Move! campaign from the beginning, and spoke at the February 2010 White House launch event. In September, Allen was awarded a $1 million grant by the Walmart Foundation to expand his work to fifteen states. Two weeks ago, Mrs. Obama toured Growing Power's Chicago headquarters, Iron Street Urban Farm, with Allen, during the first-ever food desert summit. (Above: Allen speaking at the Let's Move! launch)

Given that Pollan's list is so short, it's telling that two of his food-world power brokers are in the First Lady's immediate orbit, and crucial to the success of her campaign. But in two different interviews in the last few weeks, Pollan said he is concerned that the First Lady has been "co-opted" by Walmart, a sentiment shared by many in the sustainable food movement; click here for Pollan's interview with Michael Ruhlman and click here for a longer, more detailed interview with Washington Post's Tim Carman. Walmart's million-dollar donation to Growing Power also caused an outcry among sustainable "foodies." A critique by Andy Fisher, Executive Director and co-founder of the Community Food Security Coalition is here; Allen's general response to this kind of criticism is in this post on Growing Power's blog.

It's also worth noting that Pollan names Dr. Marion Nestle as #2 on his list. A nutritionist and the Paulette Goddard Professor at New York University, Nestle is an outspoken critic of both major food corporations and government agriculture and nutrition policy. She is recognized on the list as "an indispensable voice on the problems of the American diet and their roots in industry marketing and government policy."*

Forbes last week named President Obama the most powerful person in the world.

The full list of Power Foodies:

#1 Michelle Obama, First Lady, U.S.

#2 Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor, New York University

#3 Josh Viertel, President, Slow Food USA

#4 Will Allen, Urban Farmer

#5 Jack Sinclair, Head of Grocery, Walmart

#6 Ken Cook, Executive Director, Environmental Working Group

#7 Mark Bittman, Columnist, The New York Times

*Ed. note: Nestle has frequently offered commentary on Obama food initiatives here on Obama Foodorama; most recently, she commented on the Let's Move! commitment from Darden Restaurants, Inc., America's largest chain restaurant corporation, to revamp its menus and child-centric advertising practices. Read here.

*Photos: At top of post, Mrs. Obama is at Vhuthilo Community Center in Soweto township in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she worked with volunteers in the community garden last June. By Charles Dharapak/AFP/Getty. Allen photo by Eddie Gehman Kohan/ObamaFoodorama.com

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Michelle Obama Lauds Darden Restaurants For Major Commitment To Let's Move! Campaign

America's largest dining chain joins the childhood obesity battle, pledging across-the-board menu changes while preserving "craveability"...
"This is a breakthrough moment in the restaurant industry," First Lady Michelle Obama declared on Thursday morning as she joined Darden Restaurants, Inc. CEO Clarence Otis, Jr. to announce a major new commitment to support the Let's Move! campaign. Standing in the wood paneled dining room of an Olive Garden restaurant in Hyattsville, Maryland, filled with parents and kids seated at dinner tables, Mrs. Obama hailed Darden's plan as visionary. (Above: Mrs. Obama during her remarks)

"I believe the changes that Darden will make could impact the health and well-being of an entire generation of young people," Mrs. Obama said.

The company, parent to iconic restaurant brands including Olive Garden and Red Lobster, has pledged to revamp its menu offerings, reducing its calorie and sodium "footprints" by 10% over the next five years, with a goal of a 20% reduction in the next decade. Darden's four restaurants, including LongHorn Steakhouse and Bahama Breeze, will also participate.

Healthier kids' menus will have fruit and vegetables as default sides, and 1% milk will be the default option, with free refills. "Carbonated beverages"--soda and other sugary drinks--will not be promoted, Otis said. Vegetables will be spotlighted on illustrations for the kids' menus, rather than less healthy offerings. Want fries? They have to be requested. The kids' menu changes begin immediately, and will be fully in place by July of 2012.

"Darden is doing what no restaurant company has done before," Mrs. Obama said. "They’re looking at all the food they serve, and they’re asking themselves one simple question: How can we improve the health of American families? And it’s that vision and commitment that brought me here today. I don’t just come out."

Darden serves about 400 million meals annually in 49 states and Puerto Rico, and the initiative is the largest private sector commitment from the restaurant industry for the Let's Move! campaign. It's a big effort from a company that, among other strategies, promotes "A Never Ending Pasta Bowl" for $8.95 at Olive Garden, and all-you-can-eat buffets at Red Lobster.

"This is a massive commitment and it will impact millions of Americans," said Dr. James Gavin, chairman of the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), the foundation created to further the goals of the Let's Move! campaign.

It is equivalent to Mrs. Obama's Let's Move! partnership with grocery giant Walmart, which serves about 146 million customers weekly. The First Lady now has the two largest corporate entities from both sides of the food coin, so to speak, backing her campaign.

