Greg Palast just made an interesting point about "ketchup is a vegetable."

[Eric J in MN]

Greg Palast, on the radio show "The Majority Report," just made an interesting point about "ketchup is a vegetable."

While it may sound funny to quote the Reagan Admin. position, the point wasn't to be funny.

It was to drop vegetables from the school lunch program.

[maddezmom]

1. actually, I think tomatoes are a fruit

:)

[Eric J in MN]

2. either way, school lunches should have more than ketchup (nt)

nt

[Blue-Jay]

3. A tomato is a fruit.

Relish: now THAT'S a vegetable.

[otohara]

23. Hmmmm... Ketchup Has Vege Additives

Ketchup tomato concentrate, vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, salt, onion powder, spices and natural flavorings.

[Bozita]

6. Yes, but tomatoes ARE vegetables according to US law

NOT a joke.

From a botany viewpoint, they are fruit.

Go figure.

Maybe Congress can repeal gravity.

[Beaker]

10. technically, ALL fruits are vegetables...

but not all vegetables are fruit.

[exploited]

16. Technically speaking...

Ray-gun was a vegetable

[Bake]

19. Well, for the last few years anyway ... /NT

Bake

[dogman]

4. Most of his "funny" quotes were to ridicule the poor, yet

we are being told his great communication skills were derived from his humble roots. He thrived on hatred and paranoia of those other people. Most people like to be told that there in with the in crowd and can look down on some one else.

[blackmoonlillith]

5. This is the only thing I remember about Reagan...

It was a big joke around our household. Every time we'd use a packet of ketchup, we'd tell my mom it was a vegetable so we didn't have to eat the green stuff on our plates. Or, we'd ask for some ketchup to substitute for the green stuff on our plates.

[left is right]

13. Were you able to figure out how much ketchup

a person had to eat to substitute for the green stuff? Did one packet effectively substitute for a half-cup of broccoli?

[Mojambo]

7. His legacy,

Bombers instead of school lunches.

If people can still admire him knowing what his priorities were, then that's their problem.

He was a loathsome person while living and he is no less so now that he's dead. If saying that qualifies as dishonoring the dead... well then I guess I'm cool with that.

[catzies]

8. I never forgot that.

It was never meant to be funny. x(

[SarahB]

9. Same here

I was in third grade at the time and I still remember my parents absolutely livid on this. One of my first lessons in the depths Republicans will go to- not to save a buck, but take it from the neediest to put in the hands of the wealthiest.

[nose pin]

11. Somewhat of a myth

It wasn't Reagan, but the head of the USDA who attempted to have ketchup classified as a vegetable.

Under Clinton, the USDA succeeded pulling the same trick with salsa:

http://www.jsonline.com/alive/nutrition/0701salsa.stm

on edit: factual correction

[Bozita]

12. Wasn't the head of the USDA a Reagan political appointee?

not a myth

So, Hitler didn't invade Poland. A buncha generals did.

[nose pin]

14. Reagan was a delegator

and it was never implemented.

Were you outraged when salsa was actually declared a vegetable in 1998?

This is similar to the "Bush declares burger-flipping jobs as manufacturing" myth. A low-level aid floats an idea at a meeting, is promply shot down, it's leaked to the press, and now it is considered fact. Got any doc on THAT one?

[Bozita]

17. Osama was a delegator.

For the most part, Saddam was also a delegator.

Enjoy your stay here at DU.

[nose pin]

18. Thank you, I will

And I won't hold my breath waiting for your answer to my salsa question.

[Bozita]

20. Salsa is a "vegetable salad." It was meant to serve with corn chips in ...

... school cafeterias. Part of the ever changing tastes of America's schoolkids.

Helluva difference between ketchup on a hot dog and salsa and chips.

[nose pin]

21. Commercial salsa

From the article I linked above:

"Responding to requests from schools in the Southwest and West, the Agriculture Department has announced that school lunch programs can incorporate commercially made fruit and vegetable salsas into their menus. Before that ruling last week, schools had been allowed to use salsas made in their own kitchens."

I would actually prefer my kid to be eating fresh salsa made in the cafeteria than Pace Picante Sauce. Have you had that crap? It's not much different than spicy ketchup.

[Bozita]

24. Amount of salsa served with chips vs the amt of ketchup on a hotdog

Big difference.

Takes a lotta hotdogs to obtain a "serving" of tomato product.

[nose pin]

26. How big?

What exactly is the portion size of salsa served with those salt-laden chips? And what brand are they using? There is a BIG difference between brands of "commercially prepared" salsa.

I just don't see why this rule change was necessary, when schools were already making their own fresh salsa. Why allow it to be classified as a vegetable, thus reducing the servings of other vegetables? Why take away a vegetable, and replace it with a commercial salsa, when they were already being served fresh salsa in addition to vegetables?

Ketchup as a vegetable is stupid. Salsa as a vegetable is marginally less stupid, but still stupid. Do you have children?

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[nose pin]

27. I haven't bashed Clinton

I'm concerned when a government bureaucracy messes with my child's lunch to make their bean-counters happy.

Yes I cook. I make a pretty damn good salsa. We also have Pace around the house too. My child tells me that the salsa she gets at school is "just like" the Pace that is in our fridge.

And I resent your implication.

[murielm99]

28. You live in Montreal.

How is your kid getting U.S. school lunches?

My kids always complained about cafeteria food, too. So what else is new?

Resent anything you want.

[nose pin]

29. I live in SoCal

I'm staying with relatives in Montreal, if it's any of your business.

[kskiska]

33. As was Charlie Manson n/t

[Bozita]

31. Do you really believe the BS about "low level aides" floating ideas?

That's boilerplate freepershit.

That's the kinda shit that allows assholes like Ann Coulter and Cliff May to make a living.

Try those talking points elsewhere.

[immoderate]

22. Salsa

Chopped tomatoes, lime juice, cilantro, onions, maybe a little avocado. Sounds like a vegetable to me.

Ketchup is mostly sugar.

--IMM

[BiggJawn]

15. Hamburger, French fries, and Ketchup...

Meat and 2 Veg, there you have it, a "balanced" meal...

Yep, just gotta admire the man, don't we....<sarcasm>

[lumpy]

30. Reagan has simplistic answers for any problem.

Many jobs were terminated during Reagan's tenure. His answer: pack up and move to where the jobs are. If your food bills were skyrocketing: serve hamburger gravy.

[salin]

32. I really thought - everyone knew that... and that is why

it turned into a bruhaha that had to quickly be reversed. It only became a joke later as shorthand for describing the bafoonish greedy (cheap) callousness of the Reagan administration.