The Emerging Global Fed
September 20, 2010 by Andrew
Filed under Government
September 20, 2010
InfoWars.com
By Alex Newman
The Federal Reserve has been a nightmare for the American people. It inflates the money supply, thereby devaluing already-existing money and placing a massive hidden tax on the people via rising prices. It also uses its monopoly power to cause interest rates to go up or down, usurping the rightful place of the market and causing massive malinvestment and generally an improper and unproductive allocation of resources.
The Fed also causes the boom-and-bust cycle through its manipulations of the currency and credit supply. It serves as the government’s partner in perpetually expanding the “welfare-warfare state,” allowing the state to spend far more than it could ever hope to reasonably raise through direct taxation. And of course, the fact that all Federal Reserve notes enter the economy as debt with interest attached (but never created) has led to a situation where it is literally mathematically impossible to pay off the debt. In sum, the consequences of such a system have been disastrous for average Americans – hence the growing calls to audit and even end the Fed.
But now, imagine such a system at the global level. And it isn’t just a mental exercise; the global central bank is already emerging. As bad as the Fed has been for America – and indeed the world – a similar system at the international level would be far worse. Disaster might even be an understatement.
International Liquidity and Inflation
One of the most serious threats posed by a global central bank and world fiat currency is the fact that it would allow the emerging planetary regime to print its own money and finance its activities independently. That means wealth could be secretly siphoned away from all of humanity to pay for armies, tax collectors, courts, bureaucracies, law enforcement, wealth redistribution, propaganda, and much more. With no limits. But to advocates of such a system, that is one of its primary benefits.
“A super-sovereign reserve currency not only eliminates the inherent risks of credit-based sovereign currency, but also makes it possible to manage global liquidity. A super-sovereign reserve currency managed by a global institution could be used to both create and control the global liquidity,” wrote Chinese central-bank boss Zhou Xiaochuan in his public paper calling for a world currency. “The centralized management of its member countries’ reserves by the Fund will be an effective measure to promote a greater role of the SDR [Special Drawing Rights, the International Monetary Fund’s first effort at a world currency] as a reserve currency.” Of course, communists have always supported control of “liquidity” (Karl Marx was a strong advocate of central banks with a monopoly on currency and credit). But to people who care about freedom and prosperity, the communists’ support should be a huge red flag.
The United Nations has also backed global currency proposals for the same reason. In a report earlier this year calling for the end of the dollar’s status as a reserve currency and a new monetary regime controlled by the International Monetary Fund, the UN’s World Economic and Social Survey for 2010 points out that, “Such emissions of international liquidity could also underpin the financing of investment in long-term sustainable development.” The term “sustainable development” – especially when used by the UN – is often used to refer to stronger central planning, population reduction, more land in government hands, and other ideas repugnant to average Americans and the U.S. Constitution. Other schemes for “international liquidity” could be even worse.
Know what’s important: Having a Healthy Food Supply is Essential
Hiding behind the passive voice, a separate report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development adds in the concept of wealth redistribution: “It has been suggested that in order for the SDR to become the main form of international liquidity and means of reserve holding, new SDR allocations should be made according to the needs of countries.” It then promotes worldwide central planning to “stabilize global output growth” by issuing more SDRs or retiring them as the emerging global government deems necessary. As it stands, wealth redistribution around the world is bad enough. Surrendering that power to a global institution would be a nightmare.
In its report published earlier this year, the IMF also recently came out in favor of allowing it to print its own money to provide “international liquidity.” “A global currency, bancor, issued by a global central bank would be designed as a stable store of value that is not tied exclusively to the conditions of any particular economy,” the paper says. “The global central bank could serve as a lender of last resort, providing needed systemic liquidity in the event of adverse shocks and more automatically than at present.” In laymen’s terms, the IMF, with its power to “emit liquidity” out of thin air, would be empowered to “bail out” companies, governments, and whomever it wished. If you thought the Fed handing out trillions of dollars to the big banks and other insiders was bad, just wait until a global central bank exercises that power.
