Feb 12
15
How to respond to faulty public opinion & policy
We’re back with an entry in our What to Read Wednesday series! Here’s what’s happening on the policy and opinion fronts:
In January this year, the Wall Street Journal ran an article called “The Myth of Starving Americans.” In response, Feeding America’s CEO, Vicki Escarra, and Howard Buffett wrote to the publication’s editor. Together they disect author Warren Kozak’s claims and reveal them to present biased judgments that ignore inconvenient reports and studies. Read the tempered rebutal here.
We’ve started talking about the Farm Bill recently. This legislation comes up for reauthorization every 5 years. Congress must vote on an extension or reauthorization by September 30, this year. The bill covers Many facets of food- and farm-related policy. It sets the stage for the future of subsidies, energy policy, emergency support, and the food assistance programs that are extremely important to the network of food banks across the country. Food Stamps are in for a chop, even though:
[a] record 46.3 million people, more than one of every six Americans, received assistance in November, the department said earlier this month. Expenditures for SNAP and related programs, the department’s biggest budgetary item, would fall 0.9 percent to $87.4 billion in fiscal 2013, as the economy improves and the number of recipients declines, Vilsack said [Monday].
Our conversation has covered Feeding America’s priorities and an examination of the assumptions at work in Farm Bill debates. Read more & weigh in.
Photo frm EatingWell.com
After those heavy topics and with National Nutrition Month on the horizon, let’s talk about heart health. Well, we don’t really have to, because EatingWell.com already has with the Heart Health Challenge. It’s good to talk about these health issues while we can still take some control of behavior that might increase the risk of heath disease, diabetes, etc.
