By Dara O'Rourke, April 15, 2009
Every year on April 15th, Americans are reminded of a passion that literally helped found our nation: our collective distaste for taxes. But with our government so clearly in need of funds to address major infrastructure, education, health, social, and environmental concerns — I am not opposing taxes, but rather joining a growing group of people wondering if we are just taxing the wrong things.
Why do we tax the things we like and want more of: income, profits, sales of products, etc.? Shouldn’t we instead be taxing things we don’t like and want to incentivize people to reduce: pollution, carbon emissions, inefficient use of resources, etc.?
As we have been studying food recently, what about taxing junk food? Or ingredients of concern like sugar and high fructose corn syrup in food products?
Read what a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine has to say on the issue…
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By Dara O'Rourke, March 18, 2009 · Posted under Health Issues
As Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) labels show up in grocery stores, we are learning that approximately 80% of our seafood, 90% of lamb and mutton, 30% of fresh fruits and nuts, and 13% of vegetables are imported from around the world. The top 10 countries importing food and beverages into the U.S. include: Canada, Mexico, China, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia, Chile, New Zealand, Colombia and the European Union.
Developing countries such as Mexico and China are increasingly important in our food supply. Food imports from China into the U.S. have quadrupled over the last decade. China is now our number one country for importing prepared/preserved fruits, number two for prepared/preserved vegetables, and number four for fresh or frozen vegetables. China also is the number one producer of farmed fish and shellfish in the world, and the number one supplier of apple juice.
China supplies 80 percent of the world’s ascorbic acid– vitamin C – one-third of the world’s vitamin A, much of the supply of vitamin B-12, and many health-food supplements, such as lysine. Perhaps most surprising, a growing percentage of imported “organic” foods are now coming from China as well. So my daughter’s lunch of fish sticks, crackers, a fruit snack, apple juice, and a vitamin could all be from China. But is her food safe?
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