Allowing the emerging global government to supply its own money would free it from the constraints of having to raise money through national contributions or direct international taxation. But of course, printing all of this new “liquidity” and financing all of its ambitious projects would be inflationary by definition. And this inevitably would represent a massive problem.
Even John Maynard Keynes, the original proponent of the world currency called “bancor,” understood the concept well. In 1919, he wrote in his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace, “By a continuous process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.”
Nevada Unemployment at 14.4 Percent
September 20, 2010 by Andrew
Filed under Government
September 20, 2010
Las Vegas Review-Journal
By Jennifer Robbinson
Neither a boost in private-sector hiring nor a shrinking labor force could rescue Nevada from yet another unemployment record in August.
The construction sector, restaurants and professional firms all added jobs in the month, but declines in Census jobs and other public-sector cuts offset that hiring to push statewide unemployment to an all-time high of 14.4 percent, the state Department of Employment, Training & Rehabilitation said this morning. That’s up from 14.3 percent in July and 12.5 percent in August 2009.
Thanks to seasonal hiring among resorts and other employers, joblessness in Clark County edged down to 14.7 percent, from a record 14.8 percent in August. Unemployment in Las Vegas came in at 13 percent in the same month a year ago.
Nevada has claimed the highest jobless rate in the nation since it bumped Michigan out of the top spot in May. Nationally, unemployment was 9.6 percent in August.
The boost in joblessness across the Silver State came as more than 10,000 workers left the workforce, either because they’ve given up on finding jobs or because they think they’ll have better luck finding work in other states. Nearly 200,000 Nevadans, including 142,000 Las Vegans, lacked work and were looking in August. Factor in discouraged workers who’ve quit looking and underemployed part-timers who’d rather work full time, and the state’s jobless rate surges past 20 percent, economists say.
The officials who compile Nevada’s jobless data point out that the downward spiral of the state’s labor market has eased substantially over a year ago: Employment statewide is down 1.8 percent from August 2009, a significantly smaller decline than the 10.6 percent falloff the state experienced from 2008 to 2009. Still, they said, a weak economic outlook will likely hamper any major improvements in the Nevada job market for the foreseeable future.
Nevada’s private employers added 2,300 jobs in the month, including 700 construction positions, 700 jobs in food and beverage services and accommodation, and 500 posts in professional and business services, which includes law firms, architecture studios and accounting businesses. But the public sector offset those gains by slashing 3,000 positions, including 1,900 Census jobs.
The employment department also emphasized the especially hard times younger workers are experiencing in the downturn. The jobless rate among workers 24 and under is nearly twice as high as overall unemployment.
Bill Anderson, chief economist for the employment department, attributed the difference to higher turnover as younger workers seek better opportunities and tough competition from a flood of experienced workers entering the job market.
“Older workers are entering the labor force due to recessionary factors, as well as the fact that their numbers have increased,” Anderson said.” The ‘graying’ of the Baby Boom generation accounts for a growing population of workers age 65 and older. The recession has devastated household wealth in Nevada, including the retirement accounts of older workers, pushing many of them back into the labor force or making them work longer than expected. Many of these workers are competing for jobs traditionally filled by younger workers.”
Employers find older workers attractive for their extensive experience, their work ethic and their strong degree of loyalty, Anderson said.
Because of shifts in Nevada’s population distribution and expectations for future job growth, older workers should continue to crowd out younger workers for some time, he said.
Obama to Try to Tie All Republicans to Tea Party
September 20, 2010 by Andrew
Filed under Government
September 20, 2010
The NewYork Times
By Jakie Calmes
President Obama’s political advisers, looking for ways to help Democrats and alter the course of the midterm elections in the final weeks, are considering a range of ideas, including national advertisements, to cast the Republican Party as all but taken over by Tea Party extremists, people involved in the discussion said.
White House and Congressional Democratic strategists are trying to energize dispirited Democratic voters over the coming six weeks, in hopes of limiting the party’s losses and keeping control of the House and Senate. The strategists see openings to exploit after a string of Tea Party successes split Republicans in a number of states, culminating last week with developments that scrambled Senate races in Delaware and Alaska.
“We need to get out the message that it’s now really dangerous to re-empower the Republican Party,” said one Democratic strategist who has spoken with White House advisers but requested anonymity to discuss private strategy talks.
Democrats are divided. The party’s House and Senate campaign committees are resistant, not wanting to do anything that smacks of nationalizing the midterm elections when high unemployment and the drop in Mr. Obama’s popularity have made the climate so hostile to Democrats. Endangered Congressional candidates want any available money to go to their localized campaigns.
Late Sunday night, White House advisers denied that a national ad campaign was being planned. “There’s been no discussion of such a thing at the White House” or the Democratic National Committee, said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser.
Proponents say a national ad campaign, most likely on cable television, would complement those individual campaigns and give Democrats a chance to redefine the stakes. The Democratic strategist said voters did not now see much threat to them from a Republican takeover of Congress, even though some Tea Party-backed candidates and other Republicans have taken positions that many voters consider extreme, like shutting down the government to get their way, privatizing Social Security and Medicare and ending unemployment insurance.
So far, Mr. Obama has largely limited his campaigning to fundraisers and small events. That will change soon as he plays a bigger role to rally the flagging faithful, officials said.
To mobilize younger voters who supported him in 2008, Mr. Obama will hold four big campaign-style rallies, the first Sept. 28 at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, with satellite transmission to campuses in other states. The later rallies will be in Ohio, Philadelphia and Las Vegas. He also will send e-mail and record robocalls to spur voters, and conduct a national “town hall” Webcast in October.
“These events are about activating the Obama grass roots to help organizationally in terms of volunteers” for get-out-the-vote efforts, said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. “We’re not going to get all the 2008 Obama voters out. We may not get most of them. But in close races, it can be decisive.”
Mr. Obama will also step up his efforts to draw contrasts between the parties, in particular by pounding away on his call for extending the expiring Bush-era tax cuts, except for “millionaires and billionaires.” Republicans want the tax cuts extended for people of all income levels, not just incomes below $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for families, as the president has proposed.
Republican strategists remain confident of the party’s prospects for big gains in November, even as they acknowledge that they are unlikely to win the Senate race in Delaware after the victory in the Republican primary there of Christine O’Donnell, a Tea Party-backed candidate with a long record of controversial statements, over Representative Michael N. Castle, a moderate and popular former two-term governor.
Also last week, Alaska’s Senate race was upended when Senator Lisa Murkowski, who lost the Republican nomination to a Tea Party adherent, Joe Miller, mounted a write-in candidacy against him, saying, “Alaska is not fair game for outside extremists.”
“While we may have a handful of nominees out of the mainstream, the American people have come to the conclusion this administration and this Congress are out of the mainstream,” said John Weaver, a Republican consultant.
In 1994, Democrats were in power and similarly took hope when Republican primaries yielded candidates deemed too far right for the general election. Yet the wave against Democrats that year was strong enough to carry those newcomers into office and put Republicans in control of Congress for the first time in 40 years.
Except for Ms. O’Donnell in Delaware, Republican nominees that Democrats like to showcase as extremists — including in Senate races in Nevada, Colorado, Kentucky and even blue-state Connecticut — are even with their Democratic rivals in polls or ahead.
And even as the White House maps the final campaign push, advisers are distracted by the expected exit of the chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, to run for mayor of Chicago. Mr. Emanuel, who as a member of Congress helped engineer the Democratic takeover of the House in 2006, is among his party’s foremost strategists when it comes to Congressional elections.
Peter M. Rouse, one of Mr. Obama’s closest advisers, has assumed additional responsibilities. But Mr. Rouse, who is intensely private, does not want the high-profile job of chief of staff; instead he is helping Mr. Obama vet names. Leading candidates are said to be Thomas E. Donilon, the deputy national security adviser, and Robert Bauer, the White House counsel.
