Veggie or grain? Maines congressional delegation acts to defend, promote potatoes [Video]

Maine’s congressional delegation has taken action to defend and promote potatoes – the state’s top food crop – across U.S. and overseas markets.

Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, an organic farmer and member of the House Agriculture Committee, is co-leading a bipartisan effort to address fears that an independent committee reviewing the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans may move potatoes from the vegetable category to the grain category.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack and Health & Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Pingree and 28 other members of Congress voiced strong opposition to the potential reclassification, saying it would “call the scientific credibility of the entire process into question.”

“Since the inception of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it has classified potatoes correctly as a vegetable,” the letter reads. “There is no debate about the physical characteristics of the potato and its horticultural …