Tag: food

WHY the War on Farmers?

The recent Telegraph headline rang out of England recently with unsettling tones: Tenth of farmland to be axed for net zero

More than 10 per cent of farmland in England is set to be diverted towards helping to achieve net zero and protecting wildlife by 2050, the Environment Secretary will reveal on Friday.

Swathes of the countryside are on course to be switched to solar farms, tree planting and improving habitats for birds, insects and fish.

The move comes on the back of an aggressive and highly unpopular inheritance tax placed on generational farmers by British politician Rachel Reeves that has drawn sustained protest in the country. The commercial officer of Britain’s largest supermarket chain Tesco warned Reeves’ tax raid on farmers is placing “UK’s future food security is at stake.”

What if that’s the whole point? Tucker Carlson recently asked Piers Morgan this uncomfortable question.

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Inflation Storm Leaves Americans More Reliant On Food Banks

Emily Engelhard, Vice President of Research at Feeding America, told Bloomberg that elevated and persistent inflation ushered in a “new era of food insecurity,” emphasizing that “this is no longer an unemployment issue.” 

Feeding America, the largest charity working to end hunger in the US, has a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that feed more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community-based agencies.

“Everyone sees prices getting high — for food, clothes, everything,” Kersstin Eshak told Bloomberg, who recently visited a food bank in Loudoun County, Virginia. She said the inflation nightmare over the last several years depleted her pocketbook.  

America’s cost-of-living crisis mostly erupted during the Biden-Harris regime’s first term. 

Ethan Amos, the head of the Flagstaff Family Food Center in Arizona, said his food bank broke records in 2022 by serving an average of 28,000 meals per month. That figure has now surged to a staggering 40,000 meals per month, driven by the inflationary pressures unleashed during the Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous “Bidenomics.“

Believe it or not, Washington, DC, has a hunger crisis. The largest food bank in the area, Capital Area Food Bank, distributed 64 million meals last year—five million more than the previous year. Data from the food bank shows that food insecurity has risen most sharply among households earning $100,000–$150,000.

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Cereal InfoWars: Corporate ‘Nutritionists’ Launder Industry Propaganda Through ‘News’ Media

(*The use of “nutritionists” and “news” here is intended in the loosest sense possible.)

The EBT serfs haven’t been purchasing their techno-slop chock full of food dyes and preservative chemicals banned in every other advanced nation on Earth with government cash in sufficient quantities of late, which has no doubt worked Kellogg’s™ and General Mills™ management up into a tizzy.

Related: ‘Critical Disability Studies’ Professor: Fatphobia ‘Undergirds’ Ozempic Craze

Via The Takeout (emphasis added):

“Sales of breakfast cereal have been falling for quite some time. Although the category actually experienced an uptick in popularity during the pandemic, it was a spike that didn’t last: As the world shifts away from the pandemic-induced lifestyle of never leaving the house, people are opting for more on-the-go breakfast foods such as granola bars, protein shakes, or even fast food breakfast sandwiches. This might be why you’re seeing Kellogg’s just-add-water cereal popping up at convenience stores, positioning itself as a similarly portable option…

“In recent weeks, executives from Kellogg and Post both separately said that they expect the cereal industry to return to its prepandemic trend of gradual decline, with sales ranging from flat to down by a low single-digit percentage a year,” WSJ reports.”

Their solution — if the deluge of listicle articles into my news feed daily citing “registered dietitians” is any indication — is to repackage industry propaganda as “news” and distribute it to people like the retarded feminist women who read HuffPost who will literally believe anything so long as a bona fide Expert™ lends their seal of approval.

From “Nutritionists Pick The Best (And Worst) Breakfast Cereals For Your Health,” via HuffPost (emphasis added):

“According to RD Kelly Toups LeBlanc, the VP of Nutrition Programming at Oldways, not all ultra-processed foods are created equal. “Some ultra-processed foods, like whole grain breakfast cereals, contain important food groups recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Other ultra-processed foods, like candy bars and soft drinks, do not.”

She takes issue with the way the NOVA [food classification] list categorizes foods, especially whole-grain cereals…

The truth is that whole grain cereals can be an important part of nutrition assistance programs, providing valuable nutrition to vulnerable populations. “In a 2023 study from the USDA, government scientists designed a nutritious seven-day, 2,000-calorie diet in which 91% of calories came from ultra-processed foods,” LeBlanc said.”

HuffPost’s Top 10 healthiest cereals for “vulnerable populations” list includes Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch —bottom-of-the-barrel garbage that no sane person would make a breakfast staple unless they had a masochistic wish for cancer and a slow, painful death.

