Children's quality of life declining, says report

Children's quality of life declining, says report: "
About 21 percent of children in the United States will be living below the poverty line in 2010, the highest rate in 20 years, according to a new analysis of children's well-being released Tuesday.
"

Our lack of attention is killing the oceans

This is an excellent article with good links to other resources. I hope people take time to understand what we don't know before it's gone.

Our lack of attention is killing the oceans: "
These past six weeks, we've been thinking a lot about the ocean.
"

Industrial ag can’t get enough federal bucks?

It is articles like this that really show where these Senators get their bribes. I'm fairly confident that if you were to trace the money in their coffers it would track back to Industrial Ag concerns. Either that or they directly own stock/make personal moneys off of Industrial Ag.

The other subset of this article that I can't help but find troubling is the continued idea that food stamp holders either can't or don't eat healthy food. If I never manage to do anything else I want to convince people that it is in fact CHEAPER to eat healthy than it is to purchase pre-made high cost low health foods.

Industrial ag can’t get enough federal bucks?: "
Snow us the money! David Goldstein, Washington correspondent for McClatchy newspapers, reports that three senators are standing up for the poor, neglected industrial agriculture industry against the wicked Know Your Farmer Know Your Food program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. From the story:

Sens. Pat Roberts of Kansas , John McCain of Arizona and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia complained in a recent letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that his agency spent $65 million last year on a program “aimed at small, hobbyist and organic producers whose customers generally consist of affluent patrons at urban farmers markets.”

Maybe someone should tell the senators about the soaring use of SNAP benefits (aka food stamps) at farmers markets. Could it be that poor people recognize good, healthy food when they eat it too? And what a slap at the farmers who grow food for direct sale to people who eat it. The lawmakers evidently don’t know how much hard work is involved if they think it’s a hobby.

Goldstein also spoke with Bruce Babcock, an economist and the director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University. The money quote (emphasis added):

[Babcock] said it was “ironic” that the senators and others objected to the USDA spending $65 million on Know Your Farmer when commodity producers received $5 billion during the past two years, and the crop insurance industry received $7 billion.

Sounds like the senators want their friends to get all the money, not just 99% of it.

"

Radical homemaking — Traditional, or not?

I'm trying to decide if I like this or not. I think the problem, on the surface, is that you must have a certain social-economic status in order to live radically in this setting. You must be secure in your property, in a home and have the ability to carve out a domestic space. The basic needs must be met before you can live simply. I love the idea but it does not address a basic problem in our society. Not everyone has a place of security from which to operate and attach to this kind of simplicity. The one thing holding back our group from founding our intentional community is the money to purchase the property and build our yurts. Once the land and improvements are made we can live on virtually no money... until then? Well there is a reason our commune will have so many semi-retired MA, MS, JD and PhDs on it.

Radical homemaking — Traditional, or not?: "

The Oregonian’s Leslie Cole recently interviewed Shannon Hayes, who has a book out titled Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture. The idea behind the book? That being domestic can be radical, not merely traditional. As Cole writes:

The women and men Hayes profiles in her new book strive to eat locally, live on less, and untether themselves from a consumption-driven culture. They cook more, shop little, and make do with what they have. They strive to view decisions through the lens of family, community, planet, and social justice.

Cole goes on to profile a few Portlanders who exemplify the radical-homemaking ideal, including Sarah Gilbert, Chris Musser, and Gretchan Jackson. No radical-homemaking guys, though — for that, you’ll have to read Hayes’ book.

from Sift

"

04/14/10 PHD comic: 'Two cents on the dollar'

04/14/10 PHD comic: 'Two cents on the dollar': "

Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham		www.phdcomics.com
title: "Two cents on the dollar" - originally published 4/14/2010 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE!

"

Let’s Ask Marion: Does The USDA stand for Ultra Silly Dietary Agenda?

