Cancer panel attacks U.S. food subsidies

[UpInArms]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new presidential report on cancer takes on not only tobacco companies but the food industry while calling on the federal government to "cease being a purveyor of unhealthy foods" and switch to policies that encourage Americans to eat vegetables and exercise.

The report, issued on Thursday, also urged changes in public and private insurance policies to encourage doctors to spend more time counseling patients on how to stay healthy by eating right, exercising and avoiding tobacco.

Federal, state, and local policies have actually made healthful foods more expensive and less available, have limited physical education in schools and created an environment that discourages physical activity, the report said.

<snip>

"We heavily subsidize the growth of foods (e.g., corn, soy) that in their processed forms (e.g., high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated corn and soybean oils, grain-fed cattle) are known contributors to obesity and associated chronic diseases, including cancer," the report reads.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN1526771320070816?sp=true

[seafan]

1. This is an important story for consumers. Make these regressive political hacks accountable.

Once again, this story is conveniently NOT on our teevees.

[lovuian]

2. You can see their letting the poor take all the

poisons so their lifespans decrease
this is the real reason why our population life spans go down

and yet Poppy Baker Rumsfeld Kissinger continue on and on and on

[UpInArms]

3. ADM, high-fructose corn syrup, and ethanol

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/5/10/135951/485

n the first quarter of 2006, as I reported yesterday, Archer Daniels Midland somehow managed to boost the price of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) despite mounting concern over the sweetener's health effects.

The company booked a cool $113 million profit from HFCS over the quarter, more than three times more than it netted in the same period a year before ($33 million). This, despite a slowing domestic market for sweet soft drinks, as consumers increasingly switch to juice and bottled water. The company's official explanation -- "increased sweetener and starch selling prices" -- doesn't explain how it managed to make price hikes stick.

I think I've figured it out. And the explanation has everything to do with Brazil, sugarcane, and ethanol.


The fate of HFCS in the marketplace has always been entangled with that of sugar.

As Richard Manning shows in his Against the Grain (2004), ADM originally created a market for HFCS by ensuring that its corn-derived sweetener was cheaper than sugar. Manning claims that ADM financed the lobbying effort that led to the blatantly protectionist sugar-quota system that went into effect in 1982 and has held sway ever since.

...more...

[candice]

4. Read Marion Nestle's "What to Eat" -- EXCELLENT for all Americans...

BTW, she mentions how the drug and tobacco companies made sure that the FDA was underfunded. That is the organization that is capable of testing less than 1 percent of imported foods.

Vitamins/supplements now are made in China. The FDA doesn't check them at all. Caveat emptor, consumers! Consumer Labs tests them for us, but it cost about $30 to get the results. I've trashed all of my vitamins/supplements (the companies that sell them can't tell me where the ingredients come from and everything points to China) and am eating the bounty at my local farmers' market.

[tanyev]

5. Wow, how did that slip through without getting edited?

I guess the shit is hitting the fan faster than Karl's chubby little hand could keep squeezing the Windex bottle. Maybe that's why he left.

[Javaman]

6. if the gov't (I'm holding my breath)subsidized the farmer rather than the crop

like the do in europe, things would get better. but as long as they subsidize the crop, the giant ass agra-corps will continue to reap the produces, kill the small farmer and screw the third world nations.

[Romulox]

7. Why should we subsidize farmers?

Most "farmers" are multi-national corporations like Archer Daniels Midland. Why should we subsidize them at all?

The industrial midwest has lost 3 million manufacturing jobs during W's reign of terror. Where's our subsidies? Why is the US a "devil take the hindmost" society for some, and a nanny-state for others? :shrug:

[Javaman]

8. I see your point considering corporations are legally people.

I stand corrected.