On the Lack of French Snacks and French Slim

Via Tyler Cowen, a post arguing that the French, particularly French kids, don't snack.  I wonder, no vending machines? (Tried to do some research--this article says Japan has 10 times the number of vending machines as France, but it's twice the population.  In 2008 France banned all vending machines from schools).

And this, from Chris Blattman is a video showing how the French stay slim. Of course it involves sex, what else?

Ben Franklin and Tofu

Don't really know how I feel about this: Ben Franklin is one of my heroes, and a great bureaucrat.  Vegetarians and foodies I've reservations about.  But Boston 1775 reveals Ben Franklin discovered tofu for America!

A Good Paragraph

"The question for the rest of this election is how to judge what matters and what doesn't. I'd argue that we -- that is to say, you and I -- can't: If you're reading Wonkbook right now, you're really, really weird. You start your day with a policy e-mail. That's not how most Americans do it. And if you're weird, think about how weird I am: I start my day by writing a policy e-mail. There is no reason on earth for you to believe that I have some special insight into the mind of the average swing voter. Quite the opposite, actually."

From Ezra Klein at Wonkbook.

The Myth of Texas Football

Texas football is supposedly all-encompassing  I recently noted that a high school in Texas had a bigger weight room than the Redskins (was that RGIII'?). 

But maybe that's a myth--note the second graphic in this post, which shows the home states of NFL players in proportion to their population.  Texas is not first, nor is Florida.  Instead  Louisiana and Mississippi top the list with a number of other states (like Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania)in the next category.  Texas is in the third category (no higher than 11th), along with such states as Connecticutt.

How Congresspeople Keep Groups Happy

The Sustainable Agriculture Coalition posts about the bill coming out of Senate Ag.  They include this:

The latter [the matching grant initiative, part of SARE] was authorized by Congress, along with the rest of SARE, back in 1990, but to date it has never received an appropriation.

Pardon my cynicism, but what that tells me is for 22 years someone in Congress is doing a song and dance keeping the (few) people behind SARE and the grant idea happy, or if not happy at least supportive in terms of dollars and votes, by reauthorizing the provision each farm bill but never appropriating the money.  To quote someone in the movies: "show me the money".

McDonalds Is Special, in France

Dirk Beauregarde discusses the role of McDonalds in France:

Twenty or so years ago, McDonald’s were at best tolerated and at worst unwelcome in many French towns. They were the symbols of lousy nutrition and American colonisation. Nowadays, McDonalds are part and parcel of the French cullinary landscape . In my corner of small town France we have four McDonald’s outlets, two of which offer a 24/24 7 day a week drive in service. However,, in consumption terms, McDonalds is still at « treat status ». Most families will have a McDonald’s once or even twice a month. We are not at daily consumption. Most popular mealtime of the week a tour local McDonald’s – Sunday lunchtime- all the local outlets are packed. 

[Emphasis added]

Distinguished Lawyer/Bureaucrat: Ralph Linden

According to this Government Executive post, Ralph Linden is one of the USDA winners and one of 54 Presidential  Distinguished Rank Award winners. (If I remember, the "Rank" honors a former bureaucrat Ralph's in OGC--used to be the main attorney for FSA matters. The detail in the story doesn't include a description of his special accomplishments, though I'd suspect it's for his cumulative career. 

A good man.

OIG's Thoughts

Via Chris Clayton at DTN, USDA's OIG has a report out reviewing the results of their and GAO's audits as in the light of lessons for the new farm bill:

• they ding RMA and NRCS for deficient controls over operations and they're going to look at FSA controls on the biomass program.
• SNAP--going to compare SNAP database with SSA's Death file.
• staffing and workforce planning issues for FSA, FS, and FSIS.
• concerns for FSA on peanut prices (NASS inaccurate), controls on farm-stored collateral, and problems with MILC "dairy operation" definitions.
• concerns for NRCS on controls of conservation easements and management controls for CSP
• concerns for FNS on SNAP: checking background of participating retailers, security of the EBT system and control of SNAP retailer fraud
• FSA controls over emergency loans, over loan collateral, over interest rates on guaranteed loans

It's All in the Spin: Farm Bill

."Farmers will no longer be paid for crops they are not growing, will not be paid for acres that are not actually planted, and will not receive support absent a drop in price or yields."

From the press release from Chairwoman Stabenow.  That's all very well and good, but years ago the spin was something to the effect of:  "Farms will no longer be locked into growing a specific crop to earn benefits and will have flexibility to plant any crop they wish."  I'm still wondering about the WTO classification on the draft.

[Updated to add "Years ago", as when Pat Roberts, the ranking Republican on the Senate committee, was pushing Freedom to Farm as chair of House Ag.]

Meta Study of Organic Farms

The LA times reports on a study in Nature which looked at studies of organic agriculture, finding an average 20 percent difference in productivity.  The impact varies by crop, with annuals more affected than perennials and fruits.  

One commenter spins:

In fact, in cases in which growers used techniques that are considered to be the best practices for organic farming, the gap between organic and conventional yields narrowed to 13%.
"If you do things as well as you can, then the yield difference is very small," Cavigelli said.

There's no indication of whether the non-organic farms were using their "best practices", but my cynical self suspects they weren't.  There's also no indication of whether the comparison was crop to crop, or acre to acre (the latter meaning the total productivity of an acre over several years).