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You may want to think about eating that......

The New York Times op-ed writer on food in his latest column:

"Here is a video detailing the U.S.D.A.’s new nutrition labels for meat and poultry.  It’s a nice thing to know how many calories, for instance, are in our meat; it would be much nicer to know how many chemicals or antibiotics are in there as well. If information about a product would deter any significant number of people from buying it, then the U.S.D.A. probably isn’t going to put in on the package. Bad for health, good for business. But in a much more progressive and productive move, the U.S.D.A. is spending $4 million to equip farmers markets with wireless equipment necessary to accept SNAP (formerly food stamps). The U.S.D.A. deputy secretary, Kathleen Merrigan, hopes the grants will be able to outfit 4,000 additional farmers markets. Good for health, good for business."

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"Though BP claims the Gulf of Mexico is home to healthy fish, eyeless shrimp and deformed fish are routinely caught. Consequently, Alabama has closed the Gulf to shrimping (while BP is opening three new drilling rigs in the Gulf). Read Abrahm Lustgarten’s Times op-ed from a few weeks ago about how BP will continue to put “profits ahead of prudence” until the potential consequences become severe enough; not just fines, exorbitant as they are, but criminal prosecutions or banning oil leases. He’s right: for the most powerful corporations, billions of dollars worth of fines can conceivably be considered the cost of doing business, and it’s a cost they can afford. The consequences need to be ones that they cannot bear."

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