Exactly a year ago, during an address to the National Restaurant Association, Mrs. Obama called on America's food service professionals to make the kinds of changes that Darden is promising. That's because half of all food dollars are spent at restaurants, Mrs. Obama said, and one third of all meals are consumed in restaurants: Families eat out a lot.

"Focusing attention on food provided at restaurants is really critical if we're going to reach our goal of ending childhood obesity within a generation," said Melody Barnes, Chair of the White House Domestic Policy Council.

She called Darden's efforts "a full-throated endorsement" of the changes Mrs. Obama has asked the restaurant industry to make, to achieve the ultimate Let's Move! goal of dropping childhood obesity to 5% by 2030. Barnes chaired the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity, and Darden's pledges all meet specific recommendations in the Report issued by the Task Force in May of 2010.

Darden's commitment is largely about choices for families, Mrs. Obama said.

"Parents need to feel confident that enjoying a meal at a restaurant doesn’t mean sacrificing their children’s health," Mrs. Obama said. "It’s about giving parents choices -- choices that will make it easier for them to give their children the healthiest possible alternatives."

And the commitment is serious business, noted Gavin.

"It is one thing to make a public statement but something entirely different to sign a binding legal commitment, and Darden has done just that," Gavin said. Darden signed a Memo of Understanding with PHA, and its progress in the initiative will be reported annually. Walmart and other grocers also signed Memos of Understanding with PHA for their pledges to locate markets in food deserts.

First Lady defends Americans' right to splurge...
The First Lady, during the course of her campaign, has often been criticized for what misguided observers believe is an effort to "ban" unhealthy foods. Today, photos of her from the event have been above the banner on Drudge Report, first with the headline "No Fries For You!" and later with the headline "Adult Supervision For Fries!" But during her remarks, Mrs. Obama spoke glowingly about all Americans' right to indulge.

"There is nothing wrong with occasionally splurging on treats and desserts, right?" Mrs. Obama said. "I mean, that’s the fun of being a kid. And quite frankly, it’s the fun of being human. And I certainly have done my share of splurging...it’s a good thing."

Bob McAdam, Senior Vice President, Government & Community Affairs for Darden Restaurants, also stressed the splurge angle during a conference call with reporters after the announcement. Darden is not eliminating guests' favorite foods, he said, but rather "reformulizing" the recipes to cut calories and sodium, in addition to adding more healthy choices to menus.

Is the commitment a game changer? Dr. Marion Nestle weighs in...
Will Americans opt more regularly for the healthier choices, when faced with "splurge-worthy" menu items that are lower in calories? And can the changes in kids' meals have a major impact on obesity rates?

Dr. Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, is one of America's foremost nutritionists and author of five books on food and nutrition policy. Darden's commitment is "a step in the right direction," Nestle told Obama Foodorama, but said she thought the company should have done more.

Darden could have offered a more aggressive, faster approach to revamping childrens' meals, Nestle said. Darden's pledge, specifically, is to "improve the nutritional content of one or more children’s menu items to provide equal or less than 600 calories, 30% of total calories from fat, 10% of total calories from saturated fat and 600 mg of sodium."

That's still a high sodium level, according to Nestle. And all items offered on kids' menus should be healthy, she believes, in order to really impact the prevalence of childhood obesity, pegged at about 17 percent of all children, with higher rates for non-white populations.

"They have a longer way to go," Nestle said. "But to me, it's a recognition that they [Darden] are part of the problem of childhood obesity and they are taking responsibility to try to fix it."

Not promoting soda--what Darden is referring to as "carbonated beverages"--is key, Nestle said.

"The real concern for kids with obesity is calories, so getting the sodas out of there is very important," Nestle said.

All the same, "I could certainly argue that these are bandaids," Nestle said. "The White House view of how you work with the food industry is that you look for increments, and do it in steps, but that's not how I would do it."

The long time frame for changing the sodium and calorie "footprints" is because new recipes have to be developed, according to Darden's McAdam.

"It takes a long time to produce foods that have the same 'craveability,'" McAdam said. "Our real focus is getting the food that we know is good for people to be the food they love."

None of the new menu items even exist yet, McAdam said. And each different restaurant brand will have its own project in doing the "reformulizing." As part of its pledge to support Let's Move!, Walmart also vowed to reduce sodium, fat and calories in its private label foods. The time frame for these changes is similarly long term, and also credited to a need to preserve taste.

Mrs. Obama and her team routinely promote the value of many, many small steps--whether personally or on a corporate level-- as the way to change eating habits and reduce obesity rates. Swap soda for water, Mrs. Obama suggests. Pack fruit instead of cookies. For a corporate entity the size of Darden restaurants, which reaches millions of families, the changes can add up to a significant impact.

