Del Monte Fresh Produce Launches Integrated Campaign Promoting Banana's Role in Nutrition and Weight Loss

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/del-monte-fresh-produce-launches-integrated-campaign-promoting-bananas-role-in-nutrition-and-weight-loss-96407639.html

Del Monte Fresh Produce Launches Integrated Campaign Promoting Banana's Role in Nutrition and Weight Loss


CORAL GABLES, Fla., June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Del Monte Fresh Produce Company announced today the launch of "Buy A Bunch. Lose A Bunch.", an integrated marketing campaign that aims to engage consumers with Del Monte's motto, "Eat Healthy. Live Healthy." The initiative focuses on bananas, the most purchased fresh fruit by U.S. consumers, as an affordable diet staple to lose and maintain weight. "Buy A Bunch. Lose A Bunch." kicks off the first day of summer, when consumers are looking to trim extra pounds and get into great shape for summertime fun.

"'Buy A Bunch. Lose A Bunch.' combines traditional in-store signage with social and mobile media to connect with consumers in our fast-paced, changing marketplace," said Dennis Christou, vice president, marketing, North America, for Del Monte Fresh Produce Company. "There is no magic bullet to weight loss, but bananas can be an integral part to a nutritious low-calorie diet. Their affordability and popularity put them within reach for any consumer."

The initiative involves a number of online and offline components. Online, Del Monte is offering five trips for two to the Banana Beach Resort in Belize. One trip will be given away along with $100 gift cards in a sweepstakes run through supermarket retailers and www.fruits.com. The retail promotion will be supported with a series of new banana stickers and in-store signage highlighting the sweepstakes and driving consumers online. Four additional trips will be given through Del Monte's new Facebook page, "Fan of Bananas" (www.facebook.com/fanofbananas), in a Diet Challenge Sweepstakes, where consumers are encouraged to learn more about bananas and healthy eating. By completing a series of four challenges that range from sharing a recipe and photo to taking a survey, users are entered into the sweepstakes drawing for the trips, and will have a chance at other prizes. Twitter users can engage in the promotion via the handle @fanofbananas.

The Diet Challenge will kick off with a Twitter Party, hosted by @MomCentral. With over 16,000 followers, the partnership with MomCentral will allow a socially active group of people interested in healthy eating to learn about the campaign and how bananas contribute to a healthy lifestyle. Participants will also be able to win some fun banana-related prizes by retweeting information and answering quiz questions.

Del Monte is also reaching mobile consumers with the launch of the Del Monte Fresh Lifestyles application for iPhone and BlackBerry users. The app will feature recipes and product information, diet information and tools, fun games for adults and kids, and downloadable coupons for bananas and other Del Monte fresh fruits and vegetables (available for free at the iPhone App Store and BlackBerry App World).

Additional Facebook programs will offer more chances for consumers to engage and win prizes, including live chats with a nutritionist and fitness tips from experts. The page will also provide coupons, recipes, diet and nutrition tips, trivia and general information on bananas. Del Monte views activity within social media as long-term community building for banana enthusiasts to share ideas and experiences.

"Staying fit is not a trend; it's a lifestyle. We want our consumers to feel empowered to eat fresh and to be healthy," said Christou. "The Facebook Banana Diet Challenge and Del Monte Fresh Lifestyles app are tools to help jumpstart a new, healthy lifestyle."

Lucas to Obama: disappointed though not surprised

Lucas to Obama: Don't Politicize Crisis in Gulf
to Push Cap and Tax Policy

WASHINGTON – Ranking Member Frank Lucas issued the following statement after President Obama's Oval Office address on the BP oil spill.

"I am disappointed, though not surprised, that President Obama is trying to use the Gulf oil spill crisis to push his disastrous cap and tax policy. The widening environmental crisis in the Gulf is a tragedy and those who were negligent should be held accountable. This includes the Obama administration, which has been slow to respond to this disaster and has demonstrated a lack of leadership and organization in dealing with this crisis.

"The administration should focus on stopping the oil spill and preventing further damage to the environment and our economy, rather than to use the situation as an opportunity for political gain and to push a liberal agenda.

"Punishing those who live and work in rural America with a cap and tax policy that will result in lost jobs, higher energy costs and higher food prices does nothing to address the shortcomings of the administration's response to this crisis. "

Sticks & Stones May Break My Bones...

Now that my Chicago Blackhawks have finished a storybook hockey season culminating in the one-year guardianship of the Stanley Cup, my happy juice has been locked up until fall & the mind wanders to other, less fulfilling and certainly more maddening topics.

Like the current state of online journalism, and the effects the ever-evolving 24/7 news cycle has on its targets.

Like the fine lines between rumor, spin & the truth, reliable sources & hearsay, clueless spokespeople whose words potentially affect an industry, and headline writers who are not much better in my book.

In a morbid case of bad-dream deja vu all over again, June 2010 has the familiar napalm smell of two years ago, when misdirection, bureaucratic bumbling & out-and-out stupidity brought the tomato industry to its knees through absolutely no fault of its own. Read my June '08 blogs forward for the bloodletting from that incident.

Incredibly, it could be happening again. It's been reported for the last week that there have been 71 cases of salmonella linked to central Illinois Subway restaurants, with those stores voluntarily replacing---surprise!---produce items, and if we can assume that the FDA & CDC have learned anything from the past, they are hell-bent on not repeating it. So they're not saying squat this time, while they 'survey' the situation in the war room, covering their hinders with both hands.

Problem is, newspeople don't like that. In fact, if left to their own devices, some of them will take what little snippets of information are provided, analyze it from 19 different angles & then run to the goal line. In this case, it was Melaney Arnold, communications manager for the Illinois Department of Public Health, who stated to The Packer that while originally it was not known what caused the outbreak, the department believed it was a fresh produce item.

Was that a fair statement for her to make? Is she responsible for jackals like 'NewsInferno--News That Matters!' that is reporting this 'belief' as gospel, and wire services that are picking up the story, disseminating to millions? Or does some of that obligation lie with the guy in the middle, Packer reporter Andy Nelson, who's a darn good writer but maybe should have known better in this instance, given the lack of hard facts to this point?

Whatever. It could very well be that I'm just a little punch-drunk from the last three months. This car hasn't run right for awhile now. A twelve-day freeze and a market that drops from $35 to $2 in five weeks will do that to a guy.

Later,

Jay

Floods destroy specialty crops - Wisla River back to flood stage

http://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Floods%20destroy%20specialty%20crops%20-%20Wisla%20River%20back%20to%20flood%20stage_Warsaw_Poland_6-9-2010.pdf

Floods destroy specialty crops - Wisla River back to flood stage

Poland has suffered its worst flooding in over 140 years and farmers are now taking stock, even while unseasonable wet weather continues and the Wisla River again is rising to flood stage. 450,000 hectares of crop land is reported as water damaged or flooded, of roughly 16 million arable acres in the country. FAS Warsaw staff visited points just a few hundred kilometers north and south of the city to see someof the worst effects of the damage. National output of grains and oilseeds crops remain relatively undamaged, located more north and west of flood damaged areas. Specialty crops and fruits suffered more, with forty percent of Poland's crops such as hops destroyed. Cherry, apple strawberry, and black currants' production will be lower.


