My mom saved an article for me that she found in the Deseret News. She knew I'd like it. I do.....but I also hate it. It reminds me again that I am a little tiny black ant in a HUGE sea of bigger ants with only a teeny tiny voice. (do they even have voices?) But also, ants are strong. They can lift 20 times their body weight. They can do impressive things.
Time to get educated people. There is a little bit of corruption going on in our government...in case you didn't know. And guess what it has to do with???? CHEESE. Cheese, billions of dollars, the USDA, a little corporation known as Dairy Management that the government created in 1995, a little conflict of interest going on....and a WHOLE LOT OF CORRUPTION.
The article in the deseret news did not publish the whole story....but oh...I found it all. Read it here. Please read it, or at least read the highlights I've listed at the bottom of this post. We need to be aware of what is going on. If we all could lift 20 times our weight, stuff like this would not be tolerated. Corporations like Dairy Management would not be tolerated. NEVER. We live in America people. Remember our constitution...We the people.....secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. I can guarantee you that when our forefathers gathered together more than 200 years ago-they in no way would have ever dreamed that there would be such a department called the USDA who has a healthy diet department that warns The People about our obesity rates (with a budget of $6.5 million) and yet has another department just across the hall who pays their chief executive $633,475 (in 2008 according to federal tax filings) to help market and sell more cheese. (with a budget of $136 million.) Did you hear me? Don't you think we have this a little backwards??? Those numbers should be swapped if you ask me. NO..really they should be eliminated. What is this world coming to? This is where I google: How to calm myself down. (I actually had to google that for real one time. This was my favorite advice: Repeat in your head....Life is crazy, but I am calm!! I LOVE it! That was when we lost our job and had a baby on the way...you would've googled that too!)
I can't do it alone, I'm just a little tiny ant with a little tiny voice. I need a colony!
Thomas Jefferson once said when writing the Decleration of Independence:
"Believe me, dear Sir: there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America."
Article Highlights:
****Dairy Management, which has made cheese its cause (and funded a $12 million marketing campaign to sell Dominos 40% more cheese pizzas), is not a private business consultant. It is a marketing creation of the United States Department of Agriculture — the same agency at the center of a federal anti-obesity drive that discourages over-consumption of some of the very foods Dairy Management is vigorously promoting.
****When Michelle Obama implored restauranteurs in September to help fight obesity, she cited the proliferation of cheeseburgers and macaroni and cheese. “I want to challenge every restaurant to offer healthy menu options,” she told the National Restaurant Association’s annual meeting.
But in a series of confidential agreements approved by agriculture secretaries in both the Bush and Obama administrations, Dairy Management has worked with restaurants to expand their menus with cheese-laden products.
****Dairy Management, whose annual budget approaches $140 million, is largely financed by a government-mandated fee on the dairy industry. But it also receives several million dollars a year from the Agriculture Department, which appoints some of its board members, approves its marketing campaigns and major contracts and periodically reports to Congress on its work.
The organization’s activities, revealed through interviews and records, provide a stark example of inherent conflicts in the Agriculture Department’s historical roles as both marketer of agriculture products and America’s nutrition police.
****In 1995, the government created Dairy Management Inc., a nonprofit corporation that has defined its mission as increasing dairy consumption by “offering the products consumers want, where and when they want them.”
Dairy Management, through the “Got Milk?” campaign, has been successful at slowing the decline in milk consumption, particularly focusing on schoolchildren. It has also relentlessly marketed cheese and pushed back against the Agriculture Department’s suggestion that people eat only low-fat or fat-free varieties.
****The department (USDA) issued nutritional hints in a brochure titled “Steps To A Healthier You!” It instructs pizza lovers: “Ask for whole wheat crust and half the cheese” — even as Dairy Management has worked with pizza chains like Domino’s to increase cheese.
