Fwd: FW: [Food-news] How the feds make bad-for-you food cheaper than healthful fare

[Guest guest]

>

> www.foodnews.ca<br><br>Editor’s Note: This article

> shows how corn underlies the cheap food system<br>in

> the U.S. Corn, used primarily for animal feed and as

> a sweetener, is<br>heavily subsidized. This

> encourages overproduction and puts

> downward<br>pressure on prices. One result is that

> processed, sweetened foods have<br>become a more

> affordable way to consume calories. The obesity

> epidemic<br>will continue until bad food ceases to

> be cheaper than

>

healthy<br>alternatives.<br><br>http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/02/22/ph\

ilpott/<br><br>I'm

> Hatin' It<br>How the feds make bad-for-you food

> cheaper than healthful fare<br><br>By Tom

> Philpott<br><br>22 Feb 2006<br><br>If you're going

> to talk about poverty, food, and the environment in

> the<br>United States, you might as well start in the

> Corn Belt.<br><br>This fertile area produces most of

> the country's annual corn harvest of<br>more than 10

> billion bushels, far and away the world's largest

> such haul.<br>Where does it all go?

> The majority -- after accounting for exports

> (nearly<br>20 percent), ethanol (about 10 percent,

> and climbing), and excess (another<br>10 percent) --

> anchors the world's cheapest food supply

> in<br>purchasing-power terms.<br><br>Our food system

> is shot through with corn. It feeds the animals that

> feed<br>us: more than 50 percent of the harvest goes

> into domestic animal<br>operations. About 5 percent

> flows into high-fructose corn syrup, adding

> a<br>sweet jolt to soft drinks, confections, and

> breakfast cereal. All told,<br>it's a cheap source

> of calories and taste. Yet all this convenience

> comes<br>with a price -- and not just an

> environmental one.<br><br>According to the U.S.

> Department of Agriculture, the amount

> Americans<br>spend on food as a percentage of

> disposable income has fallen from 15.4<br>percent in

> 1980 to 10.8 percent in 2004. But while we've spent

> less money<br>on food, our waistlines have expanded.

> The obesity rate, after hovering<br>around 15

> percent from 1960 to

> 1980, surged to 31 percent in the last 25<br>years,

> USDA figures show. The percentage of overweight

> children tripled in<br>the same time period.

> Meanwhile, incidence of type II diabetes,

> a<br>diet-related condition with a host of

> health-related complications, leapt<br>41 percent

> from 1997 to 2004.<br><br>This trend has hit

> low-income groups particularly hard. The obesity

> rates<br>for " poor " and " near-poor " people stand at

> 36 percent and 35.4 percent,<br>respectively,

> against an overall average of 29.2 percent for

> " non-poor, " <br>the Centers for Disease Control and

> Prevention reports. While the CDC<br>doesn't break

> down diabetes rates by income, a look at the disease

> through<br>the lens of ethnicity shows that those

> rates tend to align with economics:<br>African

> Americans and Mexican Americans, for instance, have

> higher<br>diabetes rates than whites, and lower

> median incomes.<br><br>Why do low-income people tend

> to exhibit more diet-related health<br>problems?

> Adam Drewnowski,

> professor of epidemiology at the University

> of<br>Washington, posits a simple answer: people are

> gaining weight and getting<br>sick because unhealthy

> food is cheaper than healthy food -- thanks

> in<br>large part to federal policies.<br>Sweetness

> and Power<br><br><br>If the USDA's food pyramid

> recommends two to five cups of fruits

> and<br>vegetables per day, its budget -- mandated by

> Congress through the Farm<br>Bill -- encourages

> different behavior altogether.<br><br>Under the Farm

> Bill, the great bulk of USDA largesse flows to five

> crops:<br>corn, soy, cotton, wheat, and rice. Of the

> $113.6 billion in commodity<br>subsidy payments

> doled out by the USDA between 1995 and 2004, corn

> drew<br>$41.8 billion -- more than cotton, soy, and

> rice combined. By contrast,<br>apples and sugar

> beets, the only other fruit or vegetable crops that

> draw<br>federal subsidies, received $611 million

> over the same period. (The latter<br>are generally

> processed into sweeteners.)<br><br>The huge corn

> payouts encourage overproduction, and have helped

> sustain a<br>long-term trend in falling prices.

> According to figures from the U.N.'s<br>Food and

> Agriculture Organization, the inflation-adjusted

> global commodity<br>price for corn plunged 61

> percent between 1983 and 2002. Today a

> bushel,<br>roughly 56 pounds, fetches about

> $2.<br><br>Cheap corn, underwritten by the subsidy

> program, has changed the diet of<br>every American.

