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Sunday, May 16, 2010

AP IMPACT: Fed'l inspections on rig not as claimed

AP – FILE - In this April 22, 2010 file photo obtained by The Associated Press shows the Deepwater Horizon …
LOS ANGELES – The federal agency responsible for ensuring that an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was operating safely before it exploded last month fell well short of its own policy that inspections be done at least once per month, an Associated Press investigation shows.
Since January 2005, the federal Minerals Management Service conducted at least 16 fewer inspections aboard the Deepwater Horizon than it should have under the policy, a dramatic fall from the frequency of prior years, according to the agency's records.
Under a revised statement given to the AP on Sunday, MMS officials said the last infraction aboard the rig, which blew up April 20, killing 11 and spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, occurred in August 2003, not March 2007 as originally stated.
The inspection gaps and poor recordkeeping are the latest in a series of questions raised about the agency's oversight of the offshore oil drilling industry. Members of Congress and President Barack Obama have criticized what they call the cozy relationship between regulators and oil companies and have vowed to reform MMS, which both regulates the industry and collects billions in royalties from it.
Earlier AP investigations have shown that the doomed rig was allowed to operate without safety documentation required by MMS regulations for the exact disaster scenario that occurred; that the cutoff valve which failed has repeatedly broken down at other wells in the years since regulators weakened testing requirements; and that regulation is so lax that some key safety aspects on rigs are decided almost entirely by the companies doing the work.
The AP sought to find out how many times government safety inspectors visited the Deepwater Horizon, and what they found. In response, MMS officials offered a changing series of numbers.
At first, officials said 83 inspections had been performed since the rig arrived in the Gulf 104 months ago, in September 2001. While being questioned about the once-per-month claim, the officials subsequently revised the total up to 88 inspections. The number of more recent inspections also changed — from 26 to 48 in the 64 months since January 2005.
No explanation was given initially for the upward revisions. On Sunday, the officials said additional inspections were discovered after MMS gathered more information from a deeper examination of its databases.
AP granted MMS officials anonymity because without that condition, communications staff at the Interior Department, which oversees MMS, would not have let them talk.
Reacting to the latest disclosures, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall, D-W.Va., said while he applauded Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's remedial actions, it seems "MMS has been asleep at the switch in terms of policing offshore rigs." He said the committee, slated to hold hearings May 26-27, will examine these issues "in the context of what our offshore leasing program will look like in the future."
Added Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., "While our priority now is to do everything possible to stop this spill and mitigate further damage, the administration's actions will be a major component of what we investigate."
Based on the last set of numbers provided, the Deepwater Horizon was inspected 40 times during its first 40 months in the Gulf — in line with agency policy.
Even using the more favorable numbers for the most recent 64 months, 25 percent of monthly inspections were not performed. The first set of data supplied to AP represented a 59 percent shortfall in the number of inspections.
Interior spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff would not comment on the inspection numbers. Instead, she offered a general statement: "We are looking at all the questions that are coming out of the Deepwater Horizon incident."
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by AP, the agency has released copies of only three inspection reports, from Feb. 17, March 3 and April 1. According to the documents, inspectors spent two hours or less each time they visited the massive rig. Some information appeared to be "whited out," without explanation.
In an e-mail to AP, an Interior Department official emphasized with italics that the MMS inspects rigs "at least once a month" when drilling is under way. Monthly inspections are an agency policy, though not required by regulation, said David Dykes, chief of the agency's office of safety management for the Gulf region.
Last week, at a joint Coast Guard-MMS investigatory hearing in Kenner, La., Michael Saucier, MMS's regional supervisor for field operations in the Gulf, said about inspections aboard the oil rigs: "We perform them at a minimum once a month, but we can do more if need be."
The job falls to the 55 inspectors in the Gulf who are supposed to visit the 90 drilling rigs once per month and the approximately 3,500 oil production platforms once per year.
The Deepwater Horizon's inspection frequency numbers struck Kenneth Arnold, a veteran offshore drilling consultant and engineer.
"I'd certainly question it," he said. "I'd ask, 'Why aren't you doing it?'"
When the AP did ask, MMS and Interior would not answer directly. Instead providing a set of conditions when a rig would not typically be inspected — including during bad weather or when it is jumping among short-term jobs.
Transocean Ltd., which owned the Deepwater Horizon and leased it to BP PLC, would not provide a detailed accounting of the rig's activity history. According to RigData, a Texas firm that monitors offshore activity in the Gulf, the Deepwater Horizon was working approximately 2,896 days of the 3,131 days since it started its first well — about 93 percent of the time. That number represents the total number of days between when it broke the seafloor during a drilling operation to when it was released to another site.
A summary of the inspection history said the Deepwater Horizon received six "incidents of noncompliance" — the agency's term for citations.
The most serious occurred July 16, 2002, when the rig was shut down because required pressure tests had not been conducted on parts of the blowout preventer — the device that was supposed to stop oil from gushing out if drilling operations went wrong.
That citation was "major," said Arnold, who characterized the overall safety record related by MMS as strong.
A citation on Sept. 19, 2002, also involved the blowout preventer. The inspector issued a warning because "problems or irregularities observed during the testing of BOP system and actions taken to remedy such problems or irregularities are not recorded in the driller's report or referenced documents."
During his Senate testimony last week, Transocean CEO Steven Newman said the blowout preventer was modified in 2005.
According to MMS officials, the four other citations were:
• Two on May 16, 2002, for not conducting well control drills as required and not performing "all operations in a safe and workmanlike manner."
• One on Aug. 6, 2003, for discharging pollutants into the Gulf.
• One on March 20, 2007, which prompted inspectors to shut down some machinery because of improper electrical grounding.
Late last week, several days after providing the detailed accounting, Interior officials told AP that in fact there had been only five citations, that one had been rescinded. The officials said they could not immediately say which of the six had been rescinded.
On Sunday, MMS officials said the 2007 citation was rescinded following an informal appeal, which they said can be granted by an inspector's boss. In this case, further review showed the equipment in question complied with regulations, the officials said.
The agency's problems with providing information extends to the data on display on its website. For example, the accounting of accident and incident reports is incomplete, making it very difficult to perform a thorough data analysis of the agency's performance and preventing a full accurate tracking of safety records of the rigs.
Data problems go back at least a decade. According to John Shultz, who as a graduate student in the late 1990s studied MMS' inspection program in depth for his dissertation, the agency's data infrastructure was severely limited.
"If you have the data you need, the analysis becomes fairly straightforward. Without the data, you're simply stuck with conjectures," said Shultz, who now works in the Department of Energy's nuclear program.
The strong inspection record led MMS last year to herald the Deepwater Horizon as an industry model for safety.
The Deepwater Horizon's record was so exemplary, according to MMS officials, that the rig was never on inspectors' informal "watch list" for problem rigs.
___
Associated Press Writers Michael Kunzelman in New Orleans and Garance Burke in Fresno, Calif., contributed to this report.

