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
Jun
2
2023
Weekend reading: the loss of small dairy farms
I’m just getting to this report from Food and Water Watch: The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies: Dirty Dairy Racket
Food & Water Watch took a look at what’s happening to the U.S. dairy industry. Its conclusions are not surprising if you have been following these trends.
- Big dairies have driven out small. Only about 30 percent of all U.S. milk is produced on family-scale farms.
- Dairy is not profitable. “Thanks to the gutting of federal supply management policy,” overproduction and increased production costs gave caysed milk prices to plummet.
- Consolidation doesn’t help. Three dairy coops control 83 percent of milk sales: DFA (Dairy Farmers of America), Land O’ Lakes, and California Dairies, Inc.).
Here’s one comparison: Dairy association CEP salaries as compared to dairy farmer income.
The next Farm Bill could help fix some of this by:
- Restoring supply management
- Stopping proliferation of factory dairy farms
- Reforming the farm safety net
- Setting fair prices