> It has allowed a few corporations -- including

> Archer<br>Daniels Midland, the world's largest grain

> processor -- to create a<br>booming market for

> high-fructose corn syrup. HFCS now accounts for

> nearly<br>half of the caloric sweeteners added to

> processed food, and is the sole<br>caloric sweetener

> for mass-market soft drinks. Between 1975 and

> 1997,<br>per-capita consumption jumped from

> virtually nothing to 60.4 pounds per<br>year --

> equal to about 200 calories per person, per day.

> Consumption has<br>generally hovered around that

> level

> since.<br><br>According to Drewnowski and his

> student Pablo Monsivais, cheap and<br>abundant

> additives such as HFCS allow manufacturers to

> sweeten food<br>liberally without adding much to

> their production costs. For people on a<br>tight

> budget, these additives can also make cheap food the

> most efficient<br>way to get calories.<br><br>To

> illustrate his point, Drewnowski distinguishes

> between " energy-dense " <br>and " nutrient-dense "

> foods. For energy-dense, think of a package of

> Ding<br>Dongs -- 360 calories, 19 grams of fat, and

> a liberal dose of<br>high-fructose corn syrup. For

> nutrient-dense, think of a three-ounce chunk<br>of

> wild salmon, delivering high-quality protein and

> essential fatty acids,<br>among other nutrients, in

> a 185-calorie package. The former will run

> you<br>about a buck at any convenience store,

> bodega, or supermarket in the<br>country. For the

> latter, prepare to sidle up to a pristine Whole

> Foods<br>fish counter and shell out about

> $5.<br><br>>From a

> short-term economic viewpoint, the Ding Dongs

> present a better<br>deal: 360 calories per dollar,

> and no need for the time or skill to cook.<br> " If

> you're on a limited income trying to feed a family,

> in a sense you're<br>behaving rationally by choosing

> heavily sweetened and fat-laden

> foods, " <br>Drewnowski says.<br><br>The price gap

> between these two categories is growing. Drewnowski

> and<br>Monsivais show that the overall cost of food

> consumed at home, when<br>adjusted for inflation,

> has been essentially unchanged since 1980.

> But<br>over the same time, the price of soft drinks

> plunged 30 percent, and the<br>price of candy and

> other sweets fell 20 percent. Meanwhile, the price

> of<br>fresh fruits and vegetables rose 50

> percent.<br><br> " Energy-dense foods ... are the

> cheapest option for the consumer, " <br>Drewnowski

> says. " As long as the healthier lean meats, fish,

> and fresh<br>produce are more expensive, obesity

> will continue to be a problem for the<br>working

> poor. " <br><br>Thus

> far, government efforts to address diet-related

> health problems among<br>low-income Americans have

> done little to reduce incidence of obesity

> and<br>diabetes. One reason may be that even when

> they do account for the<br>economics of different

> types of foods, such programs often neglect

> other<br>pressures faced by low-income

> families.<br><br>In 1999, for example, the USDA

> began promoting a revised " Thrifty Food<br>Plan, "

> designed to help people choose low-cost, healthy

> foods. But as<br>Diego Rose of Tulane University's

> Department of Community Health Sciences<br>showed in

> a 2004 study, the plan failed to account for time

> stresses on<br>working-class families. Rose

> calculated that it would take an average of<br>16

> hours per week to prepare the meals outlined in the

> Thrifty plan, and<br>that working women tended to

> have only about six hours per week to devote<br>to

> the kitchen at the time the plan was

> unveiled.<br>Changing Diets, and

> Lives<br><br><br>Grassroots, community-driven

> efforts may prove more effective in<br>transforming

> diets than any federal policy. The Los

> Angeles-based<br>Community Food Security Coalition

> represents 325 organizations in the U.S.<br>and

> Canada dedicated to " building strong, sustainable

> local and regional<br>food systems that ensure

> access to affordable, nutritious, and

> culturally<br>appropriate food to all people at all

> times. " <br><br>Unlike the USDA and other pieces of

> the federal bureaucracy, groups like<br>CFSC tend to

> view food as part of a broader economic-development

> effort.<br> " Not only are people in low-income

> communities getting sick from the food<br>they have

> access to, but the economies are sick, too, " says

> Hank Herrera,<br>a pioneer in the community

> food-security movement who has served on

> CFSC's<br>board. Herrera runs the Rochester,

> N.Y.-based Center for Popular

> Research,<br>Education, and Policy and the New York

> Sustainable Agriculture Working<br>Group. " You can't

> separate community-level economics from food

> advocacy. " <br><br>Herrera became active in food

> politics in 1993, after the only supermarket<br>in

> his northeast Rochester neighborhood burned down.

> Median household<br>income in the neighborhood

> hovered below the poverty line; its

> economic<br>profile resembled that of the South

> Bronx. The chain that owned the store<br>opted not

> to rebuild, and residents faced two options familiar

> to people<br>in poor neighborhoods all over the

> country: travel to a wealthier<br>neighborhood to

> buy food, or shop at corner stores, where the prices

> are<br>high and fresh food is scarce.<br><br>Herrera

> helped found North East Neighborhood Alliance.

