Headline roundup 8/16

$22m plan aims to make one million healthier in B.C. From The Vancouver Sun:
Right now in British Columbia, only about half the population is considered at a healthy body weight, 20 per cent are smokers, 40 per cent are physically inactive and most -- 60 per cent -- don't eat the recommended daily serving of fruits and vegetables.
That may soon be about to change -- just in time for the 2010 Olympic Games.
Later...
The initiative has quantifiable short-term goals: To reduce the number of smokers in the province by 225,000 individuals; increase by 948,000 the number of British Columbians who eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily; increase daily physical activity in 351,000 individuals; and add 349,000 B.C. residents to the 50 per cent of the population who are already at a healthy weight, according to a body-mass index.
All this in time for the 2010 Olympics.
TK: BC government wants behavior change in time for the 2010 games, and don't we all respond well to deadlines? One wonders if the population will let themselves go after the Olympic spotlight passes.

Immigration rules: an economic disaster? Business Week reports:
Employers and immigrant rights groups are speaking out against rules announced Aug. 10 by the Bush Administration requiring employers to fire workers without valid Social Security numbers. Opponents argue that the regulations, effective in one month, will create a disastrous ripple effect in the U.S. economy and disrupt the lives of an estimated 12 million undocumented people in the U.S.
"Throwing this rock in the pond will have devastating consequences," says Craig Regelbrugge, co-chairman of the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform and spokesman for the American Nursery & Landscape Assn. "The anti-immigrant crowd hasn't thought through what would happen if this entire workforce went away. Who will be there to put meat and vegetables on American dinner tables? The only unaffected group will be Americans who do not eat."


Tesco building wind turbines to power checkout registers From the story:
It would be the first Tesco store to be part of a national drive to halve the supermarket chain's in-store energy consumption within three years

Tesco, other UK chains urged to end below-cost sales of alcohol Critics say own-brand alcohol priced at promotion levels below mineral water lead to teenage alcohol abuse

Discussion Board topics

GAO report on freight rates for railroads Big Apple provides link to GAO report on railroad rates

Big Mac index and real currency exchange rates Luis notes recent files uploaded to Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Group:

At any rate, I am uploading both the nominal and real exchange rates from the USDA to the blog. For Chile (the straightforward nominal case) you can see that the amount of pesos bought by US dollars rises steadily (i.e. C. peso depreciates) and then the amount of pesos/ dollar decreases sharply around 2002 (i.e. C. peso appreciates). Similar situation can be seen in real, inflation adjusted terms. Check Canada and Australia.
Now, in terms of direccion, according to the July 2007 "Big Mac Index", the Chinese Yuan is 58% undervalued against its "fair value" against the US dollar, the Chilean peso is 13% undervalued, Mexico 21% undervalued and the Canadian dollar 8% overvalued. It is a useful indicator but as you know, China's central bank has been able to keep its currency undervalued for a long time so take it with a big grain of salt.