Iraq recount affirms win for Sunni-backed bloc

AFP/File – Iraqi electoral staff recount ballots from last month's general election at Baghdad's Rashid …
BAGHDAD – Iraq's electoral commission affirmed on Sunday the narrow victory of a Sunni-backed bloc in the March vote after a partial recount undercut the Shiite prime minister's claims of fraud in the tally.
The result was a setback for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who came in second to former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi by a small margin. But his alliance with another Shiite bloc still gives him a strong chance of holding on to power for another four years.
"I hope that all political blocs are satisfied now that the electoral process was honest and all allegations of fraud and forgery were totally incorrect," electoral commission spokesman Qassim al-Abboudi told reporters after the results of a recount of votes for the capital Baghdad were announced.
"According to the law, political blocks and candidates can appeal these results but we hope that no one will do that," al-Abboudi said.
The recount as well as other challenges to the March 7 election result have prevented the seating of the new 325-member parliament and raised fears that the extended period of political bickering will give rise to a new wave of violence as insurgents try to exploit the political vacuum as U.S. troops prepare to go home.
Hadi Jalo, a political analyst in Baghdad, said al-Maliki's goal in demanding the recount was not to change the total, but to stall so he could work out an agreement with his Shiite allies to stay in power and sideline Allawi.
"Al-Maliki wanted more time to strengthen his coalition with the Iraqi National Alliance and also to distract Allawi and limit his movements toward other blocs," Jalo said.
Al-Maliki's State of Law alliance lost the election, taking home 89 seats to 91 for the bloc headed by Allawi, a secular Shiite supported by the country's minority Sunni community. But neither coalition won the 163 seats required to govern outright.
Baghdad province accounts for so many parliament seats that a significant change in the vote tally could have tilted the overall results in al-Maliki's favor.
Though the results were a setback for al-Maliki, they did not hand Allawi the mandate to form the next government. Instead, al-Maliki now appears to be in an even better position than he was roughly two weeks ago when the recount began.
His coalition hammered out an agreement with another Shiite bloc, the Iranian-backed Iraqi National Alliance. Together, the two are only four seats short of needed majority.
If the already-bickering coalition holds together, it is almost certain to form the next government, possibly cutting out Allawi's list altogether and fueling Shiite anger that could lead to more sectarian violence.
The prime minister's coalition appeared Sunday to be weighing its next move. A State of Law spokesman, Khalid al-Assadi, said the bloc was considering whether to appeal.
But government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh of al-Maliki's State of Law, said on Al-Arabiyah TV that they would accept the results "for the sake of starting the formation of the government."
Allawi's coalition welcomed the recount.
"We are happy with the results that are compatible to the previous ones," said Maysoun al-Damlouji, a spokeswoman for the Allawi's bloc.
The election results must still be ratified by the Supreme Court and other challenges that have delayed the formation of a new government also need to be resolved.
The fact that more than two months have passed without even an agreed upon result of the election, let alone a new government, has raised fears political tensions will spill over into violence.
In the roughly six months it took to seat a government following the December 2005 election, sectarian violence exploded.
___
Associated Press writers Barbara Surk and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2


