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Result | Food

Researching How Tax Dollars Become Twinkies

U.S. PIRG research found that since 1995, $17 billion in agricultural subsidies have gone to corn syrup and other junk food ingredients. That’s enough to buy 2.8 billion Twinkies, and vastly more than has gone to apples and other fresh fruits and vegetables.

Result | Food

KIDS’ SCHOOL LUNCHES NOW SAFER

For years, America’s schoolchildren have been eating beef, chicken and other foods that would have been rejected as substandard even by fast food chains. Thanks in part to our advocacy, the USDA has stopped buying such low-quality meat for school lunches.

Issue | Food

Stop Subsidizing Obesity

Our tax dollars should only go to things that serve the public good, yet we’re handing out taxpayer subsidies to big agribusinesses to help subsidize junk food.

News Release | Budget, Food

Ag Subsidies Pay for 19 Twinkies per Taxpayer, But Only a Quarter of an Apple Apiece

Philadelphia, PA – Federal subsidies for commodity crops are also subsidizing junk food additives like high fructose corn syrup, enough to pay for 19 Twinkies per taxpayer every year, according to Apples to Twinkies, a new report by PennPIRG. Meanwhile, limited subsidies for fresh fruits and vegetables would buy less than a quarter of an apple per taxpayer.

Report | PennPIRG Education Fund | Food

Apples to Twinkies

The rise in childhood obesity has many causes, but one of the most important is the increased prevalence of high-fat, heavily sweetened junk food.  And shockingly, American taxpayers are spending billions to subsidize junk food ingredients, making the problem worse.

Media Hit | Food

Consumer Activists Say US Government Is Promoting Obesity

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -  A local activist group says if the government wants to battle childhood obesity, cutting subsidies to corn farmers would be a good start.

Media Hit | Food

3 consumer groups push Pa. on food safety

Hoping to spur legislators to pass food safety reforms, three prominent consumer groups Wednesday released a report identifying 85 recalls triggered by contaminated foods nationwide over the last 13 months -- the majority linked to the potentially deadly bacteria salmonella, the pathogen responsible for the country's largest ever egg recall last month.

Media Hit | Food

PennPIRG urges Senate to pass bill to strengthen FDA

A coalition of consumer groups says that a steady stream of food recalls - including last month's pullback of more than half a billion eggs by two Iowa producers - shows how urgent it is for Congress to require regular inspections of production facilities and to give the Food and Drug Administration authority to order food recalls.

Media Hit | Food

Local Group Calls for Stronger Food Safety Laws

Alana Miller (right), with PennPIRG — the Public Interest Research Group of Pennsylvania — says Congress must pass the FDA Food Modernization Act.

Report | PennPIRG | Food

Recipe for Disaster

The recall of more than 500 million eggs from two Iowa egg farms is the largest but not the last of 85 recalls that have taken place in the year since food safety reform moved to the U.S. Senate. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Food Safety Enhancement Act (H.R. 2749) on July 30, 2009.  However, the Senate’s version of the bill – the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) – has languished while waiting for time on the Senate’s floor schedule.

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