Row Over US Proposal To Reclassify Potato As "Grain" Instead Of Vegetable

Nutritionists painted a grim picture of US's consumption habits in a 2019 government study, estimating that just a tenth of adults eat enough vegetables.

When is a vegetable not a vegetable? When it's a potato, according to a new US government proposal to reclassify the starchy staple that has infuriated lawmakers in rural districts.

US senators Susan Collins and Michael Bennet -- a Maine Republican and a Colorado Democrat -- are spearheading a bid to convince government officials to back away from plans to call the root vegetable a grain, a move they fear would hurt farming.

"Since the inception of the US Department of Agriculture, it has classified potatoes correctly as a vegetable," Collins and Bennet said in a letter to both the USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services.