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Food Policy
From Bruce Speight
WISPIRG Director
When Jack Hedin, a Minnesota farmer, rented a few acres of land from neighboring corn farms to grow watermelons, tomatoes and other vegetables for a local health food store, he learned first-hand how unhelpful farm subsidies can be.
Jack ended up paying $8,771 in fines for one growing season [1] because, as he learned, it's illegal to use land marked for corn to grow anything that isn't subsidized. So, the ubiquitous main ingredients in processed junk food, corn and soy? Good to go. Fresh fruits and vegetables? Not so fast.
At a time when nearly one in three kids in the United States is overweight or obese, we can't let our farm policies continue to underwrite junk food.
Right now, the congressional super committee on deficit reduction is considering ending junk food subsidies. This is our best chance to reform this damaging farm policy, and we're hoping to get another 40 supporters to give $40 to expand our campaign.
The public is increasingly aware that agribusiness subsidies are misdirected, and the super committee is debating cutting the worst of them as part of Congress' work to balance the budget. It's the kind of no-brainer budget cut that the super committee should be making. But big agribusinesses — to prevent small farmers like Jack from competing — are doing everything they can to keep these handouts.
Consider this:
Also see this entire article below from Food Safety News here: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/10/pesticides-are-good-for-you/
An excerpt:
Pesticides Are Good for You: Big Food's Co-optation of Nutrition Professionals
WISPIRG Director
When Jack Hedin, a Minnesota farmer, rented a few acres of land from neighboring corn farms to grow watermelons, tomatoes and other vegetables for a local health food store, he learned first-hand how unhelpful farm subsidies can be.
Jack ended up paying $8,771 in fines for one growing season [1] because, as he learned, it's illegal to use land marked for corn to grow anything that isn't subsidized. So, the ubiquitous main ingredients in processed junk food, corn and soy? Good to go. Fresh fruits and vegetables? Not so fast.
At a time when nearly one in three kids in the United States is overweight or obese, we can't let our farm policies continue to underwrite junk food.
Right now, the congressional super committee on deficit reduction is considering ending junk food subsidies. This is our best chance to reform this damaging farm policy, and we're hoping to get another 40 supporters to give $40 to expand our campaign.
The public is increasingly aware that agribusiness subsidies are misdirected, and the super committee is debating cutting the worst of them as part of Congress' work to balance the budget. It's the kind of no-brainer budget cut that the super committee should be making. But big agribusinesses — to prevent small farmers like Jack from competing — are doing everything they can to keep these handouts.
Consider this:
- The richest 4% of agribusinesses — which includes giants Cargill and Monsanto — receive almost 75% of the subsidies. [2]
- 62% of U.S. farmers receive no subsidy payments at all. [3]
- In the last presidential election year alone, big agribusinesses spent more than $200 million on lobbying and campaign contributions. [4]
- Cargill, one such giant agribusiness, is receiving government assistance even though it's the largest privately-owned corporation in America and recently reported quarterly profits of $1.49 billion. [5]
· [1]. My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables), Jack Hedin, New York Times, Mar. 1, 2008.
[2]. Environmental Working Group Farm Subsidy Database.
[3]. Ibid.
[4]. Agribusiness campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures, OpenSecrets.org, 2008.
[5]. Cargill reports second-quarter fiscal 2011 earnings, Jan. 12, 2011.
[2]. Environmental Working Group Farm Subsidy Database.
[3]. Ibid.
[4]. Agribusiness campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures, OpenSecrets.org, 2008.
[5]. Cargill reports second-quarter fiscal 2011 earnings, Jan. 12, 2011.
Also see this entire article below from Food Safety News here: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/10/pesticides-are-good-for-you/
An excerpt:
Pesticides Are Good for You: Big Food's Co-optation of Nutrition Professionals
· For years now, I have been hearing about the food industry's influence on the annual conference of the American Dietetic Association -- the nation's largest gathering of nutrition professionals--with some 7,000 registered dietitians in attendance. Last month, I witnessed it for myself and discovered the corporate takeover by Big Food was worse than I even imagined.