Will others in the industry follow Darden's lead?
The White House has worked with all kinds of corporate stakeholders in the food industry that are interested in supporting the campaign, Barnes said. But the First Lady has shown up for few announcements from companies that have unveiled initiatives they say are inspired by Let's Move!. For instance, when McDonald's announced changes to its Happy Meals in July, Mrs. Obama was not on hand to cheer executives on. Instead, she issued a decidedly tepid statement.

The First Lady showing up for Darden's announcement is a terrific incentive for other restaurateurs to follow suit and make changes, Nestle said.

"You hope that there will be lots more steps from Darden's competitors," Nestle said.

Mrs. Obama explicitly expressed this wish.

"I hope that the people who are watching this announcement, particularly restaurants and other companies across the country, will see this and step up in the coming months in the same way that Darden has," Mrs. Obama said. "Even the tiniest mom and pop diner or family-owned restaurant can be a part of this movement."

Mrs. Obama also called on parents to make sure that Darden and other businesses offering healthy choices don't lose customers.

"These restaurants can only keep making these offerings and making these choices and making these business sacrifices if people actually buy them. Right?" Mrs. Obama said. "So parents, we literally have to put our money where our mouths are, so that they keep doing it."

To reinforce this critical point, Mrs. Obama was introduced before her remarks by Cami Morrison, a mother of two who is married to a Coast Guard officer. Morrison offered words of thanks to Darden and the First Lady for making it easier for her to dine out, since she's essentially a single mom when her husband is deployed.

The First Lady's paradigm shift...
Nestle told Obama Foodorama a personal story that highlights just how much Mrs. Obama has shifted America's food paradigm. In 2005, Nestle was invited to Amelia Island, Florida, to give a talk to the CEO’s of major restaurant chains, and among them among was Darden CEO Otis. Nestle was specifically asked to discuss what restaurant chains could do to lessen the impact of childhood obesity. She recommended exactly what Darden is now doing: Offering fruit and vegetables as the default side with kids' meals. Nestle also advised the executives to make all their kids' meals healthier, and to offer smaller portion sizes of entrees at a reduced price point, as well as to cut fat, salt, and calories on menu items.

"I got screamed at," Nestle said. "They told me I wanted to put them out of business, and they said it could never work. Screamed at." It was one of the lower points in her long career, she said, "just terrible."

"It's taken Michelle Obama to make people willing to change," Nestle said.

Mrs. Obama is the only presidential spouse in US history to have such major voluntary commitments from the private sector for a "First Lady" campaign.

After her remarks, Mrs. Obama walked around the Olive Garden dining room, where the families on hand to witness the announcement were happily eating a lunch of Venetian apricot chicken (400 calories). Pasta was also being served, and one boy barely looked up from his spaghetti as Mrs. Obama stood beside him and chatted at length with his mother. She greeted each family at each table before departing. (Above: Mrs. Obama and one of the Darden chefs greet a family in the dining room)

For the record, Darden spent $550,000 lobbying the federal government so far this year, according to the Senate Office of Public Records. Darden is also one of the companies that has received a waiver for the Affordable Care Act, reports the Orlando Sentinel, the corporation's "hometown" paper: "Darden has a health insurance plan for its employees. And, according to the company's statement to the paper, "the waiver allows [the company] to continue to do that as the various phases of the health care law are implemented." Darden's waiver would "apply to 34,000 employees, or about 20 percent of its 174,000-person workforce. Most of Darden's employees work in its restaurants such as Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse."

The Obama Administration has essentially ended the waiver program, announcing in June that all applications for new waivers and renewals of existing ones have to be in by Sept. 22.

*The transcript of Mrs. Obama's remarks is here. The White House press release is here.

The specifics of the pledge:

*Guarantee a fruit or vegetable will be the default side for every kids’ menu item at those restaurants offering a default side on the children’s menu: Bahama Breeze, LongHorn Steakhouse and Red Lobster.

*1% milk will be the default beverage, provided automatically if no alternate beverage is requested. Milk will be prominently promoted on the menu and made available with free refills.

*Food illustrations on the menu will promote the healthy choices for meals and drinks.

*Healthier menu options will be more prominently displayed when possible.
Carbonated beverages will not be displayed on children’s menus.

*Improve the nutritional content of one or more children’s menu items to provide equal or less than 600 calories, 30% of total calories from fat, 10% of total calories from saturated fat and 600 mg of sodium.

Calories/Sodium Footprint Reduction – changes to be implemented by 2016 and 2021

* By 2016, reduce calories by 10% and over a ten-year period by 20%.
*By 2016, reduce sodium by 10% and over a ten-year period by 20%.

*Top photo by Chuck Kennedy/White House; second by Lawrence Jackson/White House

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