Merkel: $1 trillion rescue package only buys time

BERLIN – The euro750 billion ($1 trillion) shock-and-awe rescue package to prevent the Greek debt crisis from spreading only bought eurozone countries more time, it didn't solve their underlying debt problems, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a European Central Bank official said Sunday.
Market turmoil over rising levels of European government debt — sparked by Greece's immediate crisis — will only calm down if the 16 nations who share the euro currency reform their economies and reduce their deficits, the German leader and ECB chief economist Juergen Stark said in different forums.
"We bought time, not more than that," Stark was quoted as saying in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung paper, adding the euro was not in danger "but in a critical situation."
Merkel on Sunday defended the loan package as the right step to stabilize the currency, but also acknowledged it was a stopgap measure.
"We didn't do more than buy time to get the differences in competitiveness and budget deficits of eurozone countries in order," she told a conference of the Confederation of German Trade Unions in Berlin.
The euro has come under intense market pressure because of fears about Greek debt problems spreading to other heavily indebted eurozone countries. It sank to near a four-year low against the dollar Friday in New York, buying $1.2355.
The speculation against the euro was only possible because of the differing economic strength and debt levels of the eurozone countries, Merkel said. "If you just ignore this problem, you won't get things to calm down."
Merkel also told union members that budget cuts in Germany are inevitable, calling the country's own current debt level unsustainable.
In the past few days, Merkel has repeatedly urged all eurozone countries to trim their budget deficits. She also called for greater cooperation in financial and economic policy across Europe to ensure the currency's long-term stability.
Defending the latest bailout package — which is highly unpopular among German voters — Merkel told daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung paper that it's not only euro's stability that is at stake, but European unity as a whole.
"We know if the euro fails, then more is failing," the paper quoted her as saying.
The European Union and the International Monetary Fund have also approved a euro110 billion ($136 billion) bailout package for Greece but another top German economist expressed doubts Sunday about Greece's ability to repay its huge debts in an orderly fashion.
Dekabank's chief economist Ulrich Kater told German news Web site Handelsblatt that he shares the doubts voiced by Deutsche Bank AG's chief executive Josef Ackermann.
"It will be very, very difficult for Greece to orderly repay its debt," he was quoted as saying.
He said Greece's new austerity measures and its lack of competitiveness were dooming its prospects for economic growth, making debt reduction difficult. Greek debt is scheduled to exceed 140 percent of its economic output in 2012.
Ackermann, CEO of Germany's biggest lender, caused outrage in Greece and nervousness in markets last week by mentioning the possibility of a Greek debt restructuring.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, meanwhile, rejected those views.
"We are paying back the loans we are getting ... this saying that 'we are handing out money to Greece' is not true," he said in a CNN interview that aired Sunday. "We have made our mistakes. We are living up to this responsibility."
Papandreou also said Greece was considering legal action against U.S. investment banks for their role in creating the spiraling debt crisis.
"I wouldn't rule out" going after the U.S. banks, he told the CNN show "Fareed Zakaria GPS."
The Greek leader also said a parliamentary investigation will examine the rapid swelling of Greece's debt and international banking practices to examine whether the financial sector engaged in "fraud and lack of transparency."
Merkel, however, noted the failure of previous Greek governments.
"What happened in Greece, the falsification of statistics over several years, is completely unacceptable," she said.
In an interview with German news weekly Der Spiegel to be published Monday, the European Central Bank president said Europe's economy "is in its most difficult situation since World War II or perhaps even since World War I."
Jean-Claude Trichet said the euro zone's debt crisis had provoked a market reaction similar to that at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008.
"The markets didn't function anymore, it was almost like in the wake of the Lehman (Brothers) bankruptcy in September 2008," Trichet was quoted as saying.
Trichet also urged European leaders to take further action to address the crisis' underlying problems, calling for a "quantum leap" in control of financial and economic policy across the 16-nation currency zone.
"We need improved structures, to avoid and sanction wrongdoing," Trichet was quoted as saying.
___
Associated Press Writer Demetris Nellas in Athens contributed to this report.

BP: Mile-long tube sucking oil away from Gulf well

BP hopes latest effort captures gushing oil


BP hopes latest effort captures gushing oil Play Video AP  – BP hopes latest effort captures gushing oil
FILE - This image from a video released by BP PLC shows oil and 
gas spewing from a yellowish, broken pipe 5,000 feet below the surface. 
 The video rel AP – FILE - This image from a video released by BP PLC shows oil and gas spewing from a yellowish, broken …
NEW ORLEANS – Oil company engineers on Sunday finally succeeded in keeping some of the oil gushing from a blown well out of the Gulf of Mexico, hooking up a mile-long tube to funnel the crude into a tanker ship after more than three weeks of failures.
Millions of gallons of crude are already in the water, however, and researchers said the black ooze may have entered a major current that could carry it through the Florida Keys and around to the East Coast.
BP PLC engineers remotely guiding robot submersibles had worked since Friday to place the tube into a 21-inch pipe nearly a mile below the sea. After several setbacks, the contraption was hooked up successfully and funneling oil to a tanker ship. The oil giant said it will take days to figure out how much oil its contraption is sucking up.
The blown well has been leaking for more than three weeks, threatening sea life, commercial fishing and the coastal tourist industry from Louisiana to Florida. BP failed in several previous attempts to stop the leak, trying in vain to activate emergency valves and lowering a 100-ton container that got clogged with icy crystals.
A researcher told The Associated Press on Sunday that computer models show the oil may have already seeped into a powerful water stream known as the loop current, which could propel it into the Atlantic Ocean. A boat is being sent next week to collect samples and learn more.
William Hogarth, dean of the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science, said one model shows oil has already entered the current, while a second shows the oil is 3 miles from it — still dangerously close. The models are based on weather, ocean current and spill data from the U.S. Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among other sources.
Hogarth said it's still too early to know what specific amounts of oil will make it to Florida, or what damage it might do to the sensitive Keys or beaches on Florida's Atlantic coast. He said claims by BP that the oil would be less damaging to the Keys after traveling over hundreds of miles from the spill site were not mollifying.
"This can't be passed off as 'it's not going to be a problem.'" Hogarth said. "This is a very sensitive area. We are concerned with what happens in the Florida Keys."
BP had previously said the tube, if successful, was expected to collect most of the oil gushing from the well. On Sunday, the company said it was too early to measure how much crude was being collected and acknowledged the tube was no panacea.
"It's a positive move, but let's keep in context," said Kent Wells, BP's senior vice president for exploration and production. "We're about shutting down the flow of oil from this well."
Crews will slowly ramp up how much oil the tube collects over the next few days. They need to move slowly because they don't want too much frigid seawater entering the pipe, which could combine with gases to form the same ice-like crystals that doomed the previous containment effort.
Two setbacks over the weekend illustrate how delicate the effort is. Early Sunday, hours before a steady connection was made, engineers were able to suck a small amount of oil to the tanker, but the tube was dislodged. The previous day, equipment used to insert the tube into the gushing pipe at the ocean floor had to be hauled to the surface for readjustment.
The first chance to choke off the flow for good should come in about a week. Engineers plan to shoot heavy mud into the crippled blowout preventer on top of the well, then permanently entomb the leak in concrete. If that doesn't work, crews also can shoot golf balls and knotted rope into the nooks and crannies of the device to plug it, Wells said.
The final choice to end the leak is a relief well, but it is more than two months from completion.
Top officials in President Barack Obama's administration cautioned that the tube "is not a solution" to the spill and said they are closely monitoring the situation.
"We will not rest until BP permanently seals the wellhead, the spill is cleaned up, and the communities and natural resources of the Gulf Coast are restored and made whole," Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said in a joint statement.
Meanwhile, scientists warned of the effects of the oil that has already leaked into the Gulf. Researchers said miles-long underwater plumes of oil discovered in recent days could poison and suffocate sea life across the food chain, with damage that could endure for a decade or more.
Researchers have found more underwater plumes of oil than they can count from the well, said Samantha Joye, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Georgia. She said careful measurements taken of one plume showed it stretching for 10 miles, with a 3-mile width.
The hazardous effects of the plume are twofold. Joye said the oil itself can prove toxic to fish swimming in the sea, while vast amounts of oxygen are also being sucked from the water by microbes that eat oil. Dispersants used to fight the oil are also food for the microbes, speeding up the oxygen depletion.
"So, first you have oily water that may be toxic to certain organisms and also the oxygen issue, so there are two problems here," said Joye, who's working with the scientists who discovered the plumes in a recent boat expedition. "This can interrupt the food chain at the lowest level, and will trickle up and certainly impact organisms higher. Whales, dolphins and tuna all depend on lower depths to survive."
Conservationists in Florida said oil could wreak havoc in the Keys or the environmentally fragile Everglades.
"Obviously this is a fear that we had about where the oil might go next," said John Adornato, regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association.
Oil has been spewing since the rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, killing 11 people and sinking two days later. The government shortly afterward estimated the spill at 210,000 gallons — or 5,000 barrels — a day, a figure that has since been questioned by some scientists who fear it could be far more. BP executives have stood by the estimate while acknowledging there's no way to know for sure.
News of the tube's success was met with tempered enthusiasm by the leader of a coastal parish in Lousiana that includes environmentally sensitive marshes and islands.
"It's definitely good news," Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said after a BP vice president called to brief him.
"It will be better news when they get it stopped," he said, noting the underwater oil plumes. "We have a large mess out there."
___
Collins reported from Hammond. Associated Press Writers Michael Kunzelman in New Orleans, Shelia Byrd in Jackson, Miss., and Christine Armario in Miami contributed to this report.

