Thanksgiving is tomorrow, which, for many of us, means spending time with family, watching football and consuming enough turkey to induce a coma. However you will be spending the holiday tomorrow: Happy Thanksgiving, from our Sunlight family to yours.
Continue readingHappy Thankgiving! How does campaign cash affect the food on your plate?
Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, with President Barack Obama scheduled to deliver the annual stay of execution for the National Thanksgiving Turkey on Wednesday. But on Capitol Hill, there's less goodwill: An end to the impasse on the farm bill is not in sight. Last year at this time we reported that Congress had let the massive bill that governs farm programs as well as food programs for the needy expired months before the holiday; this year is much the same, with little hope of the lawmakers -- who are off on their own holiday recess -- coming to agreement come ...
Happy Thanksgiving! How much did your tax dollars underwrite the feast?
Nearly 400 years ago, at the very first Thanksgiving in the Plymouth Colony, Native Americans and pilgrims dined together on a meal of deer, corn, shellfish, and roasted meat. There was no such thing as crop insurance, sugar price supports, dairy subsidies, conservation easements, food stamps, or any other feature of the massive farm bill governing the nation's food policy, which expired on September 30.
Of course there was no such thing as the U.S. Congress either, which stalled on the farm bill last summer. In this country, food is a political issue, and where there is politics ...
Continue readingHow Transparent is Your Turkey?
The government collects terabytes of data on food—from safety to marketing to subsidies—funded by taxpayers and consumers. But that does not mean this crucial information is available to you online and in real time so you can actually do something about it.
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