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Study Finds That Girl Scout Cookies Are Toxic

Girl Scout Cookies, a financing tool of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America (GSUSA) since 1917, were initially home baked by Girl Scouts and their moms to finance troop activities. Today, two commercial bakers are licensed to produce Girl Scout Cookies. And, despite claiming they are full of “top-quality ingredients,” the cookies contain suspicious elements like natural and artificial flavors. But it gets even worse. Raking in $800 million a year, Girl Scout Cookies are intentionally formulated with genetically modified ingredients (GMOs), and 100 percent of the thirteen types of twenty-five cookies test positive for both cancer-causing glyphosate and toxic metals.

A recent article published by Moms Across America, written by health warriors Michelle Perro, MD, Stephanie Seneff, PhD, and Zen Honeycutt, BFA, reveals that 100 percent of the cookies tested contained at least 4 out of 5 heavy metals: aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Peanut Butter Patties® were the most contaminated, with mercury levels at 0.07 ppb, lead at 42.5 ppb, and aluminum at 27,500 ppb. The source of aluminum is vague, but non-organic peanut crops are heavily sprayed with toxic chemicals. Of the 25 samples tested, 88 percent (22 cookies) contained all five toxic metals. Additionally, 76 percent of the cookies had cadmium levels exceeding EPA limits for water, and 96 percent contained lead, which has no safe exposure level. Both cadmium and lead are linked to cancer and brain disorders.

Thin Mints had the highest levels of the poison glyphosate. As is now well-documented, glyphosate is regularly used as a drying agent (aka desiccant) before harvesting on many crops, including oats, wheat, barley, legumes, sugar cane, and other crops. It is also used as a weed killer on GMO crops that are standard ingredients in Girl Scout Cookies, including beet sugar, corn, soy, and canola. The article highlights the shocking amount of glyphosate in the popular cookies, informing:

“From 13.57 ppb in Peanut Butter Patties® to 111.07 in Thin Mints®, the average amount is 33.43, 334 times higher than what Dr. Don Huber, Professor Emeritus of Perdue, states is harmful and must be avoided.”

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Automation in Retail Is Even Worse Than You Thought

Brianna Bagley’s favorite hobby is playing Horizon Zero Dawn, a role-playing game featuring a young hunter who battles murderous robotic organisms on a postapocalyptic planet overrun by machines. When she isn’t leveling up in the game, Bagley is hard at work in the produce department of a chain supermarket in Salt Lake City, Utah. Seven years in the grocery industry has given her plenty of experience with the real-world technology that is automating stores.

During the pandemic, Bagley earned about $15 per hour in a supermarket e-commerce department dedicated to filling online orders and preparing them for delivery. The department was unable to fill the flood of orders that came in each day. Managers pulled employees from other parts of the store to double the department’s staff—but only about half were actually employed in the e-commerce department. The rest were cashiers, baggers, and others conscripted into emergency service. Bagley was grateful for the help, but recognized that it came at others’ expense. “It was harder for those departments to provide customer service with fewer employees,” the 26-year-old said.

Bagley’s experience is of a piece with the broader trend in retail toward automation and other technological shortcuts. From self-checkout machines to payment by app, technology is rapidly changing the way we buy groceries. Progressive members of Congress are sounding the alarm: Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and 13 colleagues wrote to the CEO of the supermarket behemoth Kroger in November about electronic price tags (often called electronic shelf labels or ESLs). These digital displays allow companies to change prices automatically from a mobile app. Tlaib warned that this so-called “dynamic pricing” permits retailers to adjust prices based on their whims. Just as Uber raises prices during storms or rush hour, retailers like Kroger use ESLs to adjust prices based on factors like time of day or the weather. Supermarkets could conceivably mine a shopper’s personal data to set prices as high as possible. “My concern is that these tools will be abused in the pursuit of profit, surging prices on essential goods in areas with fewer and fewer grocery stores,” Tlaib wrote.

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Egg Prices Catapult Into ‘Blue-Sky Breakout’ As Bird Flu Sparks Worsening Shortage

An ongoing and devastating avian influenza outbreak has severely dented the nation’s egg-producing hen population, driving wholesale prices into record-high territory and far surpassing the price explosion seen a few years ago when the bird flu first emerged. This is an alarming trend, and egg prices at the supermarket will likely rise further in the weeks and months ahead.

The latest wholesale data from Urner Barry shows that the price for a dozen eggs has jumped to a record high of $5.4, exceeding the previous peak of $4.65 set in December 2022. Rising wholesale prices are expected to continue pressuring supermarket prices higher.

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‘Lab-Grown’ Meat Increases Blood Pressure, Inflammation, Depression: Study

At some point recently, “plant-based meat alternatives” (PBMAs) — AKA “lab slop pseudo-meat” — became the marketing term du jour. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but making techno-slop sound appealing is a tall task even for the slickest silver-tongued PR prodigy.

