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The nation’s food system is out of balance. . . . The federal government provides subsidies that help keep junk food cheap and drive up rates of chronic health problems — like obesity, diabetes, and even cancer. . . the next President will have to take bold action to address this challenge.
. . . .That’s why a group of allied organizations have launched Plate of the Union. . . . to amplify the voice of millions of Americans who care about food and farm issues.
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. . . .The crisis is perpetuated by government policies created and maintained by powerful lobbyists. . . . The consequences are all around us — from climate change to polluted waterways to sub-minimum wages for food workers. . .For the first time in a century, children born in the 2000s had a lower life expectancy than their parents, thanks to spiking rates of obesity and diet-related diseases.
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There are some obvious first steps that the next President can take in his/her first year in office to begin reforming our food system. . . .
1. Stand with working families: Commit to ensuring that all Americans have access to healthy, affordable food.
2. Keep our kids healthy: Stop companies from marketing junk food to kids and end subsidies that support processed junk food.
3. Support farmers to grow healthy food: Realign agricultural subsidies to match the U.S. government’s fruit and vegetable recommendations, and expand incentives for sustainable practices.
4. Protect food and farm workers: End Fair Labor Standards exemptions for farmworkers, raise the minimum wage for all food workers, and eliminate the subminimum wage for restaurant workers.
5. Keep antibiotics working: Ban the practice of feeding antibiotics to farm animals that are not sick.
Read full, original post: Reform the Nation’s Food System