450,000 hectares in Poland are flooded, affecting roughly 50,000 households including more than 4300 farms with animals. There are 31 agricultural companies (food processors) affected by the flood (including meat and poultry producers, juice producers). In many places, meadows have been flooded or are too wet so there will be problems with the first of three traditional grass cuttings for hay. The grass has grown too high and is loosing nutritional value as it is blooming and is still too wet to use cutting equipment. Weather forecasts show more rain for at least a week and the Wisla is back to flood stage. Lower hay production is expected is affected locales. Specialty crop production like hops or black currant has been seriously affected. Millers do not worry because they have stocks from last year. They also know that many farmers keep stocks from last season and they have to get rid of them before new harvest. Farmers have some time to recover because harvest is expected to be late this year. Millers also have offers from Czech and Hungary so they know they can get good quality wheat for a reasonable price. Over the term of this summer and into the fall grain prices should not increase dramatically. When it comes to national output levels for oilseed and fruit production most recent estimates do not show drastic reductions. Apple production is expected to be 2,300,000 tons (around a 12% decrease); prices are expected to be stable (still low) due to high stocks and the sluggish apple market sales in the EU. Last season apple production was too high and demand from Russia is not likely to increase. Strawberry production is expected to be 170,000 tons (around 14% decrease) and export prices are expected to go up to even 1300 Euro per ton at the beginning of the season. Cherry production is expected to be 150,000 tons (around 20% decrease) and prices will increase. However, processors will probably not like to pay more than the average for the last two seasons. Processors overshadow the market making price increases difficult. Strawberry markets are watching whether higher levels of production in Hungary and Serbia will offset Poland's difficulties. Total grain production is estimated at 26-26.5 mln tons (first estimates were 27.5 mln tons). The acreage is not estimated to go down because flood did not affect grain and oilseeds fields (they are far from river banks) and more north and west and not in central and south Poland that has flooded. Production is estimated to be lower due to lower yields. Many farmers could not enter their fields and use crop protection chemicals. Wheat production is estimated at 8.9 mln tons (yields 3.87), mixed grains are estimated at 8 mln (yields 2.96). Corn may drop to 1.5 mln, but it is not yet a significant crop in Poland. Note: USDA evaluates crop production and its supply and demand estimates for EU member states under its consolidated reporting program and so does not produce official estimates for Poland. For information about USDA’s views on the national situation, contact Agata.kingsbury@fas.usda.gov
FAS Experts visit damaged regions. Although the general food production in Poland seems not to be affected dramatically, there are places that the situation is really tragic. On June 1, 2010, FAS representatives visited two of the three most flooded counties in Poland: Wilków in Lubelskie region and Slubice in Mazowieckie.

Meeting with the mayor of Wilków, agricultural specialist Agata Kingsbury learned that 90% of the county was under water and the cold and rainy weather has not helped: there are 4,000 people who cannot return to their households; the water level is still too high. People were evacuated to neighbor villages; right now many of them live at one of the secondary schools in Rogów village that was not flooded. Wilków county is famous for hop, apple and black currant production. What they need to do right now is to wait for the water level to decrease and start cleaning the damage. People already know that there will be nothing to harvest this season. Wilków county produces 40% of Polish hops, apples and black currant that are delivered to the local fruit juice plant. The plant has been flooded too. It means that many people who lost all their belongings most likely will lose their jobs. The county already has received government help, however the people will be paid as soon as they go back to their their houses; right now there is nothing they can do with this cash. Another problem the county will face soon when 4000 people goes back to their damaged homes, will be lack of fridges, washing machines, mattresses, rubber shoes, shovels and farm equipment. Below is also a link to a film on Youtube recorded by someone flying over Wilkow last week. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLXbi_iqMRI Floods destroyed farms in the Mazowieckie Wojewodship (north/center of Poland), especially the Słubice municipalities in the district of Plock. Agricultural specialist Jolanta Figurska visited with local firefighters and farmers in the region. About 37% of the Municipality of Słubice, with a total area of 3500 ha, has been flooded. Except for two poultry producing facilities in the Municipalities of Gąbin (Doldrob Company in Borki) and Słubice (Chicken production facility in Juliszew), no other large facilities or farms were affected. Local farmers commented that floods will certainly result locally in an increase in the prices of grains (wheat), as well as strawberries and other fruit and vegetables. The Słubice region is one of the leading commercial strawberry producing areas in Poland. Many farmers in the region own small farms of an area between 2 ha -10 ha. The disaster affected mostly small scale farmers, which in many cases produced for their own consumption. These farms will rely heavily on government funds in order to recover. In most cases each family had a fruit and vegetable garden, which was used for their own consumption. Given the current circumstances these products will now need to be purchased, contributing to increased demand. Twelve villages were affected, destroying 258 buildings and leaving 1,447 people homeless. The community lost 12,000 chickens, and suffered a complete loss of its wheat and strawberries' acreage

Did Walmart Beat California To the Plastic Bag Punch

http://earth911.com/news/2010/06/15/did-walmart-beat-california-to-the-plastic-bag-punch/

Did Walmart Beat California To the Plastic Bag Punch

As California contemplates a statewide ban on retailers offering free single-use bags, at least three stores in the Golden State already enforce such a policy. Walmart stores in Sacramento and Ukiah stopped offering single-use bags to shoppers in October, as reported by Triple Pundit.

The company as a whole has committed to reducing plastic bag waste by 33 percent per store by 2013. The pilot program at these three stores allows consumers to either bring in their own reusable bags or buy a reusable bag for either 15 cents or 50 cents, depending on size.

If passed, California’s bag law would be implemented differently than Walmart’s policy. It would ban retailers from giving out single-use plastic bags, but they would still be able to offer single-use paper bags at a fee of at least 5 cents per bag.

The bill justifies the continued use of paper bags, provided they are made of 40 percent recycled content, because they “are a high value recyclable collected in every curbside and community recycling program in California.”

Another area where Walmart and the state law will differ is that California requires that any reusable bags being sold are designed and manufactured for at least 100 uses, and Walmart’s bags are said to last about 75 uses.

While AB 1998 has received opposition over fears that reusable bags can transfer bacteria from items such as meat to other foods, the law does make a point to exclude single-use bags from anything “used to protect a purchased item from damaging or contaminating other purchased items when placed in a recycled paper bag or reusable bag,” as well as for bagging medications. In these cases, single-use packaging could still be used.

If California’s law is passed, it won’t take effect until 2012, but it would also remove the requirement that grocery stores offer plastic bag recycling containers. This could make it more of a challenge for residents that still have bags to find recycling options, since they typically aren’t collected in curbside programs.

Related articles

Brazil to lead agriculture boom as Europe imports

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hgAm4zjS1QGlmhPyAlVbImLSBaQAD9GBKHFO0

Brazil to lead agriculture boom as Europe imports

By FRANCES D'EMILIO (AP) – 3 hours ago

ROME — The rising economies of Brazil, China, and India will see strong growth in their agricultural sectors in the next decade as output remains stagnant among big importers in Western Europe, international experts forecast Tuesday.

Russia and Ukraine will also make big gains while high prices, which had caused riots over the cost of staples like rice and bread in some developing countries in 2008, will likely ease somewhat, according to a report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The annual Agricultural Outlook report said it correctly anticipated last year that international market prices for most agricultural products would have retreated "considerably" in 2009 due to a "strong production response and lower demand due to the recent high prices and with the onset of the global recession."

