I got a coffee from Coke and poured some maple syrup over my.... pizza?
"The USDA’s ‘‘dairy checkoff program,’’ which levies a small fee on milk and raised about $202 million in 2011. The agency uses that money to promote products such as milk and cheese.... A 2010 USDA report detailed how Dairy Management Inc., a corporation funded by these government checkoff fees, spent $35 million in a partnership with Domino’s to boost pizza sales. ‘‘According to Patrick Doyle, president and CEO of Domino’s Pizza, DMI support has allowed us to focus some advertising dollars on areas we would not have considered otherwise.’’
How was that for a fir$t bite?
UPDATE: New Farm Bill Forbids Disclosure of Which Companies Receive Federal Crop
Insurance
And thus which companies received taxpayer $ub$idies.
Btw, you might want to know who else is sitting at your table collecting crumbs before court action made them "give" you things you gave them the privilege of holding and managing for you. Some waiter, huh?
"Fee US collects helps boost pizza consumption; Critics say fund should promote healthier foods" by Brad Plumer | Washington Post, February 11, 2014
WASHINGTON — It’s no secret that Americans eat a lot of pizza.
Actually, I don't. If I ever eat one I order out, and I haven't done that for months.
In fact, around 13 percent of the country is eating a slice or two on any given day, according to a recent report from the Agriculture Department.
It all adds up to a lot of calories: But there’s also a subtle policy angle here. Pizza is popular because it’s delicious. But the roaring success of pizza isn’t entirely a free-market story.
The "topping" buried beneath the cheese and sauce.
‘‘In recent years, [USDA] has spent many millions of dollars to increase pizza consumption among US children and adults,’’ Parke Wilde of Tufts University wrote on his US Food Policy blog.
Amazing how the propaganda pre$$ can find blogs when they need to.
He’s referring to the USDA’s ‘‘dairy checkoff program,’’ which levies a small fee on milk (15 cents for every hundredweight of milk sold or used in dairy products) and raised about $202 million in 2011. The agency uses that money to promote products such as milk and cheese. And, it turns out, pizza.
About that cheese:
"Last week, Subway said it was removing a chemical from its bread after a popular food blogger, Vani Hari, started a petition noting the ingredient is also used in yoga mats. The ingredient, azodicarbonamide, is an approved additive and can be found in a wide variety of products, including those sold by McDonald’s and Starbucks. But Hari said she targeted Subway because of its healthy-food image. "
Now you know why the processed cheese looks, feels, and tastes like rubber!
The USDA says its checkoff program has been well worth it: For every $1 it spends on increasing cheese demand, it estimates that farmers get $4.43 in additional revenue.
And the government got to collect a kickback known as taxes for $timulating your ta$te buds!
But the results have been mixed. Milk consumption has declined in recent decades, while cheese consumption has soared.
I imagine all the milk fat isn't good for arteries and such.
The program also helps pizza makers, which use one-quarter of the nation’s cheese. A 2010 USDA report detailed how Dairy Management Inc., a corporation funded by these government checkoff fees, spent $35 million in a partnership with Domino’s to boost pizza sales.
‘‘According to Patrick Doyle, president and CEO of Domino’s Pizza, DMI support has allowed us to focus some advertising dollars on areas we would not have considered otherwise,’’ according to the 2010 USDA report.
That explains the preponderance of Dominos pizza commercials I see all the time.
That report also chronicled how the checkoff program worked with McDonald’s to launch McCafe specialty coffees and three new burgers with two slices of cheese on them.
But this government and Obummer's crap admini$tration is so concerned about you kids and your health!
Related:
"McDonald’s Corp. said sales at established US stores fell for a third straight month as bad weather and waning consumer confidence kept diners at home.
I love the excu$es for a Federal Reserve driven, crap economy that are con$tantly trotted out by the propaganda pre$$.
The Big Mac seller has recently struggled amid fierce competition. Last month, it posted fourth-quarter profit that was little changed from a year earlier. McDonald’s, which gets about two-thirds of its revenue from outside the United States, has been expanding overseas in Europe and in the company’s Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions. This year, it plans to spend about $1.5 billion to open as many as 1,600 stores in new locations, including 300 in China.... For the quarter, McDonald's Corp. earned $1.4 billion."
Looks like USDA needs to get Mickey D's some more money to bolster those profits!
It also helped Yoplait develop new yogurt-chip technology. The program was renewed in the most recent farm bill.
The one where FOOD STAMPS were cut to the tune of $9 billion bucks?
So what’s the problem? Critics of this program often note that efforts to promote fruits and vegetables haven’t received nearly the same level of support as dairy and meat products.
A few fruits do have their own checkoff programs, including blueberries and watermelons, but not many.