Let’s Ask Marion: Does The USDA stand for Ultra Silly Dietary Agenda?: "

With a click of her mouse, EatingLiberally’s kat corners Dr. Marion Nestle, NYU professor of nutrition and author of Pet Food Politics, What to Eat and Food Politics:

KT: Monday’s New York Times had an editorial supporting the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, a bill that would give the US Agriculture Department “new powers to set nutritional standards for any food sold on school grounds, particularly junk foods that contribute to obesity.”

The current standards leave a lot to be desired, as Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution has revealed. In the first episode, Jamie stood accused of shortchanging the kids on carbohydrates because he omitted the bread from a meal that already included rice.

Last Friday, in episode three, Jamie found himself charged with the violation of “insufficient vegetables,” despite the fact that his noodle-based entree featured seven different vegetables. The remedy? Add a bunch of french fries to the meal to meet the veggie quota.

How did the USDA’s school lunch standards ever get so nutritionally nutty? Would passage of the CNA support the wholesome, made-from-scratch meals that Jamie Oliver’s trying to bring back to our cafeterias?

Dr. Nestle: You are asking about the history of the USDA’s school lunch program? Nothing could be more complicated or arcane. Fortunately, two new books take this on: Susan Levine’s School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America’s Favorite Welfare Program (Princeton, 2010), and Janet Poppendieck’s Free for All: Fixing School Food in America (California, 2010).

I used Poppendieck’s book in my Food Ethics class at NYU this semester and reading it while watching Jamie Oliver’s programs was a lot of fun. Yes, Oliver is doing reality television but no, he’s not exaggerating. If you find this difficult to believe, read Poppendieck’s book or take a quick look at Kate Adamick’s review of Oliver’s Food Revolution on the Atlantic Food Channel.

As Levine and Poppendieck explain, and as I discussed in Food Politics (California, 2007), school lunches started out as a way to dispose of surplus agricultural commodities by feeding hungry kids. Over the years, it got caught up in a series of “wars”–first on poverty, hunger, and malnutrition and later on welfare and obesity.

The politics of school lunch, and of the CNA in particular, have always reflected the tension inherent in any welfare program, in this case feeding the poor vs. inducing dependency and overspending. In recent years, as obesity became much more of a public health problem than malnutrition, the politics came to reflect the tensions between commercial interests and those of nutrition reformers. Congress is always involved as it endlessly tinkers with the rules for “competitive foods”–the sodas and snacks sold in competition with federally supported school meals.

Competitive foods put schools in a dilemma and in conflict of interest. They make money from competitive foods to help support the school lunch program. But sodas and snacks undermine participation in school meals programs.

Poppendieck points out that the result is a mess that leaves financially strapped school districts with few choices. It’s not that the “lunch ladies” (you have to love Jamie Oliver’s term) don’t know how to make decent meals. It’s that they are up against inadequate funding and equipment, and impossible nutrition standards that can be met most easily by commercial products like Uncrustables that are designed to meet USDA standards. My favorite example contains 51 ingredients (my rule is “no more than five”).*

Inadequate funding is a big consideration in the Child Nutrition Act. This act provides $4.5 billion over 10 years for school meals. Although this represents a 10-fold increase over previous (2004) funding, it works out to an additional measly six cents per meal–not nearly enough to solve school districts’ financial problems.

But–and this is a huge step forward–the act gives USDA the authority to set nutrition standards not only for foods sold in the cafeteria but also in vending machines and a la carte lines.

And the bill does a few other Very Good Things. It provides:

• An estimated $1.2 billion over 10 years for meals at after-school programs, free meals to all students in schools with high poverty levels, and increased availability of meals during summer months.

• An estimated $3.2 billion for establishing nutrition standards, strengthening local wellness policies, and increasing reimbursement rates.

• Mandatory funding for schools to establish school gardens and buy foods from local sources.

• Increased training for local food service personnel.

• Automatic enrollment of foster children for free school meals.