Soaring fuel prices and demand for biofuels had helped drive up food prices dramatically in 2007-2008.

Allowing for inflation, food prices are expected to be much lower over this decade than in those two peak-price years, the report said. The largest fall in prices compared to the 2007-2008 levels were seen in wheat, rice, oilseeds, protein meals, butter, cheese and skim milk powder.

Still, the report highlighted how the costs of these products will remain above longer-term averages.

"The price increases, in real terms, range for crops from around 16 percent to 40 percent above their average for the last decade," the report said, with dairy products seeing one of the sharpest rises.

Brazil is predicted to experience by far the fastest growth in agriculture, an expansion of more than 40 percent through 2019 compared to the 2007-2009 base period. China and India were expected to see growth of 26 percent and 21 percent. Projections for Russia and Ukraine were 26 percent and 29 percent, assuming government agricultural support come off as planned.

During the same time period, agricultural growth in the European Union's 27 countries will be less than 4 percent and production in Western Europe will remain "stagnant," the report said.

"Growth in consumption on a per capita basis in this region will need to be met by imports," the report's authors wrote.

Over the decade ending in 2019, global production of crops will increase by more than 13 percent it said.

The report found that with the exception of sugar, agricultural commodity markets have "calmed considerably" since the turbulence wrought by the spike in food prices, which sparked riots in some parts of the developing world.

One reason for this cooling was weaker demand amid the economic crisis.

Still, "stronger demand, with an anticipated return to higher growth following economic recovery and from increasing populations, should outpace production growth, on average" over this decade to keep commodity prices "on a higher plateau" compared to the average of prices in the last decade before the 2007-2008 hikes.

In other projections, the report said bumper crops will help keep cereal prices under pressure, while other factors cited were recession and "reduced policy supports for biofuels in some countries."

It also said that "large production gains" in rice were anticipated for Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, likely causing these nations "to emerge as important players in the export market" and see a reduced dependence on traditional suppliers Thailand and Vietnam.

Tuesday's report was published jointly by the FAO, based in Rome, and the OECD, based in Paris.

Dole Names New Orleans a “Top Banana” Market; Kicks Off Its “Go Bananas” Tour in the Big Easy

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/press/bananasrdquo-tour-big-easy,1342250.html

Dole Names New Orleans a “Top Banana” Market; Kicks Off Its “Go Bananas” Tour in the Big Easy

NEW ORLEANS - (Business Wire) New Orleans residents are passionate about their bananas – so much so that the world’s largest banana provider has named The Big Easy as a “Top Banana Market” and designated it as the launch city for a summer-long tour designed to encourage new uses for America’s favorite fruit.

The Go Bananas After Dark Tour™ kicks-off in New Orleans the week of June 28, 2010, as part of a summer-long initiative by Dole to challenge the notion of America’s favorite fruit as a breakfast and lunch food only. Conceived by Dole Fresh Fruit Company, a subsidiary of Dole Food Company, Inc., the world’s largest provider of fresh bananas, the first-ever program offers banana lovers in Louisiana and throughout the country fun, intriguing new ways to enjoy the iconic fruit for dinner, dessert and as a unique addition to their summer backyard or beach BBQ parties.

“Most Louisianans wouldn’t even think of a breakfast or lunch without bananas,” explained David Bright, vice president of marketing for Dole Fresh Fruit. “In fact, this devotion has made bananas the top-selling item in grocery stores, enjoyed in more than 96 percent of American homes. Yet, even some of the most ardent banana fans aren’t aware of the amazing things you can do with bananas on the grill and as a healthier dessert indulgence.”

As a “Top Banana Market,” New Orleans has been singled out by Dole for significant local advertising, online, PR and retailer activities to encourage the city’s disproportionately large percentage of banana-loving residents to widen their banana horizons even further. Dole also will be working with local retailers on a number of local in-store programs.

A key component of the summertime initiative is the development and distribution of delicious new Dole banana recipes and serving ideas for dinner, dessert and summer grilling. The new Go Bananas After Dark recipe library – ranging from Grilled Banana S’mores and Island Kabobs with Tropical Fruit Salsa to Teriyaki Pork Chops with Grilled Bananas and the classic Brennan’s Original Bananas Foster – will be available at www.dole.com/bananas and a new DOLE Bananas-dedicated Facebook page, www.facebook.com/dolebananas.

According to Bright, included in the recipe library are several like the ten-minute Grilled Bananas and Grilled Banana Boats that leverage the banana’s reputation as a guilt-free food, containing no fat, cholesterol or sodium. “Bananas are one of the few genuine summertime treats that provide considerable health benefits,” he said. “In addition to qualifying as an excellent source of vitamins B6 and C and a good source of potassium and dietary fiber, they can provide the natural sweetness for some very decadent desserts.”

As part of its emphasis on New Orleans, Dole has partnered with Brennan’s New Orleans, the venerable French Quarter restaurant famous for its French Creole cuisine and invention of the Bananas Foster. Brennan’s Executive Chef Lazone Randolph will work with Judith Fertig and Karen Adler, the famous “BBQ Queens” from Kansas City, to demonstrate new dessert and grilled banana recipes.

Other Go Bananas After Dark Tour stops include Kansas City and Des Moines, Iowa.

Dole is also participating in the summer-long 2010 Char-Broil® Infrared Grilling Tour. Sponsored by Char-Broil® (www.charbroil.com), a leading marketer of infrared grills and other outdoor cooking products, the tour gives Dole the chance to introduce grilled DOLE Bananas to BBQ enthusiasts in more than 20 cities and at major summer BBQ events including the Beer, Bourbon and BBQ Festival in Cary, N.C., the DC BBQ Battle in Washington, D.C., and Nashville’s Music City BBQ Festival.

For more information on DOLE Bananas, including recipes, serving suggestions and nutritional information, go to www.dole.com/bananas or www.facebook.com/dolebananas. High-resolution photography of DOLE Bananas, recipes, serving suggestions and marketing campaign elements also are available.

About Dole Bananas

DOLE is the top-selling banana in America and the world – in both conventional and organic product categories. From its founding by James Drummond Dole, the company has built its reputation on a ceaseless commitment to quality. Today, the DOLE brand stands for more than 100 years of quality produce — and the world’s largest supplier of fresh fruits and vegetables, including bananas.

Dole strives to grow, produce, harvest, transport and distribute its bananas and other produce in the most environmentally and socially conscious way possible. Each year, Dole spends millions of dollars growing and shipping bananas using the most advanced techniques available.

About Dole Foods

Dole, with 2009 net revenues of $6.8 billion, is the world’s largest producer and marketer of high-quality fresh fruit and fresh vegetables, and is the leading producer of organic bananas. Dole markets a growing line of packaged and frozen fruit and is a produce industry leader in nutrition education and research. For more information, visit www.dole.com.

About Brennan’s New Orleans

Legendary Brennan's Restaurant in New Orleans has been the favorite of Harry Connick, Jr., Anthony Hopkins and countless other celebrities since it was opened in 1946 by Edward Brennan, who once kept an apartment on Bourbon Street just for the use of his celebrity friends. Today, the iconic French Quarter restaurant often serves as many as 1,000 guests for breakfast on a weekend morning in its 12 dining rooms. Why 12 dining rooms? The historic building was constructed in 1795 as the home of Vincent Rillieux, great grandfather of French artist Edgar Degas. It retains the charm of a grand mansion with each dining room offering its own unique atmosphere. Serving the finest in French-Creole cuisine, Brennan's is open 364 days a year (only closed for Christmas).

