Economic downturn and USDA food assistance

Automakers may need a bailout package,but economic hard times are also hitting the food pantry. Sen. Tom Harkin has scheduled a hearing on the issue. This just slid across the inbox:

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture Nutrition and Forestry, today announced a Committee hearing entitled: Assessment of USDA Food Assistance and Child Nutrition Programs in the Economic Downturn, Promoting Health and Fighting Hunger. The Committee will meet in open session at 1:00 P.M. on Monday, December 8, 2008 in Room 328A of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Witnesses for the proceedings include:

Panel I

Dr. Eileen Kennedy, Friedman School of Nutrition Policy and Science, Tufts University, Boston, MA

Dr. Mariana Chilton, Children’s Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Project, Philadelphia, PA

Ms. Mary Kay Fox, Mathematica Policy Research, Cambridge, MA

Ms. Carolyn Duff, School Nurse, AC Moore Elementary School, Columbia, SC

Be careful for what you ask for?

Manhattan, Kansas, has won the recommendation of the Department of Homeland Security for its $450 million biodefense lab. From the AP. Obviously, having Sen. Pat Roberts touting the Kansas site didn't hurt....

The new lab would replace an aging 24-acre research complex on Plum Island, about four miles off the eastern shore of Long Island, N.Y. Foot-and-mouth research has been confined to the island since 1955 to avoid an accidental outbreak that could lead to the slaughter of millions of livestock. The disease does not sicken humans.

Some farm groups have expressed concern about the risks of moving the lab to the U.S. mainland. The Bush administration acknowledged earlier this year that accidents have happened with the feared virus at the Plum Island facility.

But Homeland Security officials are convinced it can operate safely using the latest containment procedures. And Kansas officials are focused on the $3.5 billion economic infusion the lab could mean for the local economy.

Stewardship/sustainability index soon coming?

Still waiting on the official news release announcing the "stewardship index for specialty crops." Tim York told The Packer about this effort at the PMA and indicated a news release wasn't too far off, but so far the participating associations/NGOs have not put out a joint release. Coverage in the Nov. 17 issue of The Packer, from the Western Growers annual convention, most accurately described what is coming:

Jonathan Kaplan, director of the Sustainable Agriculture Project in the San Francisco office of the Natural Resources Defense Council, New York, said his group has been working on a sustainability project called the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops.
This effort brings together producers, buyers and nonprofit groups to "develop or adopt specific, measurable and verifiable outcomes-based metrics for documenting and improving sustainable performance in the specialty crop sector."
Western Growers is an initial participant, as are the United Fresh Produce Association, Washington, D.C., and the Produce Marketing Association, Newark, Del.
Kaplan said there are more common goals between producers and environmental groups than they both acknowledge.
"We've got to keep farmers on the land or it becomes car habitat with more congestion and pollution," he said.

CSPI comment on labeling of refused shipments

Here is an excerpt from the comment provided by the Center for Science in the Public Interest about labeling products that have been refused entry into the U.S. Find the rulemaking docket here.


The rule should be strengthened by requiring government officials to supervise the person who affixes a “United States: Refused Entry” label. As drafted, subsection (d) of the rule ould permit an importer to affix the label provided FDA is given photographic or visual proof it was done, or the importer provided proof by another satisfactory method. These two alternatives open the door to fraud. Neither the proposed rule’s preamble nor referenced documentation provides support for FDA’s decision to permit unsupervised importers to affix labels. It is well established that unscrupulous importers will cheat in order to avoid detection of an unsafe food shipment. Customs operations in the 1990s found 30 percent of importers engaged in practices such as banking, substitution and document fraud to illegally import and avoid exporting unsafe foods.

Top Ten Stories - Dec. 3

Here are the top ten headlines snatched from the Web this morning....

1. FDA cites progress in food safety
The agency cited several examples progress in the area of prevention, including the opening of offices in five regions that export food and other FDA-regulated products to the U.S.: China, India, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. The FDA has already hired staff for its offices in China and India.

2. Salinas haz-mat team at forefront of anti-terror efforts Let's hope not...

A bi-partisan commission formed to study the threat of a terrorist attack says the country can expect one to happen by the year 2013. The Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism is set to release it's findings Wednesday.

