The Mexican food advocacy group, Alianza por la Salud Alimentaria, has produced this guide for taking care of your food needs during this emergency.
And here’s a general survival guide.
I don’t know about you but I’m having a hard time these days paying attention to anything other than Coronavirus. Everything else seems irrelevant.
This announcement seems particularly tone deaf.
On March 18, the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture put this as its most important story of the day: “Daily Avocado Consumption Improves Attention in Overweight and Obese Persons”
It refers to a study jointly funded by USDA and Haas Avocado Board: “Effects of 12-week avocado consumption on cognitive function among adults with overweight and obesity.” Edwards CG, et al. International Journal of Psychophysiology. 2020;148:13-24.
The study’s predictable conclusion: “Daily avocado intake over 12 weeks, after controlling for covariates, improved attentional inhibition and increased serum lutein concentrations among adults with overweight and obesity.” This was predictable because industry-funded studies almost invariably come out the way their funder hoped they would (what a coincidence!).
In this case, the Abstract goes on to say: “However, the cognitive benefits were independent of changes in lutein concentrations.”
Really? If lutein has nothing to do with cognition, why make such a big deal of it, as is done on the Hass Avocado Board website.
Don’t get me wrong. I love avocados. But I will never understand why it takes this kind of “science” to sell them. I put science in quotes because this kind of industry-funded research is really about marketing. USDA co-sponsors such research through its marketing programs.
This kind of self-serving marketing seems even more inappropriate right now. At least to me.
[Thanks to Hugh Joseph for sending the NIFA annoouncement].
This is what the bagged salad section of the Wegmans in Ithaca, New York, looked like early last Friday morning (right after the store opened for the day).
Thanks to Stephanie Borkowsky for the photo.
President Trump’s $2 Trillion relief package is the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020.’’
This 880-page (!) bill addresses food systems in several ways, most of them in “Title I Agricultural Programs” which starts on page 609 like this:.
For an additional amount for the ‘‘Office of the Secretary’’, $9,500,000,000, to remain available until expended, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus by providing support for agricultural producers impacted by coronavirus, including producers of specialty crops, producers that supply local food systems, including farmers markets, restaurants, and schools, and livestock producers, including dairy producers: Provided, That such amount is designated by the Congress as being for an emergency requirement pursuant to section 22 251(b)(2)(A)(i) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency 23 Deficit Control Act of 1985.
This sounds good (in Ag-speak, specialty crops are fruits and vegetables), but what this means in practice, according to the New York Times, is
But this will go mainly to soy and corn producers, key Trump constituents in an election year. This amount follows nearly $26 billion in aid already provided to offset losses from the China trade war. This new funds exceed USDA’s entire discretionary budget request for next year. The USDA Secretary may allocate the funds as he wishes, with no oversight.
So much for welfare for the rich.
As for the poor, the bill provides
This too sounds like a lot but all it does is account for the expected increase in demand from people newly out of work. It does not in any way increase the amount that individuals and families receive.
How did this happen? Chalk it up to effective lobbying by agribusiness.
The gains for agribusiness were accomplished, says the Times, by “A small army of groups mounted the fast-moving campaign for aid, including the politically powerful American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Joining them were other smaller players representing producers of goods like turkey, pork and potatoes or sunflowers, sorghum, peanuts and eggs.”
Earlier, Politico reported that nearly 50 organizations representing farmers, equipment manufacturers and agricultural lenders sent a letter stating their needs as a result of declining demand from school and restaurant shutdowns and direct-to-consumer sales.
The bill does little to help the folks who most need help. Anti-hunger groups tried, but failed.
Poor people need to vote. And organize.
RIP
Predictions of high risk
Effects on food systems
The alcohol industry responds
Here come the panaceas
Here come the frauds
For useful information
Thanks to Dr. Leon Axel for his cartoons, especially this one.
They still have to be fed. Dogs still have to be walked.
As I reported earlier, a dog in Hong Kong was found with a case of Coronavirus. It looks like the dog caught it from it owner, not the other way around.
The Animal Wellness Foundation urges restraint and care in dealing with Coronavirus in pets. Although there is as yet no evidence that people can get the virus fro pets, the Foundation advises against “letting your pets lick you on the nose, mouth, and mucous membranes.”
As always, there are business implications. Here’s a report on the effect of Coronavirus on the Mexican pet food economy.
What to do?
Love and feed your pet but wash hands and practice social distance. For now, for sure.
Not many restaurants will be able to survive Coronavirus, and this is a personal, social, and national tragedy.
I’m worried about farmers’ markets too.
Researchers say that the cost of Coronavirus to farm-to-consumer programs could go well into the billions. I believe it.
Now is the time to support your local farmers.
California has ruled farmers’ markets essential to local economies.
Now is the time to do what you can to keep them open and viable, even with the need for social distancing. Use home delivery or curbside pick up if you have to.
Even more, join the Farmers Market Coalition campaign for congressional support.
Is farmers’ market produce safe to eat? Yes (with some caveats), as I discussed on Monday.
