The Future Of Health Care Is Fighting The Farm Lobby
In an op-ed piece for the New York Times, Michael Pollan portends the entangled futures of health care, obesity, and insurance companies. Just as the insurance companies joined governmental efforts to rally against smoking, Pollan foresees insurance companies tackling obesity. This is necessarily after upcoming health care reforms.
Even the weaker versions of reform [...]
September 11, 2009
Tags: agriculture, Barack Obama, change, farmers, Health, Michael Pollan, nutrition, obesity, policy, subsidies Posted in: Health, Politics 
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Marion Nestle Talks Sugar And Ag Policy On The Colbert Report
According to the manufacturers of a huge amount of processed, sugar-laden foodstuffs, there is a sugar crisis in the United States. On August 5th, representatives of those companies wrote to the Secretary Vilsack at the USDA asking him to lift the stringent quotas on imported sugar. Marion Nestle, of course, has plenty to say [...]
August 26, 2009
Tags: agriculture, farmers, food event, policy, subsidies, sugar, USDA Posted in: Politics No Comments
Judge Sotomayor, Where Will She Stand On Future Food Issues?
At Obama Foodorama, the slightly obsessive website of all things food related to the president, they have got plenty of questions about Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. They foresee many food and agriculture cases coming to the fore in the near future:
There’ve been many Supreme Court cases related to food and Ag [...]
May 27, 2009
Tags: agriculture, Barack Obama, change, policy, subsidies, USDA Posted in: Politics No Comments
Soda Tax, An Idea That’s Bubbling All Over
Everyone is excited about soda taxes, except for the soda companies and me. Kelly Brownell, a longtime obesity researcher at Yale, and Thomas Frieden, the New York City health commissioner wrote a persuasive argument (pdf) for the imposition of soda taxes in a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that has [...]
May 22, 2009
Tags: food, food event, Health, nutrition, obesity, soda, subsidies, sugar Posted in: Health, Politics, Science & Technology 2 Comments
Mathematically Finding The Biggest Nutritional Bang For Your Buck
Studies have shown once again that when it comes to cost cutting, diets inevitably suffer. Researchers from University of Washington’s Center for Public Health Nutrition analyzed the USDA’s “Thrifty Food Plan” (TFP) and found it, well, lacking. TFP basically takes the USDA’s healthy eating pyramid and puts it on a tight budget. [...]
May 20, 2009
Tags: food, Health, innovation, nutrition, subsidies Posted in: Health, Science & Technology 3 Comments
High-Fructose Corn Syrup, Its Place In The Obesity Epidemic
HFCS in the Big Picture
Companies that manufacture goods heavily laden with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contend that it is just as good for you as regular sugar (”in moderation”). HFCS is not “the villain“.
It’s true, replacing sugar with HFCS is neither the primary nor the exact cause of the increase in obesity. Blaming just HFCS [...]
May 8, 2009
Tags: fast-food, Health, innovation, marketing, obesity, subsidies, sugar Posted in: Health, Science & Technology 5 Comments
Behind The Scenes At The Child Nutrition Policy Meeting
From the American News Project in February:
The Committee on Medicine said they are looking to make “evidence based” changes to the National School Lunch Program. Funny how they haven’t paid attention to the evidence for the last thirty years. It might have something to do with the fact there weren’t any scientists at [...]
May 4, 2009
Tags: agriculture, change, farmers, food event, Health, marketing, nutrition, obesity, policy, subsidies Posted in: Health, Politics No Comments
Soda Taxes, In Review
The Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has just published its analysis of the debate surrounding soda taxes. Â Policy makers in at least 40 states have already implemented such measures in order to curb obesity and related health problems. The Rudd Report (pdf) is an easy to read, objective review of the health and [...]
March 4, 2009
Tags: food, Health, nutrition, obesity, soda, subsidies Posted in: Health, Politics One Comment
True Cost of Beef Flowchart
Reading Omnivore’s Dilemma, one realizes that something is missing. Something that could tie many of Pollan’s points into something greater…Something one could understand at a glance…What the book needs is pictures!  More specifically: flowcharts!  Pollan discusses the hidden costs of cheap beef creation via factory farming. While the paragraphs he devotes to the topic [...]
February 26, 2009
Tags: agriculture, cows, farmers, food, green, greenhouse gases, Michael Pollan, subsidies Posted in: Health, Science & Technology 6 Comments
Vilsack Understands!
See, I told you to be optimistic about Vilsack.
The scientists, the foodies, and the economists have all been chanting, “Death to corn subsidies! Â Death to corn subsidies!” forever. Â And, now someone who has explicit authority to take subsidies to the guillotine has said, more or less explicitly, he is looking to axe them:
Vilsack called on [...]
February 17, 2009
Tags: agriculture, farmers, green, heroes, nutrition, policy, subsidies, USDA Posted in: Politics 5 Comments