****Dairy Management runs the largest of 18 Agriculture Department programs that market beef, pork, potatoes and other commodities. Their budgets are largely paid by levies imposed on farmers, but Dairy Management, which reported expenditures of $136 million last year, also received $5.3 million that year from the Agriculture Department to promote dairy sales overseas.
By comparison, the department’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, which promotes healthy diets, has a total budget of $6.5 million. (Where's all the commercials for eating broccoli and apples??--oh wait there's no money for that...we're supposed to have that common sense..or just eat more cheese!!!!)
**** Although by law the secretary of agriculture approves Dairy Management’s contracts and advertising campaigns, the organization has become a full-blown company with 162 employees skilled in product development and marketing. It also includes the National Dairy Council, a 95-year-old group that acts as its research and communications arm.
****Dairy Management’s longtime chief executive, Thomas P. Gallagher, received $633,475 in compensation in 2008, with first-class travel privileges, according to federal tax filings. (Mr. Gallagher declined to be interviewed for this article)
****In 2005 when milk consumption was on the decline, Dairy Management developed a new marketing strategy: "Great news for dieters,” Dairy Management said in an advertisement in People magazine in 2005. “Clinical studies show that people on a reduced-calorie diet who consume three servings of milk, cheese or yogurt each day can lose significantly more weight and more body fat than those who just cut calories.”
By the way....that STILL has not been proven.....BUT....
****Meanwhile, Dairy Management, which allotted $12.4 million for nutrition research in 2008, has moved on to finance studies on promising opportunities, including the promotion of chocolate milk as a sports recovery drink and the use of cheese to entice children into eating healthy foods like string beans.
I'm not against cheese, or milk for that matter. But be aware of all the behind the scenes work to market it into our brains. Marketing is powerful.
Eat Clean and Keep it Real. Everything in moderation. Including this post....a little too much. Go calm yourself down. Repeat after me....Life is crazy, but I am calm. Life is crazy, but I am NOT!
Time to get educated people. There is a little bit of corruption going on in our government...in case you didn't know. And guess what it has to do with???? CHEESE. Cheese, billions of dollars, the USDA, a little corporation known as Dairy Management that the government created in 1995, a little conflict of interest going on....and a WHOLE LOT OF CORRUPTION.
The article in the deseret news did not publish the whole story....but oh...I found it all. Read it here. Please read it, or at least read the highlights I've listed at the bottom of this post. We need to be aware of what is going on. If we all could lift 20 times our weight, stuff like this would not be tolerated. Corporations like Dairy Management would not be tolerated. NEVER. We live in America people. Remember our constitution...We the people.....secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. I can guarantee you that when our forefathers gathered together more than 200 years ago-they in no way would have ever dreamed that there would be such a department called the USDA who has a healthy diet department that warns The People about our obesity rates (with a budget of $6.5 million) and yet has another department just across the hall who pays their chief executive $633,475 (in 2008 according to federal tax filings) to help market and sell more cheese. (with a budget of $136 million.) Did you hear me? Don't you think we have this a little backwards??? Those numbers should be swapped if you ask me. NO..really they should be eliminated. What is this world coming to? This is where I google: How to calm myself down. (I actually had to google that for real one time. This was my favorite advice: Repeat in your head....Life is crazy, but I am calm!! I LOVE it! That was when we lost our job and had a baby on the way...you would've googled that too!)
I can't do it alone, I'm just a little tiny ant with a little tiny voice. I need a colony!
Thomas Jefferson once said when writing the Decleration of Independence:
"Believe me, dear Sir: there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America."
I, like Thomas Jefferson, would like to express how much I love my country. God Bless America. But, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I let these terms that the government is proposing go on anymore. America is better than this. We owe it to our posterity to start carrying a little more than our own body weight....start educating yourself and everyone around you. Please.
I will post some things I find interesting just in case you don't have time to read the whole article. But please do, and picture yourself as Julia Roberts (or Denzel Washington if you happen to be a man) and pretend you are on the Pelican Brief, and you are a law student, and you are finding out all this secret information and you will bust everyones butts and there is really pretty music on. It will make you feel better, because I promise this stuff will make you ticked.