WIC program makes local produce affordable for low income families

http://www.enterprisenews.com/features/x1602636302/Wic-connecting-families-farmers


WIC program makes local produce affordable for low income families


EASTON —

For Marie Pray’s loyal customers, the perks of local produce outweigh the burden of higher prices.

By paying slightly more than they would at a grocery store, customers at Pray’s Easton farmers market booth get recipe suggestions, produce picked that morning, and a vendor who knows them by name.

But not everyone can afford the higher prices charged at farmers markets.

That’s why Pray, who co-runs Oakdale Farms in Rehoboth, is one of a growing number of Massachusetts farmers to accept government-funded coupons for low-income seniors, women and children.

Adam Tedeschi of Second Nature Farm in Norton also accepts the coupons at his Easton farmers market stand.

Through the state-administered federal program, which began in Massachusetts in 1986, about 99,700 participants in the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program will receive $10 per woman or child to use at farmers markets this year. And about 19,000 low-income seniors will receive $30 coupons to use at the markets.

The amount may be a drop in the bucket compared to a family’s food needs, said Lisa Damon, who coordinates the program for the state’s Department of Agricultural Resources. But the coupons serve the double purpose of supporting local farmers and introducing low-income people to local sources of produce.

“It’s a two-mission program,” said Damon. “It certainly provides fresh produce to low-income families. But it also directly benefits local farmers.”

Farmers at almost all of the state’s 200 farmers markets are now participating in the program, which is part of a growing movement to make farmers markets more accessible.

The state is also at work on a pilot program that would allow families to spend food stamps at both grocery stores and farmers markets. And the number of farmers markets that are equipped to accept food stamps increased from about 30 to 49 this year, Damon said.

Langwater Farm in North Easton is among the farms planning to purchase an EBT machine so they can accept food stamps at their farm stand.

Plus, a separate state program provides 4,000 homebound seniors with $30 worth of fresh, local produce delivered to their home.

“Hopefully it will create a bigger wave to make (farmers markets) more accessible,” Damon said.

Farmers say the programs are attracting many people who might not otherwise be able to afford local, fresh organic produce.

“I think it benefits their health and of course it’s benefiting the farmers,” said Carlton Smith, co-owner of C.N. Smith Farm in East Bridgewater. “We’ve got new customers that probably couldn’t have afforded to come to us.”

While participating in the program means extra paperwork for farmers, Smith said it’s worth the effort.

“There’s a lot of kids out there that deserve more than something frozen,” said Smith. “Eating healthy makes a big difference in how you grow up and how you finally live.”

Amy Littlefield can be reached at alittlef@enterprisenews.com.

San Joaquin Valley water allocation boosted again

http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/06/15/1970471/san-joaquin-valley-water-allocation.html

San Joaquin Valley water allocation boosted again

WASHINGTON – Interior Department officials on Monday again boosted their planned irrigation water deliveries to the San Joaquin Valley, giving farmers 45 percent of their standard allocation.

The new allocation is up from a 40 percent delivery announced in May.

"This latest increase in allocation is a result of favorable weather conditions this spring and better-than- expected pumping conditions in the south Delta," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar explained Monday afternoon.

Other federal water allocations in California will stay the same. Farmers north of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta still will get 100 percent of their allocation, while municipal and industrial water users south of the Delta still will get 75 percent.

Salazar has been under political pressure all year to boost irrigation water deliveries, with California lawmakers from both parties insisting environmental restrictions have been too strict.
Call Michael Doyle, Bee Washington Bureau, (202) 383-0006.

Last year, farmers south of the Delta and on the San Joaquin Valley's west side received only 10 percent of their allocation from the federal Central Valley Project. The cutbacks stemmed from a combination of three years of drought and environmental protections for species including the Delta smelt and winter-run salmon.

"Obviously, we're pleased," Westlands Water District spokeswoman Sarah Woolf said.

Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, said the new announcement means "more water and more jobs for our Valley."

"We took on Valley outsiders who tried to cut off our water," he said. "We also took on the Washington bureaucracy until they listened."

The water restrictions were partly rooted in decisions by Fresno-based U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger, who has challenged the adequacy of water protections for endangered species.

Last month, though, Wanger also struck down pumping restrictions on the grounds that they were not based on sound science.

Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/06/15/1970471/san-joaquin-valley-water-allocation.html#ixzz0qvR9iz8Z

Soon iPads To Help You In Shopping !

http://living.oneindia.in/men/gadgets-gizmos/2010/ipad-shopping-grocery-cell-mobile-phones-150610.html

Soon iPads To Help You In Shopping !

Buzz up!
Supermarket guru, Phil Lempert has stated that cell phones can be of a great help when shopping in a grocery store.


He further said, that mobile phones in future can connect live to cameras on farms showing to people how the animals whose meat they are about to consume are being taken care of. This paves way for a healthy intake of meat!

The New Zealand Herald quoted Phil Lempert as saying, “You're going to see people shopping up and down the aisles with an iPad. Look up the brand name, it will tell you everything you need to know about that company".

Lempert also added, “It's going to get rid of the bad ones and promote the good ones"

"We want to know where our food comes from, we want to know about the company, we want to know who the investors are. It''s about sustainability and traceability,” said he.

Heading for a total techno life?

Full-Time Working Moms to Blame for Childhood Obesity?

http://www.aolhealth.com/2010/06/14/full-time-working-moms-to-blame-for-childhood-obesity/


Full-Time Working Moms to Blame for Childhood Obesity?

These days it's not uncommon for women to have both careers and families, but new research suggests that full-time working moms may be a factor in the growing childhood obesity trend.

For the study, the lives of more than 8,552 adults were followed since their birth in 1958, and results showed that their children were 50 percent more likely to be overweight or obese than the parents were themselves when they were at a similar age, Reuters Health reported.

Dr. Leah Li and her team at London University College focused on this group of participants, who in 1991, had a total of 1,889 children between the ages of 4 and 9.

The results showed that 12 percent of the adult study participants' sons and 18 percent of their daughters were overweight. By comparison, just 8 percent of the fathers and 11 percent of the mothers were overweight or obese as children.

Based on their findings, the researchers looked at whether childhood obesity might be linked to having a mother that works full-time. This is because families with full-time working mothers ate fewer family dinners and were more likely to eat unhealthy and conveniently accessible meals.

In addition to this, researchers studied whether the children had more high-sugar foods available to them, saw more unhealthy food advertising aimed at them and were given unhealthy school lunch options.

The study did not include details about the children's diets and exercise habits, Reuters Health reported.

Li's study found that children who had moms working full-time were 48 percent more likely to be overweight or obese than children with stay-at-home moms. The results were adjusted for a family's socioeconomics, the parents' weight and whether or not the child was breastfed. Breast-feeding, in some studies, has been linked to a lower risk of childhood obesity, Reuters Health reported.

The study also found that children with overweight or obese parents were 3 to 6 times more likely to be overweight or obese themselves. Only about 7 percent of the parents were obese in 1965 when they were children, whereas 12 percent of the parents were obese as adults in 1991, the study found.

