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
Apr
13
2022
USDA subsidies for animal agriculture
If you want to understand why it’s so difficult to change meat consumption patterns, try the Environmental Working Group’s latest analysis: USDA has spent nearly $50 billion on livestock subsidies since 1995.
From 1995 to 2021, USDA spent
- $11 billion on livestock disaster assistance
- $14.2 billion on livestock commodity purchases
- ~$5 billion in dairy subsidies
- $15 billion in payments to offset the effects of the pandemic
In addition, USDA paid $160 billion during those years to producers of the corn and soybeans used to feed those animals.
In contrast, USDA spent less than $30 million to promote plant-based proteins since 2018.
The numbers say it all.
Policy change, anyone?
