By Peter Ward July 15, 2016
America’s Food Wasting Problem
Perfect strawberries. ©
Digital Wallpapers
Americans are discarding nearly as much as food as they eat, due to unrealistic cosmetic standards set by retailers, an investigation published on Wednesday by The Guardian has revealed.
Fresh produce is being left in fields to rot, fed to livestock, or sent directly from the field to landfill, because of a demand for food that is completely blemish-free, according to official data and interviews with farmers, packers, truckers, researchers, campaigners and government officials gathered by the newspaper.
“It’s all about blemish-free produce,” Jay Johnson, who ships fresh fruit and vegetables from North Carolina and central Florida told The Guardian. “What happens in our business today is that it is either perfect, or it gets rejected. It is perfect to them, or they turn it down. And then you are stuck.”
One government report estimates that about 60 million tons of produce worth around $160 billion is wasted by retailers and consumers every year – one third of all foodstuffs. But the article says this figure is just a “downstream” measure, meaning it doesn’t take into account all of the food left in fields or abandoned in warehouses.
In an accompanying article on the six stages of wasting food, reporter Suzanne Goldenberg tells a story about how $3,000 worth of strawberries were rejected by a mid-sized organic strawberry growing company as they were picked too late in the day.
Affordable Care Act Puts Insurers Under Pressure
Doctor visit ©Laura Smith
The affordable care act – also known as Obamacare – has enabled millions of people to get health insurance who otherwise would have had to struggle without. But a Politico report published on Wednesday explains that the law has placed a heavy financial burden on health insurance companies.
A review of the 2015 financial filings of nearly 100 health plans across the U.S. found that less than a quarter hit the standard break-even point, at which payouts add up to 85% of the premiums taken in. The Politico research also revealed that 40% of the plans had medical costs that exceeded total premiums. Those numbers don’t include the government payments that compensate plans for high-cost customers, but still show how insurers lost millions on Affordable Care Act policies last year.
The act was built on top of America’s existing private insurance system, rather than through the creation of new government-funded health plans. This made the act politically possible, but means it only works if insurers find the Obamacare market desirable. Faced with heavy losses, insurers are pulling out of Obamacare business in certain states, and applying to raise rates substantially in others. The largest insurer in Texas, for example, wants to raise rates for individual payers by 60% next year.
The financial woes of the insurers are in part due to Republican saboteurs undercutting the safeguards put in place to help companies weather the uncertainty of the new law, and also problems caused by the Obama administration itself, according to the article.
Before the Affordable Care Act was rolled out, Obama promised Americans they could keep their current health insurance plan if they liked it. But in late 2013, millions of people were told their plans were being canceled as it didn’t meet the requirements of the new law. In response to the Republican-led blowback, the administration said the old plans could be kept through 2017, even if they didn’t comply with the new rules. That move, although politically necessary at the time, took millions of customers away from the new Obamacare exchange markets.
But there is a bigger miscalculation at the heart of the problem. Health insurance involves estimating how much customers’ health care is going to cost in the long run and balancing that against total premiums, and in many states the health insurers on the Obamacare exchange simply guessed wrong. Fewer individuals than expected signed up for coverage, and those who did proved to be more sick and more expensive than insurers prepared for. In the past health insurance companies have been able to mitigate against that risk by avoiding covering sick people, but Obamacare made discrimination on those grounds illegal.
Venezuela Crisis Explained
Former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez holds a miniature copy of the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution. © By Victor Soares/ABr – Agência Brasil, CC BY 3.0 br
Venezuela’s military took control of five ports in an attempt to guarantee supplies of food and medicine this week – the latest incident in a country spiraling out of economic control.
President Nicolas Maduro ordered the army to monitor food processing plans, and coordinate the distribution of items.
In May, Maduro declared a state of emergency to combat what he described as an economic war waged on Venezuela by foreign countries and domestic right-wing forces. The country and its population of 30 million people face food shortages, frequent power outages, political unrest, the highest inflation rate in the world, and one of the world’s highest murder rates.
Horrendous economic mismanagement and an overdependence on oil income are the two main causes of the crisis. Oil accounts for around 95% of Venezuela’s export revenues, and the country has been hit hard by falling oil prices. The country grows very little, and relies on imports for food. A lack of petrodollars, means imports are becoming unaffordable.
Many of Venezuela’s issues can be traced back to ‘chavismo’, the country’s own brand of left-wing populism designed by former President Hugo Chavez and continued by Maduro. Chavez sought to end partnerships between the country’s business elites and the United States, and attempted to break alliances by regulating every minor aspect of the country’s economy, and centralizing decision making into his own hands.
In 2005, a wave of expropriations left most large companies in state hands, and the government’s other laws rendered the non-oil economy almost useless. It is currently illegal to fire an employee for almost any reason, including physically threatening a manager, and it is also illegal for companies to set their own prices for products. This is done by the government, which has often set prices lower than production costs.
The economy was previously being propped up by oil money, but as oil prices have declined, Venezuela has descended into chaos.
Rio Construction Mapped
Rio de Janeiro by night. © By mark goble from Calgary, Canada. – Rio De Janeiro, CC BY 2.0
The Olympic Games will be held in Rio in August, and much has been written about the pains the city has undergone to ready itself.
An interactive article by the Washington Post shows how the city has been rebuilt over time to accommodate new buildings and stadiums, and details all the controversies of the construction process. The first map shows the evolution of the Barra Olympic Park, which includes most of the facilities for the Games. The $43 million Velodrome, where the cycling events will be held, is yet to be completed and changed building contractor in late May.
Another map shows how the area around the Maracana Stadium has changed. The stadium was rebuilt for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and residents in the Metro-Mangueira neighborhood nearby were evicted to make way for parking lots and other facilities. Some families refused to leave and continue to live near the stadium.
This Week’s Top Headlines
Nintendo shares soar over 50% since Pokemon Go release – Zlata Rodionova, The Independent
Line spikes 30% in market debut after opening at $42 in largest tech IPO – Kate Rooney, CNBC
UK interest rates held at 0.5% – BBC
EU Files Additional Formal Charges Against Google – Natalia Drozdiak, Sam Schechner, The Wall Street Journal
JPMorgan Chase Has Strong Quarter as Earnings Top Estimates – Nathaniel Popper, The New York Times
U.S. Stocks Rise to Fresh Highs Amid Earnings, Stimulus Optimism – Roxana Zega, Joseph Ciolli, Bloomberg News
Starbucks buys into Italian bakery firm, with eye on expansion – Janet I. Tu, Seattle Times
Qatar Airways to buy 49 percent of Italy’s Meridiana – Tom Finn, Reuters
Chinese Man Sentenced to Prison for Trying to Hack Boeing – Justin Worland, Time
Up to 70% of people in developed countries ‘have seen incomes stagnate’ – Larry Elliott, The Guardian