Li and her colleagues concluded that it's likely that both the weight of the parents and the mothers' employment status contributed to whether or not the children were obese.

Tesco Calls For No Rise In VAT As 1Q Sales Slow

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100615-700934.html?mod=WSJ_earnings_MIDDLETopHeadlines

Tesco Calls For No Rise In VAT As 1Q Sales Slow

Adds CEO, FD comment, detail.)



By Simon Zekaria

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES



LONDON (Dow Jones)--Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN), the U.K.'s largest retailer by sales, Tuesday called on the government not to damage a fragile economy by raising value-added tax.

Finance Director Laurie McIlwee said that a government-imposed increase in VAT--which economists expect to rise to 20% from 17.5%--would have a negative impact on the economy.

"(A VAT increase) wouldn't be appropriate. The economy is recovering but it is pretty fragile, " he said.

Asked if it would be better to introduce the rate hike next year, McIllwee said, "If there is a VAT increase, it should be in the future rather than now".

McIlwee was speaking as the retailer reported slowing U.K. sales growth in the fiscal first quarter but said the outlook for the full year remains unchanged and the company is well-positioned for the recovery.

"We're in good shape and well-positioned to deliver further growth as the economic environment continues to improve," Chief Executive Terry Leahy said in a statement. "The...recovery is well underway although the pace and strength of economic recovery varies across our markets."

Tesco posted a 1.1% year-on-year rise in U.K. sales from stores open at least a year, excluding fuel, for the 13 weeks to May 30. Adjusted for value-added tax, the figure was 0.1%. This compares with a 4.3% rise excluding fuel and VAT last year. The group maintained guidance of 3% U.K. same-store growth for the full year.

Rival J Sainsbury PLC (SBRY.LN), the U.K.'s third-largest grocer, is also expected to report slowing sales Wednesday.

Falling food inflation has hit the top line of U.K. supermarkets since the start of the year. Economists fear that consumer spending and confidence in 2010 will come under pressure from rising fuel prices, as well as forecasted tax hikes, public spending cuts and unemployment as the coalition government reins in borrowing.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s (WMT) Asda Group Ltd., the U.K.'s second-biggest retailer, last month said it expects trading to remain tough after same-store sales excluding fuel and VAT fell 0.3%.

William Morrison Supermarkets PLC (MRW.LN) in May booked a 0.8% rise in first-quarter same-store sales excluding fuel and VAT and said it plans for flat inflation this year.

Tesco--which accounts for over 30% of the U.K. grocery market--said it sees evidence of a steady consumer recovery in sales growth for its premium food ranges, non-food and games. It said its television sales are boosted by the soccer World Cup.

The company also said the number of families redeeming points for its Clubcard scheme rose 20% year-on-year. The group is growing the number of customer accounts for Tesco Bank, it added.

Excluding fuel, Tesco's group sales rose 6.9% in the first quarter compared with a 12.6% rise in the same period last year.

International sales at actual exchange rates excluding fuel rose 11.9%, with 15.4%, 7.3% and 37.8% growth in Asia, Europe and the U.S. respectively.

In April, Tesco--the fourth largest retailer in the world behind U.S.-based Wal-Mart, France's Carrefour SA (CA.FR) and Germany's Metro AG (MEO.XE)--posted a forecast-beating 9.3% rise in full-year net profit to GBP2.34 billion.

Philip Clarke, currently head of Europe, Asia and IT, will succeed Leahy as CEO next March.

Tesco shares closed Monday at 392 pence, valuing the company at GBP31.27 billion.
Tesco Calls For No Rise In VAT As 1Q Sales Slow

Adds CEO, FD comment, detail.)

Obama's call for economic stimulus, jobs spending a tough sell in Congress

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/14/AR2010061405395.html

Obama's call for economic stimulus, jobs spending a tough sell in Congress

Congressional Democrats were stewing Monday over President Obama's urgent appeal for more spending on the economy, saying they share his goals but need more help from the White House to fend off rising concern among rank-and-file lawmakers about budget deficits.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who last month struggled to sell a jobs package to skeptical House Democrats, reacted with stony silence to Obama's request, delivered Saturday in a letter to congressional leaders; her office declined Monday to issue an official response. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) was working to rally senators behind a key piece of Obama's agenda, but a top aide acknowledged that the going was slow and the outcome uncertain.

"We agree with the White House on the need to create jobs and get our economy on track, as we have been working to do since this crisis hit," Reid spokesman Jim Manley said. "Unfortunately, we are dealing with a Republican Party that would rather say no than address the needs of their constituents."

Republicans aren't the only ones saying no to more spending. Late last week, several Democrats said they were unwilling to support the jobs package before the Senate, which includes several administration priorities. Among them: provisions to revive emergency benefits for unemployed workers, which expired June 2, as well as $24 billion in state aid that Obama has called critical to averting "massive layoffs" of public-sector workers.

But the package also would increase budget deficits by nearly $80 billion over the next decade. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said that's too much at a time when the total national debt is $13 trillion and rising. "The more we borrow on these important areas," he said last week, "the more I think we will retard the recovery period dramatically because of more deficit and debt."
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According to Democratic aides and key lawmakers, the White House has done little to allay such concerns. The administration has sent mixed messages on spending, they said, touting the president's plans to freeze agency budgets and veto appropriations bills while urging lawmakers to spend more on job creation. And the White House has been largely absent from the congressional debate, aides said, offering little input on the radically slimmed-down jobs bill that ultimately passed the House.

In the letter Saturday, Obama made an unequivocal case for spending more now -- particularly on measures to support small business and state governments -- to ensure that the recovery doesn't "slide backwards." And administration officials defended their lobbying campaign, noting that White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Christina Romer met with two key groups of House Democrats in recent weeks to make the case for delaying major deficit-reduction until growth is firmly reestablished.

Despite Romer's efforts, Senate leaders this week were considering scaling back the jobs bill to win over moderates such as Nelson and Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) in time for a critical vote later this week. Meanwhile, House Democrats were talking about slashing another Obama priority -- money to preserve public teaching jobs -- from $23 billion to $10 billion and covering the cost with unexpended funds from last year's stimulus package.

If approved, that plan would continue a pattern of dialing back White House proposals. In its February budget request, the administration sought $266 billion in "temporary recovery measures" on top of last year's $862 billion stimulus package. So far, Congress has approved only about $40 billion in additional jobless benefits, according to congressional estimates, as well as a $15 billion measure called the HIRE Act, which created a temporary tax credit for businesses that hire the unemployed.

"If the White House wants this stuff," said a House Democratic aide, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about intraparty affairs, "they actually have to fight for it."

The administration has offered other, more popular ideas for combating a 9.7 percent unemployment rate, including a fund to promote small-business lending that the House is likely to approve this week. Unlike the state aid package, that measure has a designated funding source and will not increase deficits.

With Republicans hammering Democrats over the tide of red ink, paying for jobs bills may be the only way to pass them in advance of this fall's midterm elections, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said Monday.

"The problem is what's necessary in the short term and what's necessary in the long term are directly contradictory," said Conrad, a deficit hawk who pushed hard to create a special commission to address the nation's soaring debt. "In the short term, however, I believe we need more stimulus, unpaid for, because we continue to have weakness . . . But politically, unless things are paid for, it's going to be hard to get them through."

