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
Sep
25
2017
Good news: sales of organic foods
The USDA announces: 2016 Sales of U.S. Certified Organic Agricultural Production Up 23 Percent from Previous Year
Sales of organic agricultural production continued to increase in 2016, when U.S. farms produced and sold $7.6 billion in certified organic commodities….
Results of the 2016 Certified Organic Survey show that 2016 sales were up 23 percent from $6.2 billion in 2015.
During the same year, the number of certified organic farms in the country increased 11 percent to 14,217, and the number of certified acres increased 15 percent to 5.0 million.
The top commodities in 2016 were:
- Milk – $1.4 billion, up 18 percent
- Eggs – $816 million, up 11 percent
- Broiler chickens – $750 million, up 78 percent
- Apples – $327 million, up 8 percent
- Lettuce – $277 million, up 6 percent
And here’s a quick look at the trend:
