Submitted by gabrielle on Mon, 02/06/2012 - 19:43
Want to learn more about the farm bill? Check out the links below to all of our contributors fantastic articles in FSNYC's Farm Bill Series:
Submitted by gabrielle on Mon, 02/06/2012 - 19:37
by Mark Dunlea
1/10/12
The Food and Farm Bill is up for renewal, something that occurs about once every five years. The Farm Bill is how the federal government sets overall food and agricultural policy for the country…to a great extent it determines what we eat and how it is produced. Until recently, the Farm Bill was on a fast track, slated to be passed in December as part of the late Super Committee process. Leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, arguing that they understood the needs of rhe farming community, undertook proposing $23 billion in Farm Bill Ag budget cuts over ten years to help meet the nation’s deficit reduction goals.
Submitted by vsyrov on Tue, 11/02/2010 - 15:33
by Jason Machowsky, MS, RD and Viktoriya Syrov
November 3, 2010
On October 7, Mayor Michael R. Blooomberg and Governor David A. Paterson submitted a proposal to the USDA to ban the purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages with food stamps in New York City for a trial run of two years. The proposal ignited a major public debate: on one side, the public health advocates who support the reasoning behind the initiative, and, on the other, anti-hunger advocates who feel that limiting freedom of choice is not the answer to the obesity epidemic.
Rationale for the ban includes:
- Sugar-sweetened beverages contain large amounts of sugar and are largely devoid of nutritional value
- Compared to 1980, Americans are consuming 200 to 300 extra calories each day, half of which come from sugar-sweetened beverages. These extra calories have resulted in significantly increased obesity and Type 2 diabetes rates, particularly across low-income individuals.
- The proposal reflects the USDA’s own approach to the National School Lunch, National School Breakfast and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) programs, which already include only healthier foods and exclude sugar-sweetened beverages.
Submitted by Jane Shuput on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 16:03
posted by Nadia Johnson, Just Food, and Mo Kinberg, UFCW Local 1500
A major NYC food policy opportunity is coming up! The Manhattan Borough President's (MBP) initiative—The Politics of Food Conference—will be held on Wednesday, November 19th from 8:30am-2pm at Columbia University's Lerner Hall. Maya Wiley, UN General Assembly President Father Miguel D'Escoto, and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg are among the featured speakers. One of the goals of the Conference is to produce short and long-term policy solutions for NYC in the following areas:
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 03/04/2008 - 18:43
Posted by Holly Emma, FSNYC Communications Committee
New York City is off to a great start on dealing with climate change through PlaNYC, but Sierra Club implores us to go further. The Sierra Club report, “Sustainable Energy Independence for New York City,” asks City officials to create a Task Force that will study potential local impacts and mitigations of energy volatility, and to require consideration of energy volatility in all City agency budgeting and planning decisions.