Maybe you should have an Apple instead to avoid the fees (blog editor spits out Globe supplied piece of fruit).
That imbalance doesn’t explain the popularity of pizza, obviously, but it’s one extra unseen force at work.
Yeah, the federal government looting your pocket so it can support corporate advertising is an "unseen force at work."
What a $hitty-ta$ting piece of WaPo pi$$a!
--more--"
I didn't know they were serving pizza at the T Stop this early (or late; either way, it should warm you up to see where he got the $20 million).
What el$e was in that farm bill that cut into the bone of food stamps?
"Obama signs $956b farm bill, lauds rural gains" by Michael D. Shear | New York Times, February 08, 2014
EAST LANSING, Mich. — President Obama signed the $956 billion farm bill Friday at Michigan State University, where he extolled the benefits of a thriving agricultural sector for the nation’s overall economy.
Holy $hit! It was almost a TRILLION DOLLARS handed over to CORPORATIONS!
And WHY are SO MANY PEOPLE in the nation you govern HUNGRY, sir (although I see you have no problem keeping your belly full at taxpayer expense)?
Standing in front of a tractor and other farm equipment, Obama said the legislation “lifts up our rural communities” and would give more Americans “a shot at opportunity” in the years ahead.
That campaign rhetoric is sickening, sorry.
“We’ve had the strongest stretch of farm exports in our history,” Obama told about 500 farmers and local officials in a horse barn at the university. “We are selling more stuff to more people than ever before,” he said, adding, “What we grow here and what we sell is a huge boost to the entire economy, but particularly the rural economy.”
What he is saying is it is a big boost to big agricultural combines like Archer-Daniels.
We are a THIRD-WORLD NATION in the global economy now, Americans, for we go hungry while food is exported for economic intere$ts. That was the plan of the globalization geniuses all along.
Lawmakers passed the sprawling legislation this week after four years of bitter arguments on farming subsidies and Republican efforts to reduce financing for food stamps.
Meaning no one read it before pa$$age.
The final bill replaces direct crop payments with an insurance program and trims $8 billion from food stamps during the next decade — far less than the $40 billion cut some Republicans sought.
As if that is somehow a bargain for growling bellies.
Obama signed the Agriculture Act of 2014 at Michigan State’s equine performance center. Some locals call Michigan State, know for its dairy program, “Moo U.” Michigan has one of the nation’s largest and most diverse farming economies. Obama said too many farm families were still struggling to make a living, and said the new bill would help.
“I’ve seen how hard it can be to be a farmer,” he said. Big corporate farms are doing well, the president said, but “there are even more small farms, family farms, where folks are just scratching out a living.”
And this bill only helps corporate farms!
The president arrived with several Democratic lawmakers and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Air Force One just after noon Friday and was greeted by the mayor of East Lansing.
Thanks for helping out with the greenhouse gas problem just to score a political photo-op, a$$hole!
The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said about 50 lawmakers — including many Republicans — were invited to the bill signing, but no Republicans accepted.
The Democrats aboard included Senators Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin of Michigan. Also on board were Representatives Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio and Dan Kildee of Michigan, both Democrats.
I'll keep that in mind the next time they spew some fart mist about global warming. Was 1 degree when I went and got my Globe today.
“Everyone invited has to speak for himself or herself about their decision to attend or not attend,” Carney told reporters. “Look, this was a bipartisan effort and everyone involved in it deserves credit. The president is happy to share credit for that. The members that are on board today were deeply involved in helping this come about, and the president is very glad to have them join him.”
In his remarks, Obama announced a new “Made in Rural America” initiative that he said would help rural businesses market their goods abroad.
While you go hungry here at home!
Any word on bringing the factories back to be "Made in Rural America?"
White House officials also announced five regional forums on rural exports and an “investing in rural America” conference. Obama directed the White House Rural Council to host sessions in all 50 states to train Agriculture Department staff members on how to promote rural exports.
More hot air!
The president called the farm bill a “jobs bill,” an “innovation bill,” a “research bill” and a “conservation bill.” But he said two main benefits of the bill would be to help rural communities and provide food assistance to poor families and children.
(Blog editor vomits at that statement in the face of $8 billion in cuts!)
He noted that the bill will provide the money for the nation’s food stamp program, which helps poor families buy groceries even as it provides an key market for US farmers.
(Blog editor vomits again)
Once again it is NOT about YOU or YOUR WELL-BEING with this god-damn government, Americans! It's all about BU$INE$$!!!!
“More than half of all Americans will experience poverty at some point during their adult lives,” he said. “For more than half a century, this country has helped Americans put food on the table when they hit a rough patch or when they’re working hard but aren’t making enough money to feed their kids. They’re not looking for a handout. . . they’re looking for a hand up.”