Among other things, it concluded: "Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing."

The study adds the threat is likely to be either biological or nuclear. As an integral point of the U.S. food supply, it's believed the Salinas Valley agricultural industry could be a point for a bio-terror attack.

"A biological attack on our agriculutral center could make the demand for that crop go down, make people suspicious of all agriculture in Monterey County," says Fred Wehling, associate professor of at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. "It would be very difficult to recover from that."

3.U.S. Auto sales plunge 37% in November

U.S. auto sales plunged 37 percent in November to the lowest annual rate in 26 years as the recession and Detroit automakers’ aid pleas kept buyers out of showrooms.

4. Your recession survival guide

After spikes in the prices of milk, eggs, and other staples earlier this year, shoppers may be in for some relief in 2009. The price increases were partly caused by the high price of gasoline, which is used to transport much of our food. Now gas prices are dropping, leading some analysts to expect lower supermarket prices. But it won't happen overnight, because the cost of diesel is still high, and farmers need to recover from the high input costs they faced over the summer.

5. Democrats should face the challenge

As the likely next secretary of homeland security, Ms. Napolitano will need a similarly deft touch if she elects to push for broad reform of the nation's failed immigration system in an administration preoccupied with war abroad and an economic crisis at home. She should. Even in a sharp recession, the United States will continue to depend on millions of undocumented workers. Unless they address the plight of these workers and forge an enforcement regime that works, the Democrat-controlled Congress and the new administration will allow a sore to fester.

6. Unauthorized immigration declining, but why?

Flows of unauthorized immigrants to the United States have declined significantly according to a new report by the Pew Hispanic Center. The report estimates that between 2005 and 2008, approximately 500,000 unauthorized immigrants entered the United States each year — 300,000 fewer than the 800,000 unauthorized immigrants Pew estimated for each year between 2000 and 2004.

7.Media exposure linked to obesity

The study, "Media and Child and Adolescent Health: A Systematic Review," was done by the Yale University School of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, and California Pacific Medical Center and published by Common Sense Media.

It looked at the best studies on media and health from the last 28 years, a total of 173 in all, and found that 80 percent of them showed that greater media exposure led to negative health effects in children and adolescents

8.Mortgage delinquencies up in third quarter

A credit reporting agency says the percentage of people who are two months behind on their mortgages was up in the third quarter from the same period last year.

TransUnion LLC says nearly 4 percent of the people holding a mortgage were at least 60 days behind in payments for the quarter ending in September. That compares with 2.56 percent last year. Experts say the climb likely won`t slow down.

The highest delinquency rates are in Florida, at 7.8 percent, Nevada, at 7.7 percent, and California, at 5.8 percent. The states with the lowest delinquency rates are North Dakota, at 1.4 percent, followed by South Dakota at 1.6 percent and Montana at 1.7 percent.

The figures are from TransUnion Trend Data, which consists of 27 million consumer records randomly sampled each month. Trans Union also reports that the percentage of people who were delinquent on their credit card payments rose in the third quarter, while average debt per borrower jumped 7.7 percent.

Third-quarter delinquency was highest in Nevada, at 1.79 percent, followed by Florida, at 1.45 percent. The two states are among the hardest hit by the housing and mortgage crisis. The lowest credit card delinquency rates were found in Vermont and North Dakota, at 0.70 percent.

9.Wal Mart assailed on death

Police say Jdimytai Damour, a 34-year-old temporary maintenance worker, was pushed to the ground and asphyxiated when an estimated 2,000 shoppers broke through the glass doors at a Wal-Mart store on Long Island, N.Y., as they raced to buy a limited assortment of sharply discounted television sets, computers and other gifts in the predawn hours early Friday.

10.What's next?

Nouriel Roubini, the foremost economist to predict the crash, believes that growth won't return until at least 2010, as the years of excess expansion on the back of a debt bubble will take time to unwind. This would put back a global market bottom to mid-2009.

Other headlines.....

Delinquent mortgages to double in 2009

Childhood obesity a heavy burden in China

County supes to decide on plan for Stonegate water shortage

Illegal workers skirt Arizona law

Rhode Island holds hearing on e-verify

Where to find deals on healthful food