On top of the personnel distractions at the White House, the strategy discussions with Congressional Democrats come after 21 months of legislative and political battles that have strained relations between the two camps.
Democrats on Capitol Hill say that Obama aides, including Mr. Axelrod, and Jim Messina, the deputy chief of staff, do not consult with them enough and are more concerned with positioning Mr. Obama for his 2012 reelection race than with re-electing Democrats now.
At the Democratic National Committee, aides already have started work on a database to link the most controversial statements of the Tea Party-backed candidates to possible Republican presidential aspirants.
The database will point out, for example, that Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney are supporting the Republican candidate for Senate in Nevada, Sharron Angle, who once said that victims of rape should make “what was really a lemon situation into lemonade,” and Ms. O’Donnell, who has said that having women in the service academies “cripples the readiness of our defense.”
The tactic of linking potential Republican rivals to such statements was already in evidence last week. After Ms. O’Donnell’s victory, a party spokesman told reporters, “The fact that Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin would put their name behind a candidate that believes women who serve our country ‘cripple the readiness of our defense’ make them unfit to be commander-in-chief.”
UK Wants Paychecks To Go To State First
September 20, 2010 by Andrew
Filed under Government
September 20, 2010
CNBC
By Robin Night
The UK’s tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and pay the employees by bank transfer.
The proposal by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) stresses the need for employers to provide real-time information to the government so that it can monitor all payments and make a better assessment of whether the correct tax is being paid.
Currently employers withhold tax and pay the government, providing information at the end of the year, a system know as Pay as You Earn (PAYE). There is no option for those employees to refuse withholding and individually file a tax return at the end of the year.
If the real-time information plan works, it further proposes that employers hand over employee salaries to the government first.
“The next step could be to use (real-time) information as the basis for centralizing the calculation and deduction of tax,” HMRC said in a July discussion paper.
HMRC described the plan as “radical” as it would be a huge change from the current system that has been largely unchanged for 66 years.
Even though the centralized deductions proposal would provide much-needed oversight, there are some major concerns, George Bull, head of Tax at Baker Tilly, told CNBC.com.
“If HMRC has direct access to employees’ bank accounts and makes a mistake, people are going to feel very exposed and vulnerable,” Bull said.
And the chance of widespread mistakes could be high, according to Bull. HMRC does not have a good track record of handling large computer systems and has suffered high-profile errors with data, he said.
The system would be massive in terms of data management, larger than a recent attempt to centralize the National Health Service’s data, which was later scrapped, Bull said.
If there’s a mistake and the HMRC collects too much money, the difficulty of getting it back could be high with repayments of tax taking weeks or months, he said.
“There has to be some very clear understanding of how quickly repayments were made if there was a mistake,” Bull said.
HMRC estimated the potential savings to employers from the introduction of the concept would be about £500 million ($780 million).
But the cost of implementing the new system would be “phenomenal,” Bull pointed out.
“It’s very clear that the system does need to be modernized… It’s outdated, it’s outmoded,” Emma Boon, campaigner manager at the Tax Payers’ Alliance, told CNBC.com.
Boon said that the Tax Payers’ Alliance was in favor of simplifying tax collection, but stressed that a new complex computer system would add infrastructure and administration costs at a time when the government is trying to reduce spending.
There is a further concern, according to Bull. The centralized storage of so much data poises a security risk as the system may be open to cyber crime.
As well as security issues, there’s a huge issue of transparency, according to Boon.
Boon also questioned HMCR’s ability to handle to the role effectively.
The Institute of Directors (IoD), a UK organization created to promote the business agenda of directors and entreprenuers, said in a press release it had major concerns about the proposal to allow employees’ pay to be paid directly to HMRC.
The IoD said the shift to a real-time, centralized system could be positive as long as the burden on employers was not increased. But it added that the idea of wages being processed by HMRC was “completely unacceptable.”
“This document contains a lot of good ideas. But the idea that HMRC should be trusted with the gross pay of employees is not one of them,” Richard Baron, Head of Taxation at the IoD, said in the release.
A spokesperson for Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was not immediately available for comment.
Carter Compares Tea Party to 1976 Campaign
September 20, 2010 by Andrew
Filed under Government
September 20, 2010
BreitBart
By Greg Bluestien
Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday he sees parallels between today’s tea party and his own campaign for the White House in 1976. But he doesn’t think the movement will be much of a factor beyond this fall’s elections.
The Georgia Democrat told The Associated Press he rode a wave of voter discontent to the presidency on the heels of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal that felled President Richard Nixon, much like tea partyconservatives are now earning support by voicing anger at the nation’s economic woes.
“I was a candidate that was in some ways like the tea party candidate,” Carter said in an interview. “I was a complete outsider. I capitalized legitimately on the dissatisfaction that was permeating our society.”
He said the tea party’s momentum will likely wear off and they will be co-opted by the Republican Party.
“I think they’re going to be quite a major factor in November,” he said. “I think there’s already a process of absorbing them into the Republican Party. I think they will be much less of a factor in 2012 and in future years.”
The comments came the same day the former president’s new book, “White House Diary,” was released.
In the book, Carter said he pursued an overly aggressive agenda as president that may have confused voters and alienated lawmakers. But he said the tipping points that cost him the 1980 election were the Iran hostage crisis and the primary challenge by U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy.
“Had we not had the hostage crisis, I would have won,” he said in the interview of his defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan, adding: “Had I not had Kennedy as my opponent, who sapped away a portion of the Democratic wing, I would have been re-elected.”
Carter said in the book that he is proud of his accomplishments during his presidency, but that pushing controversial decisions such as the end of U.S. control of the Panama Canal and working to normalize relations with Communist China cost him political support.
“I overburdened Congress with an array of controversial and politically costly requests. Looking back, I am struck by how many unpopular objectives we pursued,” he said, adding: “We were able to achieve a remarkable amount of what we set out to do, but ultimately the political cost—of my administration and for members of Congress—was very high.”
Carter, 85, compiled the book from thoughts and observations he dictated several times a day in tapes turned over to his secretary. Thirty years later, he condensed and annotated the diary with recent reflections. The book was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
The former president said in the interview that he neglected his role as the party’s leader, opening a vacuum that cost some of his chief legislative supporters their jobs. He said there were 20 senators up for re-election in 1978 who voted for the Panama treaty—and only seven came back to the Senate the next year.
“One of the things I could have done better is I could have been a better leader of the Democratic Party. I didn’t feel comfortable,” he said.
Carter said he decided to publish the diary because it “may be my last chance to offer an assessment of my time in the White House,” he wrote.
U.S. Drug Firm Penalized $300 Million for Criminal Actions
September 20, 2010 by Andrew
Filed under Government
September 20, 2010
CBC News
A major U.S. drug company, Forest Pharmaceuticals, has agreed to plead guilty to three charges related to selling an unapproved drug, promoting an antidepressant to children and obstructing federal agents.
The company is facing fines and criminal penalties of over $300 million.
The charges date back more than 10 years when Forest was promoting its antidepressant, Celexa, for pediatric use when it was only approved for use in adults. Celexa is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. In some children and teens it’s been linked to suicide and suicidal thoughts.
Forest was also convicted of marketing its thyroid drug Levothroid without getting FDA approval. When the company was ordered to stop selling the drug in 2003, it increased production rather than scaling down. It also ignored a subsequent warning letter.
A new formulation of Levothroid is now on the market with full approval. In Canada it’s sold under the name Levothyroxine. The drug was approved by Health Canada in 2002.
The third count, a felony charge of obstruction, relates to false statements company employees made to federal inspectors during a 2003 FDA inspection at a Forest Pharmaceuticals plant.
