UPDATED¹ 11/21/11 10:47 a.m.

WASHINGTON — Forget the Hamakua tomatoes, Oahu-grown daikon and Kauai taro. Throw two tablespoons of canned tomato paste on a pizza and you have yourself a vegetable.

That’s the definition that Congress is using anyway.

In passing a wide-ranging spending bill this month, Congress thwarted President Barack Obama’s attempt to change rules that allow schools to characterize pizza and French fries as vegetables.

After pushback from the food industry, lawmakers included a provision that enables public schools to bypass proposed federal Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines that would have required a wider variety of fresh fruits and vegetables in cafeterias. They argued the changes would be too expensive, a claim that USDA rejects. Critics have drawn comparisons to President Ronald Reagan’s attempt to classify ketchup and relish as vegetables as a way to keep costs down in the 1980s.

All four of Hawaii’s congressional delegates voted in favor of the bill, which keeps the tomato paste standard intact and bans a limit on starchy vegetables like peas, potatoes and lima beans that the Obama administration sought to impose.

Obesity rates have tripled in the past 30 years, and a study released earlier this year shows that Hawaii is now one of 40 states in which at least 40 percent of young adults are considered overweight or obese.

“Our keiki deserve the healthiest school lunches we can provide, that’s something I’ve long fought for,” said Rep. Mazie Hirono. “I didn’t support everything, like blocking the improvements for school lunches, in the spending bill.”

Hirono says the overall bill earned her support because it keeps the government running through Dec. 16 and makes investments in agriculture and family nutrition programs.

Rep. Colleen Hanabusa also indicated that the parts of the bill that she supported — millions of dollars for a Native Hawaiian housing program and infrastructure investments, for example — outweighed her concern about school nutrition provisions.

“It is unfortunate that my Republican colleagues felt the need to include unnecessary policy riders in this measure that provides important funding for our state,” Hanabusa said.
 
Obama signed the spending bill into law on Nov. 18.