just the facts - Obama's Task Force obesity plan

14 May 2010 | Source: just-food.com
Earlier this week, US First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled a Task Force action plan calling on food manufacturers to curb the marketing of unhealthy foods to children. Here we take a closer look at the report and its recommendations.
  • According to the report, around one in five children are overweight or obese by the time they reach their 6th birthday, and over half of obese children become overweight at or before age two. Between 1980 and 2001, the prevalence of overweight infants under six months almost doubled, from 3.4% to 5.9%. The report’s recommendations for reducing the risk of obesity in the early years of a child’s life include; strengthening prenatal care; promoting breastfeeding; evaluating the impact of chemical influences in the environment; reducing “screen time;” and improving the quality of child care settings so they can consistently support healthy development.
  • Under the recommendation, ‘Empowering Parents and Caregivers’, the report proposes a number of initiatives including; making nutrition information useful by allowing greater access to the right tools and resources that increase nutritional knowledge and help parents and caregivers make healthier choices. The report also recommends an improvement in food marketing and labelling practices by providing more accurate, clear, and consistent information on food packages in order to choose healthier foods. And in a bid to strengthen healthcare providers’ roles, the report recommends that healthcare provides engage in BMI measurement for children, and that parents and families receive specific information and counselling on healthy behaviours from their health care providers.
  • Providing healthy foods in schools is the third recommendation from the report. Over 55m US children are enrolled in elementary or secondary school, according to the report. “Unfortunately, some key aspects of current school meals, other foods at school, and environmental factors are contributing to obesity and failing to support good nutrition and physical activity behaviours”, it states. The report recommends; an improvement in the quality of school meals; changes in other foods available at school to ensure that all food sold at school support healthful diets; modifications to curriculum, school program operations, and community policies and infrastructure to match changes in school foods; and revisions to policies and practices in juvenile justice and other institutional settings to ensure that all childhood and youth environments support healthy eating.
  • “Millions of low-income Americans live in “food deserts,” neighbourhoods that lack convenient access to affordable and healthy food,” the action plan states, laying out four key elements for ensuring easier access to these types of food. Recommendations include; convenient physical access to grocery stores and other retailers that sell a variety of healthy foods; prices that make healthy choices affordable and attractive; a range of healthy products available in the marketplace; and adequate resources for consumers to make healthful choices, including access to nutrition assistance programs to meet the special needs of low-income Americans.
  • Increasing physical activity is the fifth recommendation of the report, which claims that physical activity is related to improvements in mental health, helping to relieve symptoms of depression and anxiety and increase self-esteem. In order to increase children’s physical activity levels, the report suggests; creating infrastructure and policies within schools that increase access to and encourage physical activity for all students; expand day and afterschool activities; and provide community recreation venues.