A call for a new term beyond organic: "Authentic"

http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/06/13/going_beyond_organic_authentic_art_of_eating_ext2010/

A call for a new term beyond organic: "Authentic"

This story comes to Salon from the excellent, opinionated food quarterly, The Art of Eating. A version of this story was originally published in issue 63 as "Buying Directly from the Farmer."

Some things -- asparagus, summer turnips, green beans, peas, lettuce, plums, certain apples -- taste obviously different when they are taken directly from the tree or soil rather than purchased in a supermarket. Yet very few of us know that from harvesting our own plants and trees. The closest we come is buying such produce at a farm stand or farmer's market. The supporters of small-scale growers and farmers' markets, which were once few and cheap and are now so much more plentiful and expensive, are sometimes accused of impracticality and elitism. But there's no reason to deprive anyone of a choice between higher and lower quality. And small-scale producers sometimes show the way for mass-producers, as they did and continue do in the case of organic production.

Idealistic market gardeners came first, but of course large corporations have dominated the U.S. supply of organic food for years. The federal government's much-negotiated definition of "organic," when it came into force in 2002, was strong evidence of the big money to be made. At first, the small-scale growers were worried that it would be hard to compete.

Art of EatingEliot Coleman, the fine market gardener who lives on the coast of Maine, has no doubt that well-raised organic food is superior to conventional, but after the government defined "organic," he concluded it was "dead as a meaningful synonym for the highest quality food." He cares equally about benign agricultural methods, the healthfulness of food, and the way it tastes, and part of what he found missing from the definition was a concern for freshness and ripeness. Coleman thinks a good grower not only makes such obvious choices as avoiding the use of poisonous chemicals but does a host of small things that are impossible to capture in a set of rules. Those things include choosing the exact kinds and amounts of fertilizer, the amount and timing of water (if any), the particular cultivar of fruit or vegetable, and the timing of harvest. The kind of individual grower Coleman believes in is motivated by the satisfactions of producing high quality and doing good as well as by the desire for profit.

Such market gardeners are sometimes criticized for being expensive boutique growers, for sounding morally superior, and for being unrealistic about how much money, time, and energy most people can afford to devote to shopping for food. (Of course, what it really costs to produce reasonably good food is a lot more than we typically pay for food, if you factor in agricultural subsidies, soil erosion, air and water pollution, the environmental cost of using so much petroleum-based fertilizer, the health problems of those who work in certain farm environments, and more.) Most American farmers, whatever they might prefer to do, now compete to produce as cheaply as possible in order simply to stay in business. How good can food be if the main goal is to reduce the cost of production?

To promote better food, in an article that appeared some years ago in Mother Earth News, Coleman proposed an attractive, romantic new post-"organic" term based on the Greek word authentes -- "one who does things for him or herself." To have an "authentic" label, food would have to be sold directly by the person or family who grew it -- no middleman. (Of course, many farmers don't have the time or desire to do their own retail selling. But if they did, customers could give useful feedback on varieties, ripeness, and taste.) "Fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, eggs, and meat [would be] produced within a 50-mile radius of their place of final sale," Coleman wrote, suggesting possible standards. "The seed and storage crops (grains, beans, nuts, potatoes, etc.) [would be] produced within a 300-mile radius." Only "traditional processed foods" -- cheese, bread, wine -- could claim to be "made with authentic ingredients." Growers wouldn't cease to be organic. But rather than focus on ways to combat pests and diseases, they would focus on creating healthy plants as well as animals, which would be raised on pasture as much as possible. Coleman especially likes the definition of "authentic" as "local, seller-grown, and fresh" because that meaning couldn't be taken over by national and international producers. "Authentic" food would be a worthwhile point of reference. The idea is as timely now as when he first proposed it.

Click here to read more from the Art of Eating on Salon, and visit artofeating.com.

U.S. Bans Inspector of Organic Farmers in China After Audit

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527487
04324304575306812625653830.html?mod=fox_australian
U.S. Bans Inspector of Organic Farmers in China After Audit

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday it was banning an organic-food inspection group from operating in China nearly two years after the department proposed the ban.

According to the USDA, which certifies private organizations to inspect organic farms, a nonprofit Lincoln, Neb., group called Organic Crop Improvement Association improperly used Chinese government employees to inspect Chinese farms that use state-owned land to grow crops for export to the U.S. bearing the USDA's organic seal.

Under the USDA's eight-year-old organic program, farm visits are supposed to be conducted by independent, third-party inspectors to avoid any conflict of interest. Amanda Brewster, interim executive director of OCIA, which once was one of the largest organic-food inspection agencies in China, declined to comment in an email message. OCIA can continue to inspect food for compliance with U.S. organic standards in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, among other countries.

The USDA's ban isn't expected to disrupt the flow of organic products from China to U.S. supermarkets. The USDA's long spat with the Nebraska group had already prompted many Chinese farmers to arrange for periodic visits from other inspection groups accredited by the USDA.

According to the USDA, OCIA largely stopped its farm inspection work in China last year. The USDA didn't levy any fines against OCIA, which can apply for re-accreditation in China after one year. The USDA began trying to revoke OCIA's authority to operate in China after a 2007 audit uncovered the use of Chinese government employees as farm inspectors. OCIA appealed the move.

"This is far too long to wait, especially considering it is absolutely essential that USDA uphold the rigorous standards and integrity of the organic food label," said Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, the Connecticut Democrat who is chairwoman of the agriculture appropriations subcommittee.

Write to Scott Kilman at scott.kilman@wsj.com

Harvard: US Housing Recovery Will Require Job Growth

http://www.emii.com/Articles/2595823/Home-Page/Top-Stories/Harvard-US-Housing-Recovery-Will-Require-Job-Growth.aspx

Harvard: US Housing Recovery Will Require Job Growth

06-15-2010 | Source: emii.com

A study conducted by Harvard University suggests the strength of the U.S. housing market recovery will be heavily dependent on jobs growth, according to Bloomberg News. The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies’ State of the Nation’s Housing report said that following the expiration of the federal homebuyer tax credit, the housing market is especially susceptible to the negative effects of high unemployment, which is extending the foreclosure crisis.

The Harvard study showed that weak hiring forced many people to “double-up” and share living quarters rather than form a new household, which in turn has suppressed property demand. The homebuyer tax credit offered up to $8,000 for those who signed contracts by Apr. 30 and closed on the property by Jul. 1. According to Lawrence Yun of the National Association of Realtors, the program resulted in a boost of one million home sales since in began in Feb. 2009, and analysts agree that the major challenge going forward will be increasing foreclosures without a hiring-induced pickup in home sales.

Bringing the Food Revolution to Our Schools

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lynda-resnick/bringing-the-food-revolut_b_612224.html




Bringing the Food Revolution to Our Schools

Ruby Tuesday Pick of the Week: United Fresh's A Salad Bar in Every School program
Why It's a Gem: Early exposure to nutrition can equate to a lifetime of wellness.

