vegetable war

Taipei Times: Root vegetables get chop from in-flight meals from today

In line with the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) new policy on special meals, starting today, the nation’s airlines will not include root vegetables in their in-flight Asian vegetarian meals.
... According to new standards for in-flight dining set by IATA, airlines will no longer be allowed to include root vegetables such as potatoes and yams in such meals.

er, I'm not sure potatoes (or even yams) are actually "root vegetables"

Liu Tsan-hsiung (劉燦雄), a chef for EVA Airways ... said he did not understand why root vegetables had been prohibited from standard Asian vegetarian meals.
It is possible that the measure was intended to cater for Jains. Jainism is an ancient Indian religion whose followers are strict vegetarians and are also forbidden from eating root vegetables.

not quite, i think
but many do not eat root vegetables AND potatoes ...

Liu said that without root vegetables, “the traditional Taiwanese meal would lose its flavor.” He said he would observe reaction to the new vegetarian meals to decide if he should recommend that IATA change its policy.