· The exhibit hall seemed more like a processed food trade show than a nutrition conference. I saw very few booths with actual information, apart from that being peddled by the likes of Nestle, Kraft, and McDonald's, along with (of course), ubiquitous product samples, tastings, and myriad swag. (Oddly, Monsanto's booth featured its branded, soy-based lip balm.)
· But the worst cooptation came during the "educational sessions," which should have been off limits to marketing. Numerous panels were hosted by industry players, including, "Dairy Innovations," brought to you by (surprise!) the National Dairy Council, which also hosted a media-only session, as did others.
· "Culinary" demos were offered by cooking experts such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Hershey, and McNeil (maker of the fake sugar, Splenda). For attending several "Expo Impact Sessions," described by ADA as "scientific and evidenced-based," RDs could even earn continuing educational units. Who better to teach, "Are Sugars Toxic: What's Wrong with Current Research?" than the Corn Refiners Association?
posted by Greenconsciousness
at 11:47 AM - Link
6 Comments:
This sickens me. How can we stop it? Can anyone do anything?
They used to allow these corporate thugs to WRITE the college curriculums for dietitians. Same with high school home ed classes. I learned this when I had to review curriculum for gender infractions and noticed the dairy association and other Corp thugs on the handouts. They said "prepared by..." and then it would say,"your dairy council" etc.
This is a life long struggle. It starts with what you eat personally and then what you do.
I would read Food Politics and Food safety regularly.
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/10/pesticides-are-good-for-you/
http://www.foodpolitics.com/
This is the kind of stuff at Food Politics and her books are good too:
Alas, vitamin supplements
posted by Marion at Food Politics - 5 days ago
Two studies released this week provide additional evidence that vitamin supplements are potentially harmful and, at the very least, do no good. This depressing news comes from the Iowa Women’s Health Study...
House holds hearings on nutrition standards for food marketing to kids
posted by Marion at Food Politics - 6 days ago
Reports are coming in on the House hearings on the IWG report recommendations. The IWG, recall from the previous post, is an Interagency Working Group of four federal agencies attempting to set nutrition ...
Rumor alert: White House backing off from standards for food marketing?
Thanks for the links. Checking them out.
Listen - you should learn to cook vegan even if you still eat animals - my fav web site is "Hell Yeah Its Vegan" but I am going to tell you something from another different web site.
I made these cupcakes and I swear to u, your family will kill for these cupcakes. They have cinnamon icing. I added walnuts to the recipe - do that. These are under the title "Green Your Halloween - Day 11 - Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes" here -
http://getgreenbewell.com/2010/10/11/green-your-halloween-day-11-vegan-pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cupcakes/
You should find Earth Balance (butter substitute spread).
http://www.earthbalancenatural.com/
I used brown sugar in the cupcakes and the darkest chocolate chips I could find. I also used soy creamer instead of soy milk cause I did not want to buy a big jug of milk which I do not drink. I had organisms eating these cupcakes.
There are no eggs in the above recipe but I urge you to use vegan recipes that call for flax seeds which vegans use as an egg substitute. You get a coffee bean grinder at home -- one of those little $15.00 Wal-Mart coffee bean grinders. (I grind coffee beans in the morning) Then you buy flax seeds and grind them up in the coffee bean grinder. TONS OF Omega 3s and cancer prevention - ground flax seeds especially prevent breast cancer (as do broccoli & cauliflower if steamed). Cancer prevention does not work unless the seeds are ground up.
Lots of flax seed in this recipe below - Zucchini bread and it is good.
http://hellyeahitsvegan.com/?p=777
Here is another chocolate chip pumpkin bread
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=5802.0
She uses Ener-G egg substitute -- it comes in a box
http://www.ener-g.com/gluten-free/egg-substitute.html
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