Tag: USDA

How COVID-19 stimulus money will end up in U.S. tobacco farmers’ pockets

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

How COVID-19 stimulus money will end up in U.S. tobacco farmers’ pockets

U.S. government aid payments to tobacco farmers will be channeled through a new account within the office of the agriculture secretary, an unusual move that bypasses the normal mechanism for distributing farm aid and stokes concerns about how the government is using COVID-19 stimulus.

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The payments would benefit farmers in North Carolina, a swing state in the Nov. 3 presidential election and the country’s top tobacco producer. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden are locked in a dead heat among likely voters in North Carolina, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday.

Election ploy!

Amazon Bans Sale of Foreign Seeds in the U.S.

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Amazon Bans Sale of Foreign Seeds in the U.S.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said the unsolicited packages appeared to be a part of a “brushing scam,” in which an online seller ships an inexpensive product to an unwitting receiver and then submits positive reviews on the recipient’s behalf with a goal of boosting the seller’s ratings and visibility online. The agency said there was no reason to suspect agroterrorism, in which biological agents are used to harm the nation’s food supply.

Related:

Amazon Bans Foreign Plant Sales to U.S. Amid Global Seed Mystery

U.S. agriculture officials have said they are working with officials in China to determine who is sending the seed packages and to stop future shipments. China’s Foreign Ministry said in July that mailing labels on the seed packages were forged and that China had asked the U.S. to send packages for investigation.

It’s just the beginning.

How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960s to play down the link between sugar and heart disease and promote saturated fat as the culprit instead, newly released historical documents show.

How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat

At the time, studies had begun pointing to a relationship between high-sugar diets and the country’s high rates of heart disease. At the same time, other scientists, including the prominent Minnesota physiologist Ancel Keys, were investigating a competing theory that it was saturated fat and dietary cholesterol that posed the biggest risk for heart disease.