knabe
Well-known member
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/us/07fat.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
granted, it's the nytimes, but,
And Dairy Management, which has made cheese its cause, is not a private business consultant. It is a marketing creation of the United States Department of Agriculture — the same agency at the center of a federal anti-obesity drive that discourages over-consumption of some of the very foods Dairy Management is vigorously promoting.
But in a series of confidential agreements (why are they confidential????) approved by agriculture secretaries in both the Bush and Obama administrations, Dairy Management has worked with restaurants to expand their menus with cheese-laden products.
For years, the federal government bought the industry’s excess cheese and butter, an outgrowth of a Depression-era commitment to use price supports and other tools to maintain the dairy industry as a vital national resource. This stockpile, packed away in cool caves in Missouri, grew to a value of more than $4 billion by 1983, when Washington switched gears.
The government started buying only what it needed for food assistance programs. It also began paying farmers to slaughter some dairy cows. But at the time, the industry was moving toward larger, more sophisticated operations that increased productivity through artificial insemination, hormones and lighting that kept cows more active.
Dairy Management, whose annual budget approaches $140 million, is largely financed by a government-mandated fee on the dairy industry. But it also receives several million dollars a year from the Agriculture Department, which appoints some of its board members, approves its marketing campaigns and major contracts and periodically reports to Congress on its work.
Americans now eat an average of 33 pounds of cheese a year, nearly triple the 1970 rate. Cheese has become the largest source of saturated fat; an ounce of many cheeses contains as much saturated fat as a glass of whole milk.
Dairy Management’s longtime chief executive, Thomas P. Gallagher, received $633,475 in compensation in 2008, with first-class travel privileges, according to federal tax filings. Annual compensation for two other officials top $300,000 each.
also, the program recommends more research, the real product of most government research which is job security as priority #1 for government employees and the people they dole out money to through grants.
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another example of government waste. quit subsidizing an industry that increases health care costs.
just like subsidizing corn to make fat beef causing heart disease and more medical costs, the government should GET OUT OF MANIPULATING MARKETS.
if the government would quit subsidizing dairy, the herd would reduce itself to a profitable level, there would be fewer dairies wasting resources to get people fat so we can study why we are fat with yet even more government money. it's really amazing that it is so clear that both parties are actually one in almost every respect to take our money and waste it.
granted, it's the nytimes, but,
And Dairy Management, which has made cheese its cause, is not a private business consultant. It is a marketing creation of the United States Department of Agriculture — the same agency at the center of a federal anti-obesity drive that discourages over-consumption of some of the very foods Dairy Management is vigorously promoting.
But in a series of confidential agreements (why are they confidential????) approved by agriculture secretaries in both the Bush and Obama administrations, Dairy Management has worked with restaurants to expand their menus with cheese-laden products.
For years, the federal government bought the industry’s excess cheese and butter, an outgrowth of a Depression-era commitment to use price supports and other tools to maintain the dairy industry as a vital national resource. This stockpile, packed away in cool caves in Missouri, grew to a value of more than $4 billion by 1983, when Washington switched gears.
The government started buying only what it needed for food assistance programs. It also began paying farmers to slaughter some dairy cows. But at the time, the industry was moving toward larger, more sophisticated operations that increased productivity through artificial insemination, hormones and lighting that kept cows more active.
Dairy Management, whose annual budget approaches $140 million, is largely financed by a government-mandated fee on the dairy industry. But it also receives several million dollars a year from the Agriculture Department, which appoints some of its board members, approves its marketing campaigns and major contracts and periodically reports to Congress on its work.
Americans now eat an average of 33 pounds of cheese a year, nearly triple the 1970 rate. Cheese has become the largest source of saturated fat; an ounce of many cheeses contains as much saturated fat as a glass of whole milk.
Dairy Management’s longtime chief executive, Thomas P. Gallagher, received $633,475 in compensation in 2008, with first-class travel privileges, according to federal tax filings. Annual compensation for two other officials top $300,000 each.
also, the program recommends more research, the real product of most government research which is job security as priority #1 for government employees and the people they dole out money to through grants.
_________________
another example of government waste. quit subsidizing an industry that increases health care costs.
just like subsidizing corn to make fat beef causing heart disease and more medical costs, the government should GET OUT OF MANIPULATING MARKETS.
if the government would quit subsidizing dairy, the herd would reduce itself to a profitable level, there would be fewer dairies wasting resources to get people fat so we can study why we are fat with yet even more government money. it's really amazing that it is so clear that both parties are actually one in almost every respect to take our money and waste it.
