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20 Nov 2010 11:07

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U.S.: Screwed-over minorities finally unscrewed by legislative process

  • $3.4
    billion     the amount headed to Native Americans over land trust royalty mismanagement by the government
  • $1.15
    billion     the amount headed to black farmers unfairly refused loans by the Agriculture Department source
  • » The worst part about the mess: The cases dragged on for much longer than they should have partly because the Senate could not get a majority vote on funding either of these settlements over a number of years. They passed the bill Friday. The House has to pass this still, but they’ve already done that twice, so it should be less of an issue.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Nov 2010 11:53

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Biz: Healthy? Yeah, right. The government’s pro-cheese efforts

  • As a culture, our cheese-eating is way higher than it should be. Yeah, it’s tasty, and we know how tough of a habit it is to break (looks down at stomach), but we’ve gotten hooked on it as a culture at large. But the thing you should be really scared about? That, with the help of the government, the dairy industry is pushing us to eat even more of it. Dairy Management, Inc., a government-created industry marketing group, has been pushing for more cheese in foods, even as our culture has slowly been switching to low-fat or even plant-based forms of milk. Some more details:
  • 33 number of pounds of cheese the average American eats yearly source
  • bad That 33 pounds number is triple what the average American ate back in the 1970s, when the culture was cheesier in general.
  • worse Cheese is a key source of saturated fat, that kind of really safe fat that’s linked to heart disease and high calories.
  • worser Dairy Management has been promoting eating more cheese as a form of weight-loss, even though that’s not true.
  • The government feeds big dairy… Dairy Management is a very powerful group, and has been closely tied to both the Bush and Obama administrations. They have a budget of around $140 million, mostly from fees the government forces on the dairy industry, along with some money directly from the Agriculture Department. This is despite the public get-healthy face that folks like Michelle Obama have pushed in recent years. Not so much.
  • … And we just eat it up In recent years, Dairy Management’s efforts have led to new products such as Domino’s pizza relaunch (which had way more cheese), Taco Bell’s quesadillas (which have eight times more cheese than any other item on their menu), and cheesy burgers from Wendy’s and Burger King. In 2007 alone, their efforts led to an increase in cheese sales of 30 million pounds. You feel guilty now, don’t you?
  • » Are you a cheese-snacking fanatic? All of this underlines the big problem: The Agriculture Department is both the regulator and the government group that pushes the economic engine of the farming and dairy industries. This is very problematic for a lot of reasons. By the way, one group that Dairy Management is specifically focusing on: Families who eat lots of cheese and don’t really worry about the health qualms. That’s who these crap food products are marketed towards. Perhaps you should consider ordering your next sandwich without cheese.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Mar 2009 11:53

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U.S.: “Organic” isn’t as organic as you’d think

  • It doesn’t matter if it’s from the farm down the road or from Chile. As long as it meets the standards it’s organic.
  • Joan Shaffer • A spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department, on the nature of the “U.S.D.A. Organic” program, which she describes as a marketing program. It’s not local and the standards often leave small farmers off the table. Doesn’t that make you want to eat organic? • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 
 
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