United Fresh: A Salad Bar in Every School

With childhood obesity now at epidemic proportions, Michelle Obama has spearheaded Let's Move, a program whose mission is to solve the crisis within one generation. Even if the timeline weren't so ambitious, the First Lady would have her work cut out for her, especially considering the poor state of school nutrition. With frozen pizzas and fries dominating cafeteria menus, it's no wonder that our nation's children are developing poor eating habits that they bring home and carry with them throughout their lives. As places of learning, schools have a responsibility to also educate on nutrition, which we all can agree is far more important than algebra, no matter what your third-period teacher claims.

Lynda Resnick: In this week's Ruby Tuesday, we are speaking with Lorelei DiSogra, Vice President of Health and Nutrition at United Fresh Produce Association. For our readers, can you describe A Salad Bar in Every School, the program that United Fresh is initiating?

Lorelei DiSogra: The goal of A Salad Bar in Every School is to increase children's consumption of fruits and vegetables. Kids eat less than half of the amount of fruits and vegetables that they should every day. We believe that there are a number of different strategies that need to be put in place so that schools become a model of healthy eating habits, and school salad bars are an effective strategy to increase kids' consumption.

There've been some research studies done at UCLA [in the early 2000s] by Dr. Wendy Slusser, and we at the National Cancer Institute [where I was at the time] saw her preliminary results and started to engage USDA in this effort around salad bars. There's a history to this whole effort. It's not something that just came about at United Fresh in the last couple of months.

LR: Tell me, what is United Fresh?

LD: United Fresh Produce Association - that's the complete name - is a trade association representing the produce industry.

LR: You know how much I believe in nutrition. The products we sell are all natural and packaged by Mother Nature. But I also know that, given a choice between a pizza and iceberg lettuce, kids often aren't motivated to take the healthy choice, even if it's available. The first step is making it available, and in most schools, the choices don't exist. But the second step is motivation. Is there a school program that helps kids understand how important fresh fruits and vegetables are to their growth and their future health?

LD: Yes. Over the last couple of years, there have been a number of [initiatives] to increase nutrition education in schools. Many schools have nutrition education programs. But as we've seen large school districts roll out salad bars, you can see the impact that they have on children. Generally, when schools are introducing a salad bar for the first time, there's a lot of fanfare around that, [as well as] efforts around nutrition education and promotions.

New York City is one of the most incredible examples of such a school district. It's the largest school district in the country [with approximately 1,600 schools], probably the largest one in the world. They feed just under a million kids a day. About two years ago, they made a commitment to salad bars when they started thinking, "How do we improve the nutritional quality of school meals?" So they started to put salad bars in as many schools as they could. There was $100 million of funding for cafeteria equipment in the stimulus, and New York City schools got $2 million of what was allocated to New York State, and they used that $2 million to buy salad bars for 99 elementary schools.

Now, every Friday in New York City schools, the kids get pizza - 800,000 kids. The day we visited was a Friday, and we went to several schools in Bedford-Stuyvesant. So the little kids came through the cafeteria and got their slice of pizza. Chef Jorge [first executive chef of the New York City schools] has already totally modified that pizza in terms of improving the nutritional quality. In the cafeteria, there were baskets of fresh fruit. And then the kids came out of the cafeteria, and there was the salad bar. And every kid went up to the salad bar. Here were these kids, these little kids, piling on broccoli florets and romaine lettuce and baby carrots and cherry tomatoes. And the kids were just so excited. That's what we've seen in many, many schools.

LR: That's fantastic. So, how are you funding this?

LD: We really believe that there are many different ways to fund this program. But now we've officially launched the Salad Bar in Every School campaign in a way that the industry can contribute. We've already had some major produce-industry companies contribute what I would think would be significant amounts of money. And, starting in April, we started to place salad bars into schools with those early contributions.

LR: What does it cost to put a salad bar into an average school?

LD: We provide the schools with a choice of two different pieces of salad bar equipment - and there's a big price difference between these two pieces. One is a salad bar made by Cambro, which is from California. It's heavy-duty plastic and is very easy to take care of. It has wheels and it's easy to move and has cold packs that go underneath the trays; it's not electric. That runs at about $2,500 dollars.

We also wanted to be able to offer a stainless-steel electric salad bar, so we then settled on a company called Vollrath. They make a very beautiful and effective salad bar that's electric and stainless steel. Those run about $6,000. You can see that there's a difference in price. We provide the specs as we're working with schools that are going to receive salad bars. We give them the choice, and we don't even talk about what they cost. The cost is our issue, not their issue.

LR: Do you supply the funds?

LD: In the schools that we've been supplying them to, yes.

LR: And then where do they get the money to buy the fresh produce?

NYC schools are seeing more kids pile on the veggies.

LD: When we're in negotiations with school districts that will be receiving salad bars, there are a number of questions that we ask -- criteria, if you will -- to make sure that we select a school that's really going to utilize it. That's critical. We ask the superintendent, the principal, or the school food-service director, "Why do you want a salad bar?" Then [we ask if they] have the resources to be able to put a wide variety of fruits and vegetables into the salad bar every day. What do they consider to be a wide variety? How does the salad bar fit in with the school district's own goals to improve the healthfulness of school meals?

LR: Could you adopt a school and put in a salad bar? Could an individual do that?

LD: Yes! We're using the industry's contributions to place salad bars into certain school districts, [but also] many members in the industry are personally taking leadership for adopting schools in their local area. There've been many smaller produce companies that have said, "I really want to do this in my own local community." And we help them. [Another way for a school to secure a salad bar is to] leverage other funding. That could be local PTAs, foundations, or the schools themselves making the decision [to support the salad bar] out of their limited cafeteria equipment funding. In geographic areas where they have large contracts, Sodexo and Chartwells have both made decisions recently to put salad bars into all those schools. When they look at how nutrition standards are going to change for school meals, they see the salad bar as a way to accomplish those changes.

LR: Because there is going to be legislation.

LD: Yes. There are two things that are going to be happening in terms of policy. One is that, hopefully, Congress will finish the Child Nutrition Reauthorization legislation, which will, among other things, provide additional money for reimbursement rates for school meals. Although it will never be as much as what everybody needs, it'll be something. And we believe that in this legislation, the increased reimbursement rate, will be tied, directly --

LR: To fulfilling those goals!

LD: Yes! To performance.

LR: As it should be.

New York City's salad bars have been a rousing success.

LD: Right. The second thing that's happening in terms of policy is that the USDA will be releasing a proposed rule on new nutrition standards for school meals based on an Institute of Medicine Report that came out last October, [which] made recommendations for how school meals need to change to be healthy. In that report, they're recommending doubling the amount of fruit at school breakfasts and doubling the amount of fruits and vegetables at lunch.

LR: I think Jamie Oliver has done a lot towards bringing awareness to the obesity problem, don't you?

LD: I do, and I think that the follow-up to what Jamie Oliver's done is what happened at the White House on Friday. This is all part of the First Lady's program called Let's Move - and it was a new program called Chefs Move to Schools. Sam Kass, the Obamas' personal chef, has been working with a core team of chefs that were already committed to schools or in schools, like Chef Jorge in New York City. They prepared a tool kit and recruited more than 700 chefs from around the country. All of these chefs were in Washington on Friday making a commitment that they were going to adopt schools to really help transform their kitchens.

LR: I think it's all great and I think you're wonderful to be doing this, and I hope we can help in some way. I hope that people who read this article may be motivated to step up and adopt schools in their area. It is so important that we save our children, because they're the future of our planet.

