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By Lester R. Brown, Environment News Service, Jan 25.  We are witnessing the beginning of one of the great tragedies of history. The United States, in a misguided effort to reduce its oil insecurity by converting grain into fuel for cars, is generating global food insecurity on a scale never seen before.The world is facing the most severe food price inflation in history as grain and soybean prices climb to all-time highs. Prices are double those of a year or two ago. ……Whereas previous dramatic rises in world grain prices were weather-induced, this one is policy-induced and can be dealt with by policy adjustments. The crop fuels program that currently satisfies scarcely 3 percent of U.S. gasoline needs is simply not worth the human suffering and political chaos it is causing. If the entire U.S. grain harvest were converted into ethanol, it would satisfy scarcely 18 percent of our automotive fuel needs.The irony is that U.S. taxpayers, by subsidizing the conversion of grain into ethanol, are in effect financing a rise in their own food prices. It is time to end the subsidy for converting food into fuel and to do it quickly before the deteriorating world food situation spirals out of control
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Filed under: food policy
Now deceased TV newscaster Peter Jennings explores how the food industry spends billions of dollars to sabotage your health. Jennings also takes a critical look at our government’s agricultural subsidy programs, and the consequences of misguided government policies on our diet and health. For example, sugar and fat receive 20 times more government farming subsidies than fruits and vegetables. The food industry spends $34 billion per year marketing their products, $12 billion of which is spent marketing unhealthy foods to children. Learn how misleading advertising, food additives, and a corrupt subsidy system have undermined public health.
Filed under: food policy
Governor Eliot Spitzer today announced that he has signed an executive order establishing a New York State Council on Food Policy. The Council will coordinate state agriculture policy and make recommendations on developing food policy that will help ensure the availability of safe, fresh, nutritious and affordable food for all New Yorkers, especially low income residents, senior citizens and children. The Council will look at ways to increase sales of New York agricultural products to New York consumers, with a special emphasis on expanding the consumer market for organic food.
read more (Media-Newswire.com)
