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
Feb
10
2022
GAO: USDA discriminates against minority, new, and military farmers
I love Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports. Some member of Congress requests them and GAO resaearchers then get to work.
I particularly like the way GAO understates what its reports are about.
Try this, for example: Oversight of Future Supplemental Assistance to Farmers Could Be Improved
This program gave $23 billion to farmers during the pandemic.
Of this, 95% went to “nonspecialty crops” (translation: feed for animals and fuel for cars, aka Big Ag).
And hardly any of the money went to minority, new, or military farmers.
Leah Douglas, now working for Reuters, did the math.
- Collectively, socially disadvantaged, military, and beginning farmers got a combined $818 million across the two years,—3.6%
- Socially disadvantaged farmers got $435.7 million—1.9% (they comprise 6.7% of farmers)
- Beginning farmers got $152.1 million—0.7% (they comprise 27% of farmers).
- Military veterans got $240.5 million—1% (they comprise 11% of farmers).
Comment: The USDA has a long history of discrimination against these groups. It needs to make up for that.
