The Obama administration's efforts to put more vegetables in federal subsidized school lunches, was ridiculously modest. Under the proposal, only a half cup or more of tomato paste could be counted as a vegetable. Why is this important?  The frozen pizza regularly fed to school kids contains less than a half cup of tomato paste. So under the Obama proposal, pizza would have been pushed off the school lunch menu. This produced a huge backlash from the frozen food industry, so the change was jettisoned. According to Congress, two tablespoons of tomato paste - is a vegetable.

Bowing to the demands of potato-producing states, and school districts worried about cost and cumbersome regulations, Congress also rejected administration efforts to reduce the amount of potatoes and salt in school lunches, and up the level of whole grains, vegetables and fresh fruits.

The message here - don't let Congress feed your child. Pack his lunch yourself  - apples, oranges, a handful of nuts, some cheese, a bean salad.

I know, in a school lunchroom awash in pizzas and soda pop, bean salad is a tough sell. Sell it though. Sell it as if your kid's life depended on it - because it does.

Ginger Rutland writes for The Sacramento Bee opinion pages.