It turns out PBMAs might not be the miracle breakthrough that’s going to wean the useless eaters off of their meat habit and improve their health simultaneously that Bill Gates promised it would be.

Quite the opposite, in fact, it seems.

Via SciTechDaily (emphasis added):

Plant-Based Meat Alternatives (PBMAs), a common choice among vegetarians, are classified as ultra-processed foods and may carry similar risks.

A groundbreaking study published in Food Frontiers by researchers from the University of Surrey found that vegetarians who consumed PBMAs faced a 42% higher risk of depression compared to vegetarians who avoided these products.

The study, which was led by Hana Navratilova, analyzed data from the UK Biobank and found no notable differences in intake of sodium, free sugar, total sugar, or saturated fatty acids between those vegetarians who ate PBMAs and those who did not. The researchers did find, however, that those who eat PBMAs had higher blood pressure and C-reactive protein* (CRP) levels, a marker of inflammation, and lower levels of apolipoprotein A, a protein associated with HDL, a “good” cholesterol; PBMA consumption was, however, also linked to a reduced risk of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) by 40%.

*C-reactive protein levels are the single most telling biomarker of systemic inflammation, and as such are the single most important biomarker for chronic disease risk associated with inflammation — which is virtually all chronic diseases. So it’s not “a marker of inflammation,” as ScitTechDaily describes it, it’s the marker of inflammation.  

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SNAP recipients may be barred from junk food purchases under new House GOP bill

House Republicans are eyeing new limits on food stamps driven by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s mission to “Make America Healthy Again.”

Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., is leading “The Healthy SNAP Act” to bar most junk foods from being eligible for purchase under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), he first told Fox News Digital.

“President Trump has been given a mandate by the majority of Americans to Make America Healthy Again, and those in his administration, like RFK Jr. and Senator Marco Rubio, have directly advocated for eliminating junk food purchases with SNAP,” Brecheen told Fox News Digital.

“If someone wants to buy junk food on their own dime, that’s up to them. But what we’re saying is, don’t ask the taxpayer to pay for it and then also expect the taxpayer to pick up the tab for the resulting health consequences.”

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PFAS Found in Sludge Used as Fertilizer Can Contaminate Milk, Eggs and Meat

U.S. regulators on Tuesday added to growing concerns about the long-standing practice of using sewage sludge to fertilize farmland, releasing a report warning that chemicals contaminating the sludge pose heightened human health risks for cancer and other illnesses.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said two types of hazardous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) widely found in sewage sludge, a byproduct of wastewater treatment, can contaminate the milk, eggs and meat that come from farm animals raised on agricultural land where the sludge has been applied.

Those “exposure pathways” are among multiple ways in which people can be at risk, the EPA said.

The agency focused on perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), two well-studied types of PFAS chemicals linked to testicular and kidney cancer as well as liver problems.

The EPA last spring designated PFOS and PFOA as hazardous substances under the so-called Superfund law and announced the first legally enforceable limits for the two chemicals and four other types of PFAS in drinking water.

The EPA said that though the majority of U.S. food crops are not grown with the use of sewage sludge as a soil conditioner or fertilizer, because of the “extreme persistence” of PFOA and PFOS in soils, land where sewage sludge was applied years ago may still be contaminated.

The agency’s draft risk assessment, which was made publicly available on Jan. 14, said that “under certain scenarios and conditions,” land-applying or disposing of sewage sludge containing 1 part per billion or more of PFOA or PFOS “could result in human health risks exceeding the agency’s acceptable thresholds for cancer and noncancer effects.”

The draft assessment models health risks for people who live on or near contaminated sites or who eat primarily food or drinking water from PFAS-contaminated areas.

The report will be available for public comment over a 60-day period and may help the agency determine regulatory actions it might take under the Clean Water Act, said the EPA.

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Full list of foods that have red dye 3 in them as FDA bans substance over cancer links

The FDA announced today it was banning the use of red 3 dye in foods in America, telling thousands of manufacturers to strip it from their products.

Food and drink makers have until January 2027 to reformulate their recipes or be forced out of the market.

The FDA agency said it was taking the action as a ‘matter of law’ because some studies have found that the dye caused cancer in lab rats. 

‘The FDA is taking action that will remove the authorization for the use of… Red No. 3 in food and ingested drugs,’ said Jim Jones, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for human foods. 

The dye has been used for decades to give candy, soda, and other foods and vibrant, cherry-red hue. It was banned from cosmetics by the FDA about three decades ago.  

There is no indication so far that food manufacturers will challenge the new rule, and they will have sufficient time to adjust their products to meet the new standards.

There is some concern that manufacturers may opt to use red 40, which, along with red 3, has been associated with various health concerns.

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