LD: It's so important, and I think now's the time.

LR: Absolutely.

New York Lawmakers Pass Stopgap Bills, Avoid State Shutdown

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-15/new-york-lawmakers-pass-stopgap-bills-avoid-state-shutdown.html

New York Lawmakers Pass Stopgap Bills, Avoid State Shutdown
June 15 (Bloomberg) -- The New York Legislature passed emergency spending bills for the 11th consecutive week, avoiding a state government shutdown as lawmakers debate how to close an $8.5 billion budget deficit for the year that began April 1.

Agency heads and their 150,000 workers had been making contingency plans if the measures failed and left the state without authority to pay all its bills. Employees were warned that buildings might close and some of them wouldn’t be working today if the appropriation bills didn’t pass, according to agency memos.

State Senator Pedro Espada, the Bronx Democrat whose threats to oppose the bills ignited warnings of “chaos in the streets” from Governor David Paterson, said June 10 that he would support the measure and the government of the third most- populous U.S. state would stay open.

On June 11, Paterson recommended an annual spending plan for human services, such as welfare; and mental health services, such as residences for the disabled, that reduced outlays by $327 million, said Robert Megna, the state budget director. The bills passed yesterday cut spending by the same amount, said Morgan Hook, a spokesman for Paterson.

Paterson won $775 million in savings and annualized reductions, mostly from the Medicaid program, in last week’s emergency spending bill. That narrowed a projected $9.2 billion deficit in Paterson’s $135.2 billion fiscal 2011 budget proposal, presented in February, to about $8.5 billion.

Welfare Payments

The measures approved yesterday would extend a 10 percent increase in welfare payments to the poor that took effect June 1. In January, Paterson proposed delaying half the boost.

Revenue from bonds and other sources, such as allowing wine sales in grocery stores or higher cigarette taxes, are needed to avoid “pain and the destruction of human services in this state that would be unprecedented,” Espada said.

The shutdown threat eased when Republican Senator Tom Libous, the chamber’s second-ranking Republican, said yesterday that lawmakers would pass the bill. Democrats hold a 32 to 30 majority in the Senate, the minimum number needed to pass bills if all Republicans vote no, as they had in the past.

The bills passed 34 to 27 in the upper chamber, with 31 Democrats and three Republicans voting in favor. Democratic Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., of the Bronx, voted against, the Daily News reported. The state Assembly also passed the measures, the newspaper said.

--Editors: Mark Tannenbaum, Ted Bunker

Foodborne illness scare stories set agenda for food irradiation scheme by FDA

http://www.naturalnews.com/028986_food_irradiation_FDA.html


Foodborne illness scare stories set agenda for food irradiation scheme by FDA

(NaturalNews) A recent report issued by several consumer and public health groups has found that foodborne illness costs the U.S. about $152 billion a year in health-related expenses. Prior estimates were much lower, and the groups are using this new figure to push even harder for an overhaul of the nation's food safety system.

Many people agree that the U.S. food system needs an overhaul, but not everyone agrees on what type of an overhaul. The current thrust by groups like the Make Our Food Safe Coalition and the Produce Safety Project is to give the FDA more power and funds to regulate the food supply in the hopes that food will become safer, a notion for which many in the natural health world object.

Last July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, and this year, the Senate is expected to produce and vote on a similar bill of its own very soon. These bills are the response to the outcry for increased food safety, but they are far more sinister than they appear.

In a nutshell, the House bill drastically expands the FDA's power over food to the point that every small, family farm, and even the backyard gardener, is threatened by FDA encroachment. Under the bill, new regulations and fees will be imposed upon all food "operations", including small farms that act responsibly, with no differentiation between the size of operations.

The FDA will also have control over every aspect of food, from the farm to the fork, and individuals will be forced to comply with any arbitrary rules that the agency may decide are necessary to ensure "food safety".

Rather than address food safety problems by going after the true culprits – filthy factory farms that harbor and spread disease – consumer and public safety groups are begging for more FDA power. Not only is the FDA inept at properly regulating, but the rogue agency regularly targets the good guys while protecting the bad guys.

So where is all of this going? Well, if these groups get their way and the FDA is handed over the reigns of the nation's food supply, it will not be long before all fresh food is irradiated or treated in some way to kill the purported pathogens that are allegedly threatening the lives of Americans. The FDA's response to food safety will be to irradiate and pasteurize all food, not to go after the perpetrators of food contamination.

It is difficult to ascertain why the mainstream public and the groups that claim to represent it are unable to grasp this concept and recognize the dangers in expanded federal control over food. If something is corrupt and broken, it is foolish to throw more money and power at it.

Subway Salmonella Outbreak May be Linked to Fresh Produce

http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/21155

Subway Salmonella Outbreak May be Linked to Fresh Produce



We’ve been writing about the ever-growing outbreak of Salmonella that has been linked to the Subway chain in Illinois. Now, The Packer reports that the number of those who have fallen ill has risen to 71 and that seven people remain hospitalized. Citing a state official, The Packer wrote that fresh produce is the likely culprit.

As we previously mentioned and The Packer reiterated, following reports of illnesses, Subway began replacing some of its produce supplies. The Illinois Department of Public Health is collaborating with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Subway restaurant chain, and local health departments. Subway voluntarily withdrew and replaced all its lettuce, green peppers, red onions, and tomatoes from the impacted dates. Produce distributors are being investigated, said the Packer.

In all, 26 people were hospitalized, according to Melaney Arnold, communications manager for the Illinois Department of Public Health, wrote the Packer. Those hospitalized ranged in age from two to 88

Last week, we wrote that The Health Department, said Business Week, was urging those who fell ill after eating at Subway restaurants since May 10 to immediately contact either their health care provider or local health department. Everyone who reported becoming sick said they fell ill between May 11 and May 18 the News-Gazette reported.

At last count, illnesses were linked to Subway restaurants in the following counties in Illinois, said Business Week: Bureau, Cass, Champaign, Christian, Coles, DeWitt, Fulton, Knox, LaSalle, Lee, Livingston, Macon, Marshall, Moultrie, Ogle, Peoria, Sangamon, Schuyler, Shelby, Tazewell, Vermilion, Warren, Winnebago, and Will.

Salmonella, the most prevalent food borne pathogen in this country, is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis, and arthritis.

Salmonella poisoning can also lead to Reiter’s Syndrome, a difficult-to-treat reactive arthritis characterized by severe joint pain, irritation of the eyes, and painful urination. Some Salmonella bacteria are antibiotic resistant, largely due to the use of antibiotics to promote the growth of feed animals.

Subway restaurants were implicated in prior food poisoning outbreak. We recently wrote about Shigella cases linked to a Subway in Lombard, Illinois, which reached 116. At least 13 of those sickened were hospitalized. In that case, the Shigella bacteria involved were Shigella sonnei, which can be lethal. The DuPage County Health Department never found the source of the Shigella, and concedes it may never be able to.

Shigella is a genus of bacteria that are a major cause of diarrhea worldwide and is transmitted by ingestion of contaminated food or water, or through person-to-person contact. In the body, Shigella can invade and destroy the cells lining the large intestine, causing mucosal ulceration and bloody diarrhea and can cause fever, abdominal cramps, and rectal pain. Shigellosis can be treated with antibiotics, although some strains have developed drug resistance.