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The Economics and Politics of Obesity

That was the title of a talk I gave last week at the University of Alabama-Birmingham in the seminar series run by the Nutrition Obesity Research Center.  I talked about emerging trends associated with obesity (some of which defy popular narratives), the government's role in "combating" obesity, reasons why I find justifications for government action in this area less compelling than many public health professionals, evidence from empirical research on effectiveness of policies designed to "fix" the obesity problem, and finally I concluded with my thoughts on what caused the rise in obesity and what "we" should do about it.  

If you'd like to watch my talk (which runs about 50 minutes), click here.  

God Made a Farmer

A while back, Mark Bittman at NYT wrote a blog post claiming to celebrate farming, but it was actually a back-handed complement because he wasn't talking about most of the real, flesh-and-blood farmers working today; rather he said  we needed more "real farmers" that will grow the stuff Bittman wants in the way that he wants it grown. (At the time, I thought of writing a post asking for "real food journalists" but thought better of it).     

It is against this backdrop that the much-discussed Dodge Ram commercial - God Made a Farmer - appeared (see below if you haven't yet watched it).  I follow quite a few agricultural blogs and twitter feeds, and they all responded enthusiastically to the commercial.  I suspect part of the reaction is the that many in this community feel beleaguered by comments like Bittman's, not to mention the cultural notion that has arisen that you're somehow "evil" if you have some large farm implements. 

One last comment about the commercial.  Look at the parting scene (at about 1:50 into it).  Dodge wants you to look at what is in the foreground.  I want you to look at what is in the background.  It is some kind of confined animal feeding operation.  I can't tell exactly what kind of housing it is, but I'm guessing those barns are housing either hogs or poultry.  Stated differently, it's one of those "factory farms" you hear so much about.  Somehow these kinds of farms don't seem as bad as they're often portrayed when seen in the larger context of the commercial. 

http://CherryHillRAM.com And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer. God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the field, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board."

Matrona's Four Children

My good friend and frequent co-author, Bailey Norwood, has - for years - been working on a book of historical fiction.  The book has finally been released for sale, and at a price of $0.99, how could you pass it up?  If you're looking for some entertainment and education (you'll get to learn about agriculture and serfdom in pre-Soviet Russia along with some nice economic lessons), I highly recommend it. 

Obesity Myths

Last week, I gave a talk at the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.  It turns out that several of the folks I met with published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine a day after my talk entitled, "Myths, Presumptions, and Facts about Obesity."  Here is an expert from the coverage at New York Times, in interviews with the team leader, David Allison:

His first thought was that, of course, weighing oneself daily helped control weight. He checked for the conclusive studies he knew must exist. They did not.
“My goodness, after 50-plus years of studying obesity in earnest and all the public wringing of hands, why don’t we know this answer?” Dr. Allison asked. “What’s striking is how easy it would be to check. Take a couple of thousand people and randomly assign them to weigh themselves every day or not.”
Yet it has not been done.
Instead, people often rely on weak studies that get repeated ad infinitum. It is commonly thought, for example, that people who eat breakfast are thinner. But that notion is based on studies of people who happened to eat breakfast. Researchers then asked if they were fatter or thinner than people who happened not to eat breakfast — and found an association between eating breakfast and being thinner. But such studies can be misleading because the two groups might be different in other ways that cause the breakfast eaters to be thinner. But no one has randomly assigned people to eat breakfast or not, which could cinch the argument.

As their study shows, there are no easy "quick fixes" to the state of obesity in America.

Meet Your Meat

I just returned from giving at talk at the International Production and Processing Expo (IPPE) in Atlanta.  According to the organizers, there were over 25,000 people in attendance from all aspects of the livestock, poultry, and egg production and processing industries.  I don't think it would be much of an exaggeration (in fact it may be an under-estimation) to say that there were two football field sized halls full of exhibits.  

While the expo was filled with lots of folks involved in livestock and meat production, I wish the "average" food consumer could have walked through the place (you can get a brief glance by checking out the video at the bottom of this page).  What they would have seen is an overwhelming number of technological marvels designed to make meat and eggs safer, tastier, healthier, and less expensive.  There were new insulated boxes to make shipping safer and more convenient, egg production facilities that were larger and provided more amenities for hens, automated technologies that keep workers from having to engage in some of the more unpleasant parts of the slaughter process, new medicines to improve animal health, technologies to improve worker health, new spices and flavors to improve taste, and on and on.  

There are those who seem to want agribusiness and large farms out of agriculture.  But, where do they think improvements in health, safety, and quality originate?  I hear a lot about the need to improve transparency in agriculture.  My advice to the event organizers for next year?  Give out a slew of tickets to the general public.  If the general public is more troubled than comforted by what they see, the meat industry really is doomed.  

PETA has a video and exhibition featuring Paul McCartney called "glass walls."  McCartney claims that if meat processing facilities had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.  There are thousands of years of human experience (during which the typical person was "closer" to animal agriculture) that would seem to contradict McCartney's claim.  Although I could be wrong, I think a visit to something like the IPPE (and making the walls glass) would have exactly the opposite effect McCartney claims.