> Although the group<br>put the numbers together to

> convince the Dutch multinational

> supermarket<br>chain Tops to open an outlet in the

> area, residents weren't satisfied. " We<br>realized

> it was great to have a supermarket in the area. But

> the profits<br>leave the neighborhood, and local

> farmers and producers are ignored, " <br>Herrera says.

> So NENA kept

> organizing. Today, the group oversees a<br>2.7-acre

> tract that houses a working organic farm and a

> restaurant. " There<br>was a pent-up demand for

> consistent access to fresh fruits and

> vegetables,<br>and we delivered it, " Herrera says.

> " And we created not only jobs, but<br>capital

> formation. The profits stay here. " <br><br>Ken Meter

> has seen the same dangerous patterns in less

> populous places.<br> " The situations in rural and

> urban areas aren't that much different, "

> says<br>Meter, of the Minneapolis-based Crossroads

> Resource Center. " Most farmers<br>in the Midwest are

> producing for a global commodity market, not for

> their<br>neighbors or even themselves. " Not only has

> that model helped lead to<br>rising obesity rates --

> according to a recent study by the University

> of<br>Pittsburgh Center for Rural Health Practice,

> 20 percent of rural<br>seventh-graders qualify as

> obese, versus 16 percent for their urban peers<br>--

> it has also been disastrous for local

> economies.<br><br>In one

> study in southeastern Minnesota, Meter found that

> between 1997 and<br>2003, local farmers sold an

> annual average of $912 million into the

> global<br>commodity market. But to do so, they spent

> a jaw-dropping average of $996<br>million each year

> -- meaning an average annual loss of $84

> million.<br>Meanwhile, area residents spent $500

> million per year buying food from<br>outside the

> region, and another $500 million purchasing farm

> fertilizer<br>and other inputs produced outside the

> region. Combined, that makes an<br>outflow of $1

> billion -- or more than the area brings in by

> selling into<br>the commodity

> market.<br><br> " Essentially, this economy is

> extractive, " Meter says. " Our food system<br>doesn't

> build wealth in our high-producing areas, it

> extracts wealth. " <br>Meter says the area's economy

> benefits not local farmers or consumers,

> but<br>rather the large operations like Archer

> Daniels Midland and Cargill, which<br>thrive on low

> prices for commodity inputs. The federal

> government picks up<br>the tab for a failing

> economy; between 1997 and 2003, federal

> subsidies<br>poured into southeastern Minnesota an

> average of $98 million per year.<br><br>Meter

> reckons that if the region's consumers were to buy

> 15 percent of<br>their food from local sources, it

> would generate as much income for the<br>region as

> two-thirds of farm subsidies. He says the Southeast

> Minnesota<br>Food Network, an organization formed in

> 2001 to refocus area farmers on<br>producing for the

> local market and encourage consumers to buy local,

> has<br>been using his data to recruit new

> members.<br><br>As the federal government dithers

> with its food pyramids and ruinous<br>cheap-corn

> policy, low-income communities are organizing to

> gain control<br>over the quality of their food

> supply. Meter's work in the Midwest and<br>Herrera's

> in the Northeast represent the rumblings of a

> growing real-food<br>underground -- an upsurge that

> challenges not just the hegemony of<br>processed

> food, but

> also the social relations that allow it to

> thrive.<br><br>Gristmill blogger Tom Philpott farms

> and cooks at Maverick Farms,

> a<br>sustainable-agriculture nonprofit and small

> farm in the Blue Ridge<br>Mountains of North

> Carolina.<br><br>--

>

<br>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br>W\

HO

> WE ARE: This e-mail service shares information to

> help more people<br>discuss crucial policy issues

> affecting global food security.<br>The service is

> managed by Amber McNair of the University of

> Toronto<br>in partnership with the Centre for Urban

> Health Initiatives (CUHI) and<br>Wayne Roberts of

> the Toronto Food Policy Council, in partnership

> with<br>the Community Food Security Coalition, World

> Hunger Year, and<br>International Partners for

> Sustainable Agriculture.<br><br>Please help by

> sending information or names and e-mail addresses

> of<br>co-workers who'd like to receive this service,

> to foodnews. To<br> or ,

> please

>

visit<br>http://list.web.net/lists/listinfo/food-news.<br>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\

~~~~~~~<br><br><br><br>_____________<br>food-n\

ews

> mailing

>

list<br>food-news<br>http://list.web.net/lists/listinfo/food-news<b\

r>

>

 

I have decided to do the CN Tower

Climb for World Wildlife Fund. this link should take you to the 'sponsor a

climber' page, where you can search by name for someone. search for my name

(alison syer) and you should be able to find it.

 

https://wwfcentral.ca/NetCommunity/SSLPage.aspx? & pid=232 & srcid=232 & tab=1