“These charges should serve as a warning to industry,” said Deborah Autor, director of the compliance office at the FDA’s centre for drug evaluation and research.
“Any company that operates in violation of the FDCA [Food Drug and Cosmetics Act] and ignores FDA’s warnings should be aware that a criminal action could follow.”
Forest has also agreed to settle civil claims related to the disribution of Levothroid and the promotion of Celexa to children.
The drug company will pay $149 million to the U.S. government and state Medicaid agencies. In settling the claims Forest denies the allegations made in the suit.
“We are pleased to bring closure to this long-running investigation,” said Howard Soloman, the chairman and CEO of Forest.
“We have continued to enhance our compliance program since the events at issue in this investigation, which occurred a number of years ago,” he said.
U.S. Government Hiding True Amount of Debt
September 20, 2010 by Andrew
Filed under Government
September 20, 2010
News.com
By Gregory Bresiger
THE actual figure of the US’ national debt is much higher than the official sum of $US13.4 trillion ($14.3 trillion) given by the Congressional Budget Office, according to analysts cited on Sunday by the New York Post.
“The Government is lying about the amount of debt. It is engaging in Enron accounting,” said Laurence Kotlikoff, an economist at Boston University and co-author of The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America’s Economic Future.
“The problem is we’re seeing an explosion in spending,” added Andrew Moylan, director of government affairs for the National Taxpayers Union.
In 1980, the debt – the accumulated red ink incurred by the Federal Government – was $US909 billion.
This represented some 33 per cent of gross domestic product, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Thirty years later, based on this year’s second-quarter numbers, the CBO said the debt was $US13.4 trillion, or 92 per cent of GDP.
The CBO estimates the debt will be at $US16.5 trillion in two years, or 100.6 per cent of GDP.
But these numbers are incomplete.
They do not count off-budget obligations such as required spending for Social Security and Medicare, whose programs represent a balloon payment for the Government as more Americans retire and collect benefits.
In the case of Social Security, beginning in 2016, the US Government will be paying out more than it is collecting in taxes.
Without basic measures – such as payment cuts or higher payroll taxes – the system could be on the road to bankruptcy, according to officials.
“Without changes,” wrote Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue, “by 2037 the Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted. There will be enough money only to pay about $US0.76 for each dollar of benefits.”
Mr Kotlikoff and Mr Moylan agree US national debt is much more than the official $US13.4 trillion number, but they disagree over how to add up the exact number.
Mr Kotlikoff says the debt is actually $US200 trillion.
Mr Moylan says the number is likely about $US60 trillion.
That is close to the figure quoted by David Walker, the US Comptroller General from 1998 to 2008.
He launched a campaign to convince Americans that the federal spending and debt is a greater threat than terrorism.
But whichever figure is accurate, all three agree that the problem has worsened in the last few years.
They say it is because Congress and the Administration, whether Republican or Democrat, consistently overspend.
The Food Industry, like Big Pharma, Controls the FDA and USDA
September 20, 2010 by Andrew
Filed under Government
September 20, 2010
Natural News
By Jonathan Benson
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) recently released a report highlighting the widespread influence of the food industry over food safety policies. According to the study, at least a quarter of those who work for either the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the U.S. Department of Agriculture (UDSA) have admitted that corporate interests regularly force the agencies to change or remove policies that hurt their bottom line, even when those policies protect the public.
The UCS sent 44-question surveys to roughly 8,000 workers from both the FDA and USDA, 60 percent of whom work as field inspectors. Nearly 40 percent of respondents indicated that their agencies’ practices harm public health in order to appease corporate interests, and more than 30 percent indicated that many of the higher-ups at both the FDA and USDA“inappropriately” influence decision making, in addition to having previously worked in thefood industry.
“Upper level management does not adequately support field inspectors and the actions they take to protect the food supply,” explained Dean Wyatt, a USDA veterinarian in charge of federal slaughterhouse inspectors, to reporters. “Not only is there lack of support, but there’s outright obstruction, retaliation and abuse of power.”
