World Ark Magazine - March/April 2008 - (Page 5) Fresh Fruits & Veggies ON A BUDGET Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture revised its Women, Infants and Children program (W.I.C.) to include fruits and vegetables. This year, the American Journal of Public Health reports on what is being dubbed “the farmers market effect”—giving low-income women vouchers for farmers markets increases the amount of fruits and vegetables their families eat. Even better—women in the study told researchers that the foods at the markets seemed better and fresher, and that they enjoyed interacting with the growers. Perhaps studies like this will convince the USDA to increase its W.I.C. subsidies, which currently only give families $8 per adult, per month, for fruits and vegetables. Source: The New York Times THE RICH GET RICHER After-tax incomes in the top 1 percent of U.S. households increased by an average of $180,000 in 2005, the Congressional Budget Office reports. Meanwhile, middleincome households saw increases of $400, and lower-income households, only $200. This is the greatest disparity since the CBO began collecting data in 1979. Together with other data, it appears that at no time in history since 1929 has income been so concentrated at the top. The CBO also notes that since 1979, income gains among high-income households (increases of 228 percent) have massively outstripped those among middle (21 percent) and lower-income households (6 percent). Source: www.worldhunger.org The Duck This short, stocky bird, related to the goose and the swan, is the animal world equivalent of the all-terrain vehicle. Equally comfortable in water and on land, and in many climates, the duck can “duck” underwater for food without leaving the surface. It subsists on a smorgasbord of food sources: grasses, aquatic plants, insects, frogs, mollusks and small fish. Its flat, spatulashaped beak is well-suited for pushing up plants from the rich bottoms of creeks and ponds, and some species have a series of plates in their beaks that they use to filter food from the water. The Other Oil Crisis The cost of vegetable oils worldwide is soaring, creating a shortage that is particularly hard on the very poor, for whom oil is a critical source of calories. The rising prices appear to be due to a number of factors, including increased subsidies for biofuels, increased prices of petroleum, and a greater worldwide demand for meat that is raised on land that would otherwise grow plants for oil production. In addition to oils, the price of foods in general has spiked in the last year around the globe. In many countries, vegetable oil has become a precious commodity, hoarded or bought and sold illegally. Sources: The Economist, The New York Times www.heifer.org March/April 2008 | WORLD ARK 5 http://www.worldhunger.org http://www.heifer.org
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