Remember the scene in Wall-E where the Captain learns about all the amazing things on earth that grow in the ground, like vegetables…. and pizza? It's a hilarious joke about how distanced the humans on the Axiom have gotten from real food, and how little they understand about the difference between a natural, nutritious food and something manufactured.
Except now, that joke has actually come true, and Congress seems to believe it fully. Fighting a proposal from Obama administration to limit the amount of potatoes and sodium served to school children at public schools, Congress passed a bill that allows tomato paste on pizza to be considered a vegetable serving. According to MSNBC it was representatives of the salt, frozen foods and potato industries that requested the change-- because as we all know, people selling their products definitely have the best interest of America's children at heart.
It's been exactly 30 years since the Secretary of Agriculture proposed declaring ketchup a vegetable in order to avoid serving actual whole foods to children eating government subsidized lunches. That might have actually been better-- at least ketchup doesn't automatically come saddled with starchy crust and a ton of cheese. But hey, at least we have further proof that the people at Pixar aren't just geniuses, but soothsayers; they predicted our blobby future on board the Axiom, totally unaware of what vegetables were, and we all scoffed and said it was ridiculous. Now we live in a world where pizza is a vegetable. Your hoverchair is surely headed to the production line any day now.