According to Wyatt, he has been demoted for actually doing his job properly and documenting industry violations. It is highly likely that there are countless others like him who have been reprimanded, muzzled or even punished for doing their jobs.
To make matters worse, more than 30 percent of survey respondents said they believe their agencies are not “moving in the right direction”. And this makes perfect sense, considering that 25 percent indicated their agencies do not even make public health a priority when considering policy decisions.
Mexico Bans Sodas, Fried Foods, and Junk Food from Public Schools
September 20, 2010
Natural News
By David Gutierrez
The Mexican government is moving forward with plans to ban all junk foods from public school by the start of the coming school year, officials have announced.
“The kids are going to complain, of course,” said education minister Alonso Lujambio. “We are going to start a profound cultural change.”
In January, President Felipe Calderon launched a major anti-obesity campaign, and government officials have regularly referred to Mexican children as the world’s fattest. While the merits of this specific claim are open to dispute, it is well confirmed that obesity rates in Mexico are rapidly approaching those of its northern neighbor, and that 4.5 million children between the ages of five and 11 — 26 percent — are already overweight or obese.
According to health minister Jose Angel Cordoba, fruit and vegetable consumption has dropped 40 percent in the last 15 years, while consumption of sweetened beverages has increased 50 percent. In addition, runaway urbanization is blamed for destroying open spaces and thus leading to a drop in physical activity.
Under the new rules, schools will be bared from serving or selling sugary sodas, juices or processed snacks, including local favorites such as tamarind candies. Unhealthy less-processed foods to be banned include pork rinds, atole (a sweetened corn starch-based beverage), fried tacos and tortas (sandwiches). Some exceptions will be made for healthier versions, such as tortas made from beans, avocado and cheese, or chicken and vegetables. All tacos, burritos and salads must be low in fat.
While the law does not target the off-campus vendors who gather at school gates at the end of the day, Lujambio said the government will soon initiate programs designed to improve the nutritional content of their foods as well.
The guidelines will apply to all 220,000 public and private elementary and middle schools in the country. Before taking effect, they must be approved by experts and a review committee.
Not Enough Fruit in the U.S. Food Supply to Keep Population Healthy
September 20, 0210
Natural News
By David Gutierrez
Not enough fruits and vegetables are produced or imported to supply every resident of the United States with a healthy diet, researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have concluded.
“If everyone wanted to eat healthily, there would not be enough,” said the institute’s Susan Krebs-Smith.
In coordination with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the NCI researchers analyzed how much food of various kinds is produced, imported and distributed in the United States. They also calculated national rates of exercise.
The researchers found that there are not enough fresh fruits and vegetables in the U.S. food supply to supply the recommended five servings per person per day. In part, this food shortage may be produced by lack of demand due to unhealthy eating habits.
“Our intakes of fruit are low,” Krebs-Smith said. “Our intake of vegetables is low but especially our intake of dark green and orange vegetables and legumes.”
Supplies of less-healthy but more popular foods, on the other hand, are abundant.
“The fruit in the food supply is about half what it needs to be, but we have plenty of calories from fat and added sugars,” Krebs-Smith said.
“The food supply does supply enough meat and beans.”
To make matters worse, studies suggest that the typical U.S. eater drastically underestimates the amount of junk food they eat. And while a maximum of about 11 percent of a person’s daily calories should come from sugary or fatty snacks, the typical U.S. consumer actually relies on such foods for 38 percent of their daily energy intake.
At the same time, the National Cancer Institute found that less than 5 percent of the U.S. population gets the recommended minimum of 30 minutes of moderate exercise per day. Yet 30 to 40 percent of those polled consistently estimate that they get enough exercise.
The National Cancer Institute estimates that obesity and physical inactivity together are responsible for 25 to 30 percent of breast, colon, endometrial, esophageal and kidney cancers.
