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.”
by Marion Nestle
Dec
6
2016
GMO alfalfa, sugar beets, canola: U.S. trends
USDA has just released a report on the adoption of these three GM crops in the U.S. Ordinarily, USDA just tracks corn, soybeans, and cotton.
Here’s a quick summary of trends in alfalfa (green), sugarbeets (red), and canola (blue):
Canola hovers at around 90% of total, sugar beets at 95%, and alfalfa (a perennial) is just getting started at a bit over 10%, but rising.
Why? According to data summarized by USDA, yields are higher and herbicide use and labor costs are lower.