The White House Obesity Report: An Overview

May 15 2010, 9:00 AM ET | Comment
nestle_obesityreport_5-17_Scott Ableman_post.jpg
Scott Ableman/flickr

This report, "Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within A Generation," is a terrific summary of where we stand today on childhood obesity ("the challenge we face") and what to do about it. (Click here for a PDF.) The report wants to reduce rates of child obesity to where they were before all this started:
That means returning to a childhood obesity rate of just 5% by 2030. Achieving this goal will require "bending the curve" fairly quickly, so that by 2015, there will be a 2.5% reduction in each of the current rates of overweight and obese children, and by 2020, a 5% reduction.
This seems so modest that it might actually be achievable.

Like most such plans, this one has way too many recommendations, in this case, 70 (the summary table starts on page 89). These are divided up in categories. For example:

Recommendations for early childhood

    • Educate and help women conceive at a healthy weight and have a healthy weight gain during pregnancy
    • Encourage and support breastfeeding
    • Prioritize research into chemicals in the environment that may cause or worsen obesity
    • Educate and support parents in efforts to reduce kids' TV and media time
    • Improve nutrition and physical activity practices in child nutrition programs.

For empowering parents and caregivers

    • Government should work with local communities to promote the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the 2010 food pyramid.
    • USDA and FDA should work with the food and beverage industry to develop standard nutrition labels for packages.
    • Restaurants and vending machines should display calorie counts of all items offered.
    • The food and beverage industry should extend its voluntary self-regulation to restrict all forms of marketing to children. If this does not happen, federal regulation should be considered
    • Media and entertainment companies should limit licensing of popular characters to healthy food and beverage products
    • Insurance plans should cover services needed to help prevent, assess, and care for child obesity.

For healthier food in schools

    • Update federal standards for school meals and improve the nutritional quality of USDA foods provided to schools.
    • Increase funding for school meals.
    • Encourage schools to upgrade cafeteria equipment to support healthier foods. Example: Swap deep fryers for salad bars.
    • Connect school meal programs to local growers and encourage farm-to-school programs.
    • Improve nutritional education in schools and make it more available.
    • Increase the use of school gardens to educate about healthy eating.
    • Promote healthy behaviors in juvenile correction facilities.

For improving access to healthy foods

    • Launch a multi-agency "Healthy Food Financing Initiative" to make healthy foods more available in underserved urban and rural communities.
    • Encourage local governments to attract grocery stores to underserved neighborhoods
    • Encourage facilities that serve children (e.g., hospitals, recreation centers, and parks) to promote healthy foods and beverages.
    • Provide economic incentives to increase production of healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
    • Evaluate the effect of targeted subsidies on purchases of healthy foods through nutrition assistance programs.
    • Study the effects of state and local sales taxes on calorie-dense foods.

For increasing kids' physical activity

    • School programs should stress physical activity as much as healthy nutrition.
    • State and local school programs should increase the quality and frequency of age-appropriate physical education taught by certified PE teachers.
    • Promote recess for elementary school students and activity breaks for older students.
    • Federal, state, and local agencies should partner with communities and businesses to extend the school day in order to offer physical activity programs.
    • The EPA should assist communities building new schools to place them on sites that encourage walking or biking to school.
    • Increase the number of safe playgrounds and parks, particularly in low-income communities.
    • Encourage entertainment and technology companies to continue developing new ways to engage kids in physical activity.

Good ideas, but there are some things I'm not so crazy about here. The plan seems awfully voluntary and "let's be pals and all work together". Voluntary, as evidence demonstrates, does not work for the food industry. Much leadership will be needed to make this plan work. But these recommendations should give advocates plenty of inspiration to continue working on these issues.

The Washington Post has a particularly good summary of the key recommendations, and singles out the ones aimed at marketing to kids.

Jane Black of the Washington Post is cautiously optimistic. Me too.

Bloomberg's vegetable advice: Let them eat steak »

In a stunning reversal of a third-term campaign promise, Mayor Bloomberg today answered a reporter's question about his favorite vegetable with a one-word answer: "Steak."
"I like most vegetables. I'm not big on a handful of them," he told reporters, as transcribed by the DN's faithful Frank Lombardi. "But I love steak."
Bloomberg said this at an event with TV food maven Rachael Ray about a new program to grow healthy food in vegetable gardens near city schools. They toured the garden with kids from P.S. 29, the John Harrigan school on Henry St. in Cobble Hill, but Lombardi reports none of the children heard the mayor praising red meat and Lombardi reports the schoolkids giggled when they heard the mayor praising red meat -- as did the adults.
Before he was elected to his third term, Bloomberg told a crowd at the Union Square Greenmarket that his favorite vegetable was really iceberg lettuce -- Celeste Katz's video proof is below. A few weeks later he described himself as "an iceberg lettuce guy," dissing the White House state dinner that featured a vegetarian menu and an arugula salad from First Lady Michelle Obama's garden.
Anyone else the mayor needed to upend today? Well, here's how he described the lunch his mom would pack for him every morning in Medford, Mass.: "I don't know how good it was. My mother has never seen a kitchen that she likes."
Full release after the jump.

Mayor Bloomberg's Favorite Vegetable Is... from NYDN Brawl for the Hall on Vimeo.

MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND TV PERSONALITY RACHAEL RAY ANNOUNCE NEW PROGRAMS TO PROMOTE HEALTHY EATING
Gardening, Cooking and Nutrition Instruction to Show City Youth How Food is Grown and How to Bring that Food from Garden to Table.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Rachael Ray today announced a series of initiatives to help our City’s youth eat healthier and understand where their food comes from. The new programs, supported by Rachael Ray and her Yum-o! organization, will help schools build a garden or connect them to an existing garden and provide cooking and nutrition instruction to young New Yorkers. The announcement was made next to the vegetable garden at PS 29 in Brooklyn, which the school is using to teach students about healthy eating - in addition to enhancing science and nature curriculums. The Mayor and Rachael Ray were joined by Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, New York State Agriculture & Markets Commissioner Patrick Hooker, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Linda I. Gibbs, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, Food Policy Coordinator Ben Thomases, Community Affairs Commissioner Nazli Parvizi, Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City President Megan Sheekey, GrowNYC Executive Director Marcel Van Ooyen, PS 29 Principal Melanie Woods and representatives from community partners including the Sylvia Center, The Children’s Aid Society and the Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center.
“School gardens encourage more young New Yorkers to eat healthier diets and help them understand where their food comes from,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “From GreenThumb gardens to public housing gardens to countless community gardens, so many New Yorkers are greening our urban landscapes and greening their diets too. Our partnership with Rachael Ray will help children understand how eating fresh food and preparing their own meals can help them to lead longer, healthier lives.”
“We are very excited to form this public-private partnership with Mayor Bloomberg to help teach New York City youth where food comes from and in turn provide them with encouragement to make healthier choices,” said Ms. Ray. “In addition to empowering kids to cook and have a healthier relationship with food, these programs will also allow us to show kids how the culinary arts can be a positive career path, which is one of the major goals of our Yum-o! organization.”
“Teaching children about healthy eating and where our food comes from is just as valuable as teaching them how to read and write,” said Speaker Quinn. “Thanks to groups like Rachel Ray’s Yum-o! organization, GrowNYC, and GreenThumb, we are educating more and more New York City children everyday about the importance of nutritious eating and how and where to grow their own healthy food. The Council has been working to use our food system to create jobs, promote public health, and protect the environment - most recently though our FoodWorks New York initiative. We look forward to continued partnership on additional community gardens efforts, and all of our efforts to help New Yorkers eat healthier.”
Gardens provide educational opportunities regarding nutrition and cooking, which can have long-term health benefits. Studies show when children grow and prepare their own food, their understanding of the relationship between food and health grows too. Studies also show that positive eating habits begun before 6th grade are more likely to last into adulthood.
“The school garden initiative is not only teaching our children about the importance of healthy eating, but it’s also providing them with fresh and delicious school-food options,” said Chancellor Klein. “And the gardens aren’t just about eating well. Research shows that school gardens are excellent learning environments, and students exposed to them do better on science exams.”
This spring a new “Learning Garden” was also constructed in City Hall Park to show children first-hand how food is grown. The garden, which is currently growing snow peas, cabbage, kale, lettuces, kohlrabi, onions and broccoli is being tended and used by PS 276 and PS 397 located in the adjacent Tweed Courthouse building. “Learning Gardens” have also been created at Randall’s Island and Gracie Mansion, where children from the Stanley Isaacs Community Center have been growing vegetables and receiving cooking instruction as part of “The Growing Place” project.
Also with support from Rachael Ray, the City is launching cooking and nutritional pilot programs at New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) campuses this summer and fall in partnership with the Sylvia Center and Children’s Aid Society. The goal of these programs is to help young people develop cooking skills, become conscientious consumers and make healthier food choices. In addition, an afterschool program at NYCHA specifically for youth 16-24 will promote not only healthy nutrition, but also introduce food service and culinary arts as potential career paths. This population is a target demographic of the Mayor’s Center for Economic Opportunity, which seeks to provide youth with innovative education, career exploration, and job training programs.
“The work of the City’s Food Policy Taskforce has increased access to healthy food in New York City, through Green Carts, Healthy Bodegas, and the FRESH program,” said Deputy Mayor Gibbs. “The initiatives announced today are a perfect complement to this work because they will help promote demand for fresh fruits and vegetables by engaging young people in growing, cooking and tasting them.”
A recent study by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets found that 306 of the 1,600 schools have an interactive growing environment and instructional lessons. This number includes those schools that that have outdoor raised bed gardens, EarthBoxes inside their classrooms or relationships with nearby community gardens or larger urban farm sites. The study finds that barriers to garden creation and survival include limited funding, need for gardening equipment and materials, and few resources to care for gardens over the summer.
The Mayor announced new efforts that will help address these obstacles including:
Launching a new mini-grant program (grants of $500-$1,000) this fall for schools in need of funds to start a garden.
Creating a website for schools, being designed by GrowNYC, to be launched by this fall with resources including:
Additional technical assistance provided by GrowNYC and GreenThumb.
Information on how to locate and connect to local community gardens.
Complimentary programming provided by City and nonprofit partners.
Information for teachers on how to incorporate garden instruction into existing curricula to maximize their academic impact.
Expanding the “Garden to Café” pilot program from 25 schools to more than 50 schools in the 2010 school year. The program’s goal is to connect school gardening and lunch menus through seasonal harvest events and educational activities. PS 29 is one of the initial Garden to Café sites and the school uses what is grown in the garden in its salad bar and to create recipes for special events.
Starting a teen intern program to take care of school gardens during the summer months. NYC Service will also help coordinate volunteers to care for the gardens.