And all they got was THIS!
--more--"
I've had more than my fill of him after five years.
Time to "cut down" on my coverage:
"US investing $30m to restore forests" by Matt Volz | Associated Press, February 07, 2014
HELENA, Mont. — The Department of Agriculture said Thursday it will spend $30 million this year on forest restoration projects in 12 states to reduce the threat of wildfires, protect water quality, and improve wildlife habitat for at-risk species.
Related: GOP lawmakers urge overhaul of Endangered Species Act
Yeah, right, back to the "the pervasive partisan divide in Washington."
The agency’s first 13 projects will kick off a multiyear initiative to improve the health of forests and watersheds on public and private lands, Agriculture Undersecretary Robert Bonnie said.
With longer fire seasons in recent years burning more areas and beetle outbreaks devastating more than 40 million acres of forests in the West, the pace and scale of restoration need to be increased, he said.
Related: Drought Draining California Reservoirs
They just got replenished.
Money to work with private landowners will come from the farm bill Congress passed this week, and the Forest Service will use its own funds to work on adjacent public lands.
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies, a nonprofit that has filed several lawsuits to block logging projects in national forests in the Northern Rockies, was skeptical about the plan.
Logging won’t help reduce wildfire risks or protect watersheds because areas thinned of trees allow the wind to blow through more easily, which could spread flames more quickly, executive director Mike Garrity said.
And they called it re$toration!
--more--"
So ba$ically the farm bill was full of pork for corporations!
Time for desert:
"A little extra sugar tied to fatal heart disease in study" by Lindsey Tanner | Associated Press, February 04, 2014
CHICAGO — The biggest study of its kind suggests that sugar can be deadly, at least when it comes to fatal heart problems.
It doesn’t take all that much extra sugar, hidden in many processed foods, to substantially raise the risk, the researchers found, and most Americans eat more than the safest amount.
Having a cinnamon roll with your morning coffee, a super-sized sugary soda at lunch, and a scoop of ice cream after dinner would put you in the highest risk category in the study. That means your chance of dying prematurely from heart problems is nearly three times greater than for people who eat only foods with little added sugar. For someone who normally eats 2,000 calories daily, even consuming two 12-ounce cans of soda substantially increases the risk. For most American adults, sodas and other sugary drinks are the main source of added sugar.
I rarely drink sodas, so I guess that is good; however, I am becoming afraid to eat anything these days. Horse passed off as hamburger, rat passed off as lamb, chemical additives in everything, pesticides and pollution playing their part.... let's face it, I don't give a f*** what government or the FDA say, the corporate food supply is not safe.
Lead author Quanhe Yang of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention called the results sobering, and said it’s the first nationally representative study to examine the issue.
Scientists aren’t certain exactly how sugar may contribute to deadly heart problems, but it has been shown to increase blood pressure and levels of unhealthy cholesterol and triglycerides; and also may increase signs of inflammation linked with heart disease, said Rachel Johnson, head of the American Heart Association’s nutrition committee and a University of Vermont nutrition professor.
I've always tested okay for those things, and yet I feel uneasy about so many things at my age.
Unfortunately, I live in Massachusetts and can't afford to see a doctor.
***************
Previous studies have linked diets high in sugar with increased risks for nonfatal heart problems, and with obesity, which can also lead to heart trouble. But in the new study, obesity didn’t explain the link between sugary diets and death. That link was found even in normal-weight people who ate lots of added sugar.
“Too much sugar does not just make us fat; it can also make us sick,” said Laura Schmidt, a health policy specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. She wrote an editorial accompanying the study in Monday’s JAMA Internal Medicine.
Nothing new there. Try sitting down and eating a one-lb bag of candy in one sitting and see how you feel later.
The researchers focused on sugar added to processed foods or drinks, or sprinkled in coffee or cereal. Even foods that don’t taste sweet have added sugar, including many brands of packaged bread, tomato sauce, and salad dressing. Naturally occurring sugar, in fruit and some other foods, wasn’t counted.
Translation: it's in damn near everything to sweeten the taste.
Most health experts agree that too much sugar isn’t healthy, but there is no universal consensus on how much is too much....
Which is in itself a con$en$u$.
But they all agree on global fart-mi$ting? Hmmmm.
--more--"
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Part of the dessert lineup: cotton candy dusted with orange zest."
They served that where?
Related:
"Researchers say it may be a combination of genetic predisposition to being heavy and environments that encourage overeating."
Yeah, it's everything and anything except GMOs.
Can't accuse me of overeating the Globe here considering the amount of posts each day.
Also related(?): Removal of gay juror ruled bias
I'm not feeling that well right now, readers.
Maybe I'm developing an allergy to my Boston Globe.
Can a broken heart do that?