As for the pesky nutrition standards: the bill expects the USDA to revise them according to the recent report of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), School Meals: Building Blocks for Health Children. This report recommended a conversion to food-based, rather than nutrient-based, standards along with increases in the amount and variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and limits on calories, saturated fat, and sodium.

All of this makes the CNA well worth supporting. Is it perfect? Of course not. But it is a good first step to making big improvements eventually. In the meantime, plenty of schools are already doing great work and more are joining the food revolution one meal at a time. These deserve all the help we can give them.

*NOTE: the label of this particular Uncrustable was sent to me by someone who works in an upstate New York school district:

BREAD; ENRICHED UNBLEACHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), WATER, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, YEAST, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL AND/OR SOYBEAN OIL, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: WHEAT GLUTEN, SALT, DOUGH CONDITIONERS (MAY CONTAIN ONE OR MORE OF: DIACETYL TARTARIC ACID ESTERS OF MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES [DATEM], MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, ETHOXYLATED MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE, CALCIUM PEROXIDE, ASCORBIC ACID, AZODICARBONAMIDE, L-CYSTEINE), YEAST NUTRIENTS (MAY CONTAIN ONE OR MORE OF: MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM SULFATE, AMMONIUM SULFATE), CALCIUM PROPIONATE (MAINTAIN FRESHNESS), CORNSTARCH, ENZYMES (WITH WHEAT). PASTEURIZED PROCESS CHEESE SPREAD: CULTURED MILK AND SKIM MILK, WATER, WHEY (FROM MILK), SODIUM PHOSPHATE, SALT, CREAM (FROM MILK), CORN SYRUP, LACTIC ACID, SORBIC ACID (PRESERVATIVE), GUAR GUM, ARTIFICIAL COLOR, ENZYMES. BUTTER FLAVORED OIL: PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL, SALT, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICAL FLAVORS (WITH MILK), VITAMIN A PALMITATE, BETA CAROTENE ADDED FOR COLOR.

"

Warm Food, Warm Planet

Warm Food, Warm Planet: "

Neshamah Weiss is a middle school student in Brooklyn, NY. Her mother, Regina Weiss, made her read this book. Here’s her review.

Have you ever thought about how things you use in your everyday life could affect weather patterns? Reading Anna Lappé’s book Diet for a Hot Planet, I had to ask myself questions like “Why would big companies that fill their food with high fructose corn syrup and other junk ignore the fact that they are a main reason why we are experiencing global warming?” I could only come up with two possibilities: Either all they care about is making money or they are ignorant beyond belief.

An example of the relationship between our food and our climate occurs in factory farms, where cows are crammed together and given hormones to make them grow faster and produce more milk, along with food (mainly corn) that upsets their stomachs and can cause E. coli. But they aren’t only producing milk; they are producing gas and poop that contains methane, an odorless gas that increases the greenhouse effect and traps heat twice as effectively as carbon dioxide – commonly referred to as CO2.

Despite the fact that we might not realize it, all the food that we eat causes some small part of global warming. Think of . . . pasta with vodka sauce, my favorite Italian dish. Would you think that global warming can be served in that small of a dish? The answer is, no, you wouldn’t think that possible, but it is. The wheat from the pasta is most likely fertilized with fossil fuel-based chemicals. The milk or cream in the vodka sauce is probably from a factory farmed cow (unless my mom made it, in which case it was probably organic). Even without chemical fertilizers or factory farms, if your food rides in a truck before it gets to you, it carries some sort of “carbon foodprint.”

Now, in my opinion, this book is an important piece of work that everyone should read. It offers a large amount of information that is enough to explain what I need to know about food and global warming, but not so much as to put me to sleep. Anna Lappé’s Diet for a Hot Planet does not seem like it is meant to make you feel guilty about the things you’ve done and eaten, but to make you realize what your actions are doing to the earth, and to help you correct them.

"

Democrats raise money off of Biden's F-bomb

Democrats raise money off of Biden's F-bomb: "

President Obama's political organization agrees with Vice President Joe Biden: 'Health Reform is a BFD.'

"