“We commend New York City and Rachael Ray for a private-public investment in school gardening and food education that will improve the health of our children and New York State agriculture,” said State Agriculture & Markets Commissioner Hooker. “When children grow food and become aware of the importance of local agriculture, we expand opportunities to serve locally-grown foods in schools and most importantly, we increase student consumption of healthy produce.”
There are growing and food learning opportunities even amidst space constraints in our dense city. City schools have already found creative ways to implement gardening projects. Examples of innovative growing projects include PS 364 in the East Village which grows vegetables in converted pickle barrels; PS 146 in Brooklyn which has created a complex composting and rainwater harvesting system to support their thriving garden; and Discovery High School in the Bronx which started a hydroponic growing wall, which was also featured at the announcement. This fall the Edible Schoolyard program also plans to establish roots in New York City and break ground on their first edible garden at PS 216 in Brooklyn.
Community Affairs Commissioner Nazli Parvizi will act as a liaison to the culinary community, which includes neighborhood restaurants, to help build partnerships between these entities and the City's leaders in food and nutrition policy at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Office of the Food Policy Coordinator. Commissioner Parvizi, in addition to heading the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit, has worked as a chef and caterer.
“New York City is not only one of the top culinary capitals of the world but also home to such a creative growing and culinary education community,” said CAU Commissioner Parvizi. “I look forward to continuing to work with restaurateurs and others in the food and growing network to further our shared goals of a healthier and happier New York.”
The Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City is helping to facilitate the public-private partnerships and raise funds in support of these projects. The creation of the website is being supported by New York City Chef Mario Batali, who last month held a fundraising dinner at his restaurant Del Posto. Jessica Seinfeld, author and founder of Baby Buggy, which presents creative, healthy recipes for kids, is supporting the “Fun Food, Smart Food,” a cooking and nutrition program for middle-school students in partnership with The Children’s Aid Society. The initiative has been piloted in 12 afterschool sites in East/Central Harlem, Central Brooklyn, the South Bronx and Jamaica, Queens over the past two years. The Mayor’s Fund, in coordination with GrowNYC, is now accepting donations and in-kind support for garden supplies, mini-grant funding and ongoing care and stewardship of the gardens. Visit www.nyc.gov/fund to find out more.
Rachael Ray is best known as the host of the Emmy Award winning daytime television show “Rachael Ray,” as well as through her popular Food Network shows. She is also the author of bestselling cookbooks, has a lifestyle magazine Every Day with Rachael Ray and her own line of Rachael Ray cookware, knives and food ingredients. In 2007, Rachael launched Yum-o!, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering kids and their families to develop healthier relationships with food and cooking. Yum-o!’s three work areas include educating kids and their families about cooking, feeding hungry American kids, and funding cooking education and scholarships.
The projects announced today enhance the existing work done by Ms. Ray with SchoolFood to create exciting, delicious and nutritious lunch menus for 1,600 NYC public schools, serving 1.9 million students, On April 28, 2010 Ms. Ray launched her latest SchoolFood menu item called “Cheesy Mac and Trees,” a healthy take on traditional macaroni and cheese, filled with whole wheat pasta, real cheese, skim milk, red bell peppers and broccoli florets.

healthy eating grade 4

healthy eating print pdf for kids third to sixth grade

This is an interesting web site.  If you would like your kids to understand nutrition and portion sizes, veggies, healthy eating for healthy sizes, this is where I would go.

I am impressed that this site exists and will help parents, teachers and care givers the opportunity to guide and teach healthy eating habits

And there are guidelines for Canadians also pretty kweel.......

Michelle Obama reports shocking statistics about childhood obesity & announces prevention plans

May 12, 4:10 AM · Dr. KC Kelly - Mind and Body Examiner
"To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art." -- La Rochefoucauld
On Tuesday morning, First Lady, Michelle Obama revealed the results of a new Childhood Obesity Task Force report that the president commission released:

  • One in three children, ages 2-19 have been reported as being overweight
  • Childhood obesity causes 112,000 deaths every year
  • Childhood obesity costs approximately 3 billion dollars/year in direct medical costs
Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, who is working with Mrs. Obama's Let's Move Campaign, which was launched in February, was interviewed by a correspondent from MSNBC. Secretary Duncan stated, "We have millions of students every single day eating both breakfast and lunch in schools. We want to make sure those meals become much more healthy and better in terms of nutrition. We want to make sure that the snacks in the vending machines are much more healthy as well. And we have a chance to get dramatically better. When students are healthy, eating right, and when they are exercising, they have a chance to fulfill their tremendous academic potential. This is all of us working together... The Department of Agriculture, The Department of Education, the First Lady, School Districts, the private sector... all of us have to collaborate and do the right thing by our nation's children."

Melanie Barnes, the Chair of the Childhood Obesity Task Force stated that the Force has already asked for help from the president's budget, but has also been working on low-cost or no cost things such as asking the private sector, schools and philanthropies for help. The Task Force wishes to drive down the prices of healthy fresh fruits and vegetables and in addition, help families gain access to these foods through the Healthy Food Financing Initiative. Lastly, the Task Force is also providing education to parents and caregivers about healthy versus unhealthy foods.

The Task Force goal is to bring the childhood obesity rate from 20% to 5% by 2030.


