Reuters Special Report, By DUFF WILSON AND JANET ROBERTS
April 27, 2012
Lobbyists spent $175 million. Congress made pizza a vegetable. And insiders say the Obamas backed off the food industry.
In the political arena, one side is winning the war on child obesity.
The side with the fattest wallets.
After aggressive lobbying, Congress de- clared pizza a vegetable to protect it from a nutritional overhaul of the school lunch program this year. The White House kept silent last year as Congress killed a plan by four federal agencies to reduce sugar, salt and fat in food marketed to children.
And during the past two years, each of the 24 states and five cities that considered “soda taxes” to discourage consumption of sugary drinks has seen the efforts dropped or defeated.
