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
Jan
17
2018
Crop insurance, like much else these days, goes to the rich
Crop insurance is the big issue in the forthcoming farm bill. The American Enterprise Institute doesn’t like it much, and for good reason. On the theory that one picture is worth a thousand words, here’s why
The blue bars are the percentages of total farm bill subsidies. The yellow bars are subsidies per acre. If you thought that subsidies helped small or medium farms, think again.
Whether you agree with the AEI or not, its American Boondoggle reports are always worth reading for their remarkably clear explanation of the hugely complicated farm bill issues.
This one, for example, tells you everything you need to know about how crop insurance really works—and at taxpayer expense.
