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When is a Vegetable Not a Vegetable?

The senators said a change in the classification would confuse consumers, retailers, restaurateurs and growers. AFP
The senators said a change in the classification would confuse consumers, retailers, restaurateurs and growers. AFP
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When is a Vegetable Not a Vegetable?

The senators said a change in the classification would confuse consumers, retailers, restaurateurs and growers. AFP
The senators said a change in the classification would confuse consumers, retailers, restaurateurs and growers. AFP

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.

The proposals for stripping the potato of its "vegetable" status appear in the forthcoming Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025–2030, produced jointly by the two departments, AFP reported.

Americans eat more potatoes than any other vegetable -- 50 pounds per person per year, according to USDA figures -- although almost half of those come in frozen form, for example as fries.

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

And experts disagree on whether potatoes should count toward an individual's vegetable intake, as they are high in carbohydrates, which can cause spikes in blood sugar levels.

The senators pointed to a 2013 National Library of Medicine study that asserted that potatoes "should be included in the vegetable group because they contribute critical nutrients."

"There is no debate about the physical characteristics of the potato and its horticultural scientific classification. Unlike grains, white potatoes are strong contributors of potassium, calcium, vitamin C, vitamin B6, and fiber," they argued.

The senators said a change in the classification would confuse consumers, retailers, restaurateurs and growers.

Potato farming contributes $540 million in annual sales to the economy of Collins's state, according to online publication The Maine Wire, with 6,100 jobs linked to the industry.

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Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)

Climate change is driving changes in rainfall patterns across the world, scientists said in a paper published on Friday, which could also be intensifying typhoons and other tropical storms.

Taiwan, the Philippines and then China were lashed by the year's most powerful typhoon this week, with schools, businesses and financial markets shut as wind speeds surged up to 227 kph (141 mph). On China's eastern coast, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated ahead of landfall on Thursday.

Stronger tropical storms are part of a wider phenomenon of weather extremes driven by higher temperatures, scientists say.

Researchers led by Zhang Wenxia at the China Academy of Sciences studied historical meteorological data and found about 75% of the world's land area had seen a rise in "precipitation variability" or wider swings between wet and dry weather.

Warming temperatures have enhanced the ability of the atmosphere to hold moisture, which is causing wider fluctuations in rainfall, the researchers said in a paper published by the Science journal.

"(Variability) has increased in most places, including Australia, which means rainier rain periods and drier dry periods," said Steven Sherwood, a scientist at the Climate Change Research Center at the University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the study.

"This is going to increase as global warming continues, enhancing the chances of droughts and/or floods."

FEWER, BUT MORE INTENSE, STORMS

Scientists believe that climate change is also reshaping the behavior of tropical storms, including typhoons, making them less frequent but more powerful.

"I believe higher water vapor in the atmosphere is the ultimate cause of all of these tendencies toward more extreme hydrologic phenomena," Sherwood told Reuters.

Typhoon Gaemi, which first made landfall in Taiwan on Wednesday, was the strongest to hit the island in eight years.

While it is difficult to attribute individual weather events to climate change, models predict that global warming makes typhoons stronger, said Sachie Kanada, a researcher at Japan's Nagoya University.

"In general, warmer sea surface temperature is a favorable condition for tropical cyclone development," she said.

In its "blue paper" on climate change published this month, China said the number of typhoons in the Northwest Pacific and South China Sea had declined significantly since the 1990s, but they were getting stronger.

Taiwan also said in its climate change report published in May that climate change was likely to reduce the overall number of typhoons in the region while making each one more intense.

The decrease in the number of typhoons is due to the uneven pattern of ocean warming, with temperatures rising faster in the western Pacific than the east, said Feng Xiangbo, a tropical cyclone research scientist at the University of Reading.

Water vapor capacity in the lower atmosphere is expected to rise by 7% for each 1 degree Celsius increase in temperatures, with tropical cyclone rainfall in the United States surging by as much as 40% for each single degree rise, he said.