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Chile Soda Tax Highest in the World; Industrial Agribusiness Not Sustainable; Monsanto’s Congressional Hearing Over

NY Times Reports How Chile is Changing the Food MarketImage result for tony tiger food meme

“The Chilean government, facing skyrocketing rates of obesity, is waging war on unhealthy foods with a phalanx of marketing restrictions, mandatory packaging redesigns and labeling rules aimed at transforming the eating habits of 18 million people. Nutrition experts say the measures are the world’s most ambitious attempt to remake a country’s food culture, and could be a model for how to turn the tide on a global obesity epidemic that researchers say contributes to four million premature deaths a year…Since the food law was enacted two years ago, it has forced multinational behemoths like Kellogg to remove iconic cartoon characters from sugary cereal boxes and banned the sale of candy like Kinder Surprise that use trinkets to lure young consumers. The law prohibits the sale of junk food like ice cream, chocolate and potato chips in Chilean schools and proscribes such products from being advertised during television programs or on websites aimed at young audiences. The linchpin of the initiative is a new labeling system that requires packaged food companies to prominently display black warning logos in the shape of a stop sign on items high in sugar, salt, calories or saturated fat.” – NY Times 

 

Supermarket shelves no longer lined with cute critters and eye-catching logos, instead replaced with labels for consumers to think twice about sugar, salt and fat. Photo taken from NY Times.

 

Big Ag Dominates Yet Another Scientific Report Shows Industrialized Farms Cause Major Damage to Public Health and the Environment

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“The impacts of industrial agriculture on the environment, public health, and rural communities make it an unsustainable way to grow our food over the long term.” -Union of Concerned Scientists And what was once since as a technological revolution to improve food production has been proven time again, not so! There are better, science-based methods now available. Image taken from UCS.

“U.S. agriculture’s shift to larger and more specialized farms has damaged public health and the environment. That’s according to a new report by nonprofits U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund (PIRG), based in Denver, and Frontier Group in Santa Barbara, Calif. The report analyzes the agricultural landscape and concludes that a combination of modern technologies, financial influences, and public policy have led to unintended negative consequences. The report, Reaping What We Sow: How the Practices of Industrial Agriculture Put Our Health and Environment at Risk, documents the impact of those driving forces in agriculture. Farms have become larger and more specialized, without any focus on the types of produce that make us healthier. For example, the size of the midpoint U.S. corn field tripled between 1987 and 2007. Just as with crop farming, livestock and poultry production has changed dramatically. In 1987, the midpoint size of a hog farm was 1,200 animals. By 2007, that number had soared to 30,000 hogs – a 24-fold increase, the report said.” – Sustainable Food News

“We can no longer tolerate a farm and food policy that incentivizes agricultural practices which pose significant risks to the environment and public health,” said Kara Cook, PIRG’s toxics program director and the report’s co-author. “You can’t feed the world by killing the planet.”

Monsanto’s Congressional Hearing is Over: Chemicals Still OK???

In last week’s committee hearing about the chemical review process, we see the true assault on independent scientists, specifically the International Agency of Research for Cancer (IARC), which determined in 2017 that Glyphosate is carcinogenic and harmful to humans. 

We need to stand up together and tell the EPA to do their job, and get out of bed with Agribusiness! Though the public health implications have been conveyed by many, and now Dr. Jennifer Sass, we need to expose the corruption which our government will never acknowledge. That is, the impacts of Monsanto products are far-reaching and embedded into industrialized food system because too many are at risk of losing money to stop.Image result for glyphosate risks

Nevertheless, Representative Suzanne Bonamici and Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson who represents the 30th Congressional District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives both state very clearly in the remarks the important work of independent organizations to support investigations aiming to establish true oversight, not undercut it!  She provides the example of asbestos and lead pipes, both great examples of the adverse health effects to dangerous exposures which were discovered too late. Public comments included reservations about Chairman Smith, who seemed more concerned with speaking up about the CDC’s handling of data rather than the IARC assessment of Round Up. Moreover, others pronounce this hearing a ugly display of our current administrations “political corruption, degradation, and willfull ignorance of science and common sense leading to endangerment of the public and the planet.”

Check out the full video recording of the Science, Space, Technology (SST) Committee Hearing – In Defense of Scientific Integrity: Examining the International Agency of Research on Cancer (IARC) Monograph Programme and Glyphosate Review

Read more about this critical issue from the Organic Consumer’s Association online here

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