What is this school selling?

Commercial Alert offers this photograph of a school store in Missouri:

Kate Hopkins' Avocado Global Politics

Here are the first few lines of Kate Hopkins' one-act play:

US GOVERNMENT: Uh. Hello. If I could have your attention for a moment.

(beat)

(Speaks louder and with more authority) I would like to welcome the new opportunities that have arrived with the signing of the North America Free Trade Agreement. With this agreement, it will allow all manner of products to be sold at markets throughout Canada, the United States, Mexico and beyond. With this, we open our doors to products previously restricted...

CALIFORNIA AVOCADO GROWERS ASSOCIATION:(interrupting)*cough* Except Avocados.*cough*.

US GOVERNMENT:(startled) I'm sorry...what?

MEXICO: What did you say California?

The Avocado growers stand up and walk to the US Government. In their hand is clearly seen a roll of MONEY.

CALIFORNIA AVOCADO GROWERS ASSOCIATION:(to the US Government) I said...Except Avocados. They aren't part of NAFTA. They have... (placing money in to US Governments hands) ...fruit flies.

MEXICO: Our avocados do not have fruit flies!

US GOVERNMENT:(counting money) Except for avocados. Mexico can't bring them into the US, because they have fruit flies, french fries, something. Whatever. They ain't coming in.

MEXICO: We do NOT HAVE fruit flies!

California gives the US Government the thumbs up and walks back to their chair to sit.

A vision for the 2007 Farm Bill

Leah Horowitz and Aimee Witteman offer a vision for the 2007 Farm Bill, in one of several nice pieces on food and agriculture policy in a recent edition of Catholic Rural Life:

It’s no wonder that so many activists invest their time and money in the U.S. Farm Bill process. The billions of dollars in expenditures authorized by Congress every five years set the farm, food, and rural policy goals and priorities of this country. We’ve been around the political block– after all, we’ve been interns in Washington. We know about the incrementalism– the making of small changes to the status quo– and the horse trading that are norms in Washington. But we believe that advocates for change are best served by entering the contested sphere with a clearness of purpose and a coherent vision of the food and agriculture system they seek to create....

The way we choose to support our U.S. food and agriculture sector is more than a federal budgetary process. The Farm Bill is a visionary document that represents our commitment to ensuring the ability of producers and consumers to enjoy abundant foods and vibrant landscapes for years to come. As young people just entering the field of food and agriculture policy, we have hope that the next Farm Bill will reflect the ideas presented here of a just and sustainable food system.

Horowitz and Witteman are graduate students at the Friedman School, Tufts University, and took my class in U.S. Food Policy this past Fall.

Food weblog awards

The voting period for the friendly annual awards program for food weblogs, hosted by Accidental Hedonist, is now underway. You may vote until January 18.

The finalists in a category for weblogs that cover the food industry are:
-- Fast Food News,
-- The Food Whore,
-- News You Can Eat,
-- Saute Wednesday, and
-- U.S. Food Policy (this weblog).

The best thing about the awards program is the wide list of interesting food-related weblogs on the finalist's page, conveniently sorted according to their respective strengths. I have long read Fast Food News. The Food Whore has very funny writing. News You Can Eat is a good source for food industry and new product information. Saute Wednesday includes a nicely selected aggregation of food news, plus San Francisco - based editor Bruce Cole's own reviews and commentary.

The folks at Accidental Hedonist also have a hand in starting the ambitious new Well Fed Network, essentially an interlinked family of food weblogs. Several people whose weblogs have long been in our sidebar appear to be contributors. Take a look!

Obesity policy around the world

Here is an interesting session on obesity policy around the world in Boston this coming Friday, Jan. 6, at the main annual meetings for researchers in economics and related disciplines (see Allied Social Sciences Association).

The Diet Transition and Obesity in Developing and Developed Countries: Determinants and Policy Options

Presiding: CORINNA HAWKES, International Food Policy Research Institute

XIAOBO ZHANG, International Food Policy Research Institute--Assessing the Link between Early Exposure to Famine and the Development of Adult Obesity in China

ABAY ASFAW, International Food Policy Research Institute--The Role of Food Price Policy in Determining the Incidence of Obesity --Evidence from Egypt

STEPHEN A. VOSTI, University of California-Davis--Effects of National Agricultural Research and Farm Subsidy Policies on Human Nutrition and Obesity in the United States

The session is organized by researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and sponsored by the American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA). I will be the discussant for these papers on Friday.

[Note 1/4/2006: Slight correction to the list of speakers.]

Hunger prevention in Massachusetts

The Boston Globe reports this week that administrative practices in Massachusetts may deter participation by thousands of families that are eligible for food stamps here:

Poor customer service by an understaffed state agency is hindering efforts by Massachusetts to improve its food stamp participation rate, which is the lowest in the nation.

The Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance, which administers the federally funded food stamp program, is both understaffed and zealous in its verification procedures, a combination that advocates for the needy say looks lean and mean on paper and can be daunting for a food stamp applicant who is typically poor and in crisis.

The most recent national data indicate only about 43 percent of the people who qualify for food stamps in Massachusetts receive them. Nudging the rate up to 66 percent would bring in at least $80 million more in federal support.

Project Bread, the leading Massachusetts statewide anti-hunger advocacy group, in November launched a new website. It provides, for example, the organization's 2005 Status Report on Hunger in Massachusetts:

This year's report, the third of its kind, reveals high levels of hunger in our state, especially in low-income communities. According to the Status Report, in low-income neighborhoods one child in three lives in a family unable to meet its basic need for food. This rate of hunger is four times the statewide average. Project Bread works especially hard to serve these communities.

Chicago Tribune: mercury in fish

An in-depth special from the Chicago Tribune in December included a series of investigations of federal policy related to mercury contamination in fish, along with an on-line calculator to estimate your safe consumption level:

The Tribune's investigation reveals a decades-long pattern of the U.S. government knowingly allowing millions of Americans to eat seafood with unsafe levels of mercury.

Regulators have repeatedly downplayed the hazards, failed to take basic steps to protect public health and misled consumers about the true dangers, documents and interviews show.

The government does not seize high-mercury fish that violate U.S. limits. Regulators do not even inspect seafood for mercury--not in ports, processing plants or supermarkets.

In fact, federal officials have tested so few fish that they have only a limited idea of how much mercury many species contain, government data show. For example, the government has tested just four walleye and 24 shrimp samples since 1978. The newspaper tested more samples of commercial walleye than the government has in the last quarter-century....

Medical experts agree that, on balance, eating fish is good for most people. Seafood is a low-fat source of protein, and some fish are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are thought to help prevent heart disease.

And Americans have responded to the idea that fish is healthy: Per capita seafood consumption hit an all-time high last year.

But for high-risk groups--young children, pregnant women, nursing mothers and women who could get pregnant--some fish might do more harm than good. Mercury can damage the central nervous system of children, causing subtle delays in walking and talking as well as decreased attention span and memory.