Article Highlights:
****Dairy Management, which has made cheese its cause (and funded a $12 million marketing campaign to sell Dominos 40% more cheese pizzas), is not a private business consultant. It is a marketing creation of the United States Department of Agriculture — the same agency at the center of a federal anti-obesity drive that discourages over-consumption of some of the very foods Dairy Management is vigorously promoting.
****When Michelle Obama implored restauranteurs in September to help fight obesity, she cited the proliferation of cheeseburgers and macaroni and cheese. “I want to challenge every restaurant to offer healthy menu options,” she told the National Restaurant Association’s annual meeting.
But in a series of confidential agreements approved by agriculture secretaries in both the Bush and Obama administrations, Dairy Management has worked with restaurants to expand their menus with cheese-laden products.
****Dairy Management, whose annual budget approaches $140 million, is largely financed by a government-mandated fee on the dairy industry. But it also receives several million dollars a year from the Agriculture Department, which appoints some of its board members, approves its marketing campaigns and major contracts and periodically reports to Congress on its work.
The organization’s activities, revealed through interviews and records, provide a stark example of inherent conflicts in the Agriculture Department’s historical roles as both marketer of agriculture products and America’s nutrition police.
****In 1995, the government created Dairy Management Inc., a nonprofit corporation that has defined its mission as increasing dairy consumption by “offering the products consumers want, where and when they want them.”
Dairy Management, through the “Got Milk?” campaign, has been successful at slowing the decline in milk consumption, particularly focusing on schoolchildren. It has also relentlessly marketed cheese and pushed back against the Agriculture Department’s suggestion that people eat only low-fat or fat-free varieties.
****The department (USDA) issued nutritional hints in a brochure titled “Steps To A Healthier You!” It instructs pizza lovers: “Ask for whole wheat crust and half the cheese” — even as Dairy Management has worked with pizza chains like Domino’s to increase cheese.
****Dairy Management runs the largest of 18 Agriculture Department programs that market beef, pork, potatoes and other commodities. Their budgets are largely paid by levies imposed on farmers, but Dairy Management, which reported expenditures of $136 million last year, also received $5.3 million that year from the Agriculture Department to promote dairy sales overseas.
By comparison, the department’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, which promotes healthy diets, has a total budget of $6.5 million. (Where's all the commercials for eating broccoli and apples??--oh wait there's no money for that...we're supposed to have that common sense..or just eat more cheese!!!!)
**** Although by law the secretary of agriculture approves Dairy Management’s contracts and advertising campaigns, the organization has become a full-blown company with 162 employees skilled in product development and marketing. It also includes the National Dairy Council, a 95-year-old group that acts as its research and communications arm.
****Dairy Management’s longtime chief executive, Thomas P. Gallagher, received $633,475 in compensation in 2008, with first-class travel privileges, according to federal tax filings. (Mr. Gallagher declined to be interviewed for this article)
****In 2005 when milk consumption was on the decline, Dairy Management developed a new marketing strategy: "Great news for dieters,” Dairy Management said in an advertisement in People magazine in 2005. “Clinical studies show that people on a reduced-calorie diet who consume three servings of milk, cheese or yogurt each day can lose significantly more weight and more body fat than those who just cut calories.”
By the way....that STILL has not been proven.....BUT....
****Meanwhile, Dairy Management, which allotted $12.4 million for nutrition research in 2008, has moved on to finance studies on promising opportunities, including the promotion of chocolate milk as a sports recovery drink and the use of cheese to entice children into eating healthy foods like string beans.
I'm not against cheese, or milk for that matter. But be aware of all the behind the scenes work to market it into our brains. Marketing is powerful.
Eat Clean and Keep it Real. Everything in moderation. Including this post....a little too much. Go calm yourself down. Repeat after me....Life is crazy, but I am calm. Life is crazy, but I am NOT!
