Antibiotics in Our Food Can Kill Us

by: teacherken

Sun Mar 07, 2010 at 13:16:35 PM PST

A study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that in the United States, 70 percent of antibiotics are used to feed healthy livestock, with 14 percent more used to treat sick livestock. Only about 16 percent are used to treat humans and their pets, the study found.

I am not a scientist.  I already am limited in drugs I can use by allergies, for example, I cannot use penicillin (one of many).  Overuse of antibiotics creates resistant strains of bacteria, super bugs if you will.  My allergies perhaps make me more at risk than most people, since I am limited in alternatives

But it does not matter if the strain is resistant to all known antibiotics

MRSA, a kind of staph infection - kills about 18,000 Americans annually. That's more than die of AIDS.

Which is why you should read Nicholas Kristof this morning.

BPA In Our Food and In Our Bodies

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Nov 08, 2009 at 13:00:43 PM PST

Nicholas Kristof on Food Inc

by: Jill Richardson

Sat Jun 20, 2009 at 21:31:33 PM PDT

Over the years, though, I've become nostalgic for an occasional bug in my salad, for an apple that feels as if it were designed by God rather than by a committee. More broadly, it has become clear that the same factors that impelled me toward factory-produced meat and vegetables - cheap, predictable food - also resulted in a profoundly unhealthy American diet.

I've often criticized America's health care system, and I fervently hope that we're going to see a public insurance option this year. But one reason for our health problems is our industrialized agriculture system, and that should be under scrutiny as well.

Big Ag has been all over the Internet, saying how this movie is anti-farmer and its views are unrealistic about agriculture. Well, there you have it. Nicholas Kristof, self-described Oregon farm boy, agrees with the views communicated in the film. Of course, one farmer-turned-columnist can't speak for all farmers, but I am grateful that somebody with as much credibility as Kristof and a platform as big as the New York Times is showing that Big Ag does not represent all farmers (as they claim to do).

The Newest Sin Tax: A Soda Tax

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 18:00:00 PM PST

I said:

On the other hand, when times are tough economically, more people struggle to afford food (particularly with winter coming on as they need to pay for heat too) and typically cheap food means junk food. I read a study recently about the cost of obesity to New York state - I'd have to go get the numbers but I'm sure you've got 'em. It's expensive to have a society full of people suffering from diet-related illnesses. So it's almost a catch-22 - the cheapest food that people hard up for money can afford gives them an expensive problem (obesity & disease). Anything you can do to help New Yorkers afford healthy food during their tough times will be a big favor you are doing for them.

His reply was "Point noted." But more importantly, he replied by proposing a soda tax. A soda tax that Nicholas Kristof, who is rapidly becoming one of my biggest heroes, said the following about:

Mr. Paterson suggested the tax - an 18 percent sales tax on soft drinks and other nondiet sugary beverages - to help raise $400 million a year to plug a hole in the state budget. But it's also a landmark effort that, if other states follow, could help make us healthier.

Let's break for a quiz: What was the biggest health care breakthrough in the last 40 years in the United States? Heart bypasses? CAT scans and M.R.I.'s? New cancer treatments?

No, it was the cigarette tax. Every 10 percent price increase on cigarettes reduced sales by about 3 percent over all, and 7 percent among teenagers, according to the 2005 book "Prescription for a Healthy Nation." Just the 1983 increase in the federal tax on cigarettes saved 40,000 lives per year.

In effect, the most promising cure for lung cancer didn't emerge from a medical research lab but from money-grubbing politicians. Likewise, the best cure for obesity may turn out to be not a pill but a tax.

I know new taxes are not popular, but the fact of the matter is that obesity costs the state of New York a LOT of money. Currently the state boasts a 25% obesity rate and about 50% of added sugars in our diets come from things we drink - mostly sodas. All in all, I'm cautiously for this and interested to see how it will play out.

Obama's 'Secretary of Food'?

by: teacherken

Thu Dec 11, 2008 at 13:22:07 PM PST

Somehow I feel as if someone else should be writing this, but I am still up.  And when I read a column that begins

As Barack Obama ponders whom to pick as agriculture secretary, he should reframe the question. What he needs is actually a bold reformer in a position renamed "secretary of food."

But he doesn't have to.  Nicholas Kristof grew up on a farm.  And he has read, and talked with, key figures, such as Michael Pollan.

if you want, you can just go read Kristof and ignore me.  Or you can continue below the fold while I try to further entice you to read him, and - uh oh - offer a few additional thoughts of my own?  Really?  On food? You betcha.