Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
USDA proposes new pasture rules for organic ruminants
Under the current rules, meat sold as organic must come from animals with access to pasture. Loophole alert! The animals did not have to be raised on pasture. The USDA now proposes to close the loophole as it applies to ruminant animals. This proposal is open for comment. If you want to see how such things are done, this one is an excellent example (it includes a detailed history of the regulations, among other useful things). USDA wrote this in response to more than 80,000 comments on the “announcement of proposed rulemaking.” Virtually all of these wanted organically raised ruminants to be grazing on pasture. The Federal Register notice is 24 pages of tiny type but my immediate take is that the USDA proposals are really good. Take a look and see what you think. I’m withholding final judgment until somebody does a decent summary so I don’t get bogged down in “We propose to remove the word “or” at the end of paragraph X and replacing the period at the end of paragraph Y with a semicolon.”