Michelle Obama reports shocking statistics about
 childhood obesity & announces prevention plans
Michelle Obama reports shocking statistics about childhood obesity & announces prevention plans
Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP
Senators, Rachael Ray, first lady push for children's nutrition programs
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Casey Jr. has been an advocate for child nutrition programs for years, but Pennsylvania's soft-spoken Democrat will be the first to admit he doesn't have star power.
So when first lady Michelle Obama and celebrity chef Rachael Ray both held events Tuesday to call for federal action on child obesity, Mr. Casey saw the benefits of the limelight.
"Getting something substantial done isn't just policy and bills and what happens in Congress -- we have to have other ways to engage people," Mr. Casey said.
"And obviously with the first lady's involvement, it brings tremendous credibility and notoriety to it, as well as getting help from folks like Rachael Ray to be able to get out a message that sometimes elected officials can't get out."
Ms. Ray, who first made a splash with "30 Minute Meals" on the Food Network and now hosts a syndicated daytime talk show, appeared with Mr. Casey and Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., to advocate for a $4.5 billion funding increase for child nutrition programs.
The senators, who all serve on the Agriculture Committee, hope to move the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act to the floor this year.
The bill, an update to the 2004 Child Nutrition Reauthorization, would increase federal subsidies to school lunches and the farm-to-school program to make meals healthier and higher quality, while also giving the government new regulatory authority over vending machines that often are crammed with unhealthy treats.
In addition, the bill would aim to help hungry children by expanding free school meals at breakfast, after school and during the summer.
"So many big changes can be made with such a small amount of money," Ms. Ray said. "We just had this horrible blood battle about health care, and think about the cost of health care in the future if we don't address this now."
A few blocks away at the White House, Mrs. Obama sounded the same urgent note as she revealed details about her administration-wide campaign against child obesity.
"No one gets off the hook on this one -- from governments to schools, corporations to nonprofits, all the way down to families sitting around their dinner table," Mrs. Obama said, according to a transcript of her remarks.
"And the one thing that I can promise is that as first lady I'm going to continue to do everything that I can to focus my energy to keep this issue at the forefront of the discussion in this society so that we ensure that our children can have the healthy lives and the bright futures that they deserve."
Through the "Let's Move" program, federal agencies within the next year will tackle everything from creating a new food pyramid to promoting walking and biking to school to putting up $400 million for grocery stores and healthy food outlets in underserved areas -- or "food deserts," Mrs. Obama said.
A task force led by White House policy adviser Melody Barnes put together a 120-page rundown of 70 policy recommendations for federal agencies to address the nation's obesity crisis.
About one-third of the country's children, Mrs. Obama pointed out, are overweight or obese -- putting severe strain on the nation's health care system now and in the future.
Mrs. Obama introduced the "Let's Move" campaign in Philadelphia in February, joined by Mr. Casey and others. Children's programs have been a particular focus of Mr. Casey since he came to Congress in 2007 and he said this summer presents a vital opportunity to move this bill -- even as the Senate's time is dominated by high-profile issues like Wall Street reform, a climate bill and a Supreme Court confirmation.
He hoped the profile of child nutrition could be boosted by Ms. Ray.
The television star's foray into lobbying began when she met Ms. Gillibrand at a New York City public school, where Ms. Ray introduced a healthy chicken soft taco meal for students. The two kept in touch and Ms. Ray made her way to D.C. on Tuesday, meeting privately with Mr. Casey and others to push the issue.
By mid-afternoon, she had already taken a shine to Capitol Hill.
"It really does matter -- letter writing, e-mails, asking and demanding that we improve the quality of the food that we're providing our kids with," Ms. Ray said.
"They're here, they're willing to listen and I think if we all use our big mouths to make it a big issue, then this is a really great time to change."

Daniel Malloy: dmalloy@post-gazette.com or 202-445-9980. Follow him on Twitter at PG_in_DC.
Washington correspondent Daniel Malloy writes the "Pittsburgh On The Potomac" blog exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.
First published on May 12, 2010 at 12:00 am

President's Obesity Task Force Findings Should Be a Mandate for Congress

Penny Lee

Posted: May 11, 2010 04:26 PM
A set of 70 recommendations outlined today by First Lady Michelle Obama and an inter-agency Task Force on Childhood Obesity is so comprehensive, it ought to be considered a mandate for Congress. Fortunately, many of its action items are already manifested in existing legislation. And if Congress acts quickly on the proposed measures, Americans stand a real chance of reversing the obesity epidemic in the next generation.
Right now, we are experiencing the first generation in our history to potentially have a shorter lifespan than their parents. Two-thirds of adults and nearly one in three children struggle with overweight and obesity. Obesity is now among the country's costliest medical conditions, and taxpayers, governments and businesses spend billions on obesity-related conditions each year, including an estimated $147 billion in medical costs.
So how are we going to reverse the tide of this epidemic? Many of the proposals that are central to the President's Childhood Obesity Task Force report -- and which have been long-advocated by the Campaign to End Obesity -- are also reflected in the Healthy CHOICES Act, legislation introduced just last week by Rep. Ron Kind, and the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010, spearheaded by Sen. Blanche Lincoln and awaiting action in the Senate.
Among the Task Force recommendations are:
"Pediatricians should be encouraged to routinely calculate children's BMI and provide information to parents about how to help their children achieve a healthy weight."
Indeed, as with other vital signs and risk factors, measuring body mass index (BMI) provides a quick and easy means of identifying an important threat to health (obesity). BMI should be treated like any other vital sign by patients, physicians and other health care providers. It should be measured and monitored frequently, including at each patient encounter, to help prevent the development of obesity or stop it from getting worse. And Representative Kind's legislation takes it a step further, providing for tracking and monitoring of BMI in public health coverage, public school-based clinics and maternal and child health services. It would also require BMI information to be provided in electronic health records for adults and children and in vaccination records for school-age children.
Additionally, the Task Force identifies that:
"Federally-funded and private insurance plans should cover services necessary to prevent, assess, and provide care to overweight and obese children."
The Task Force is absolutely right. For all the cost and risk associated with it, obesity has yet to be addressed as a disease that can be diagnosed by physicians, covered by insurance companies and included in federal and state prevention and treatment programs. It's hard to imagine that a child whose BMI exceeds the 95th percentile cannot receive a proper, specific diagnosis from her doctor or treatment from her health plan, even as she risks correlating conditions like diabetes, heart disease, asthma, depression and even premature death. However, new cases like this will continue to emerge until we improve the delivery of care for patients with obesity.

Congress and the health care community have an opportunity and an obligation to act. The Healthy CHOICES Act provides the right tools to help get Americans on the journey to a healthy weight, equipping doctors to diagnose and treat obesity and expand treatment and preventive services, including under Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP.
Next, the Task Force urges:
"Update Federal nutritional standards for school meals and improve the nutritional quality of USDA commodities provided to schools."
Our schools and federal food programs must be models of good nutrition, and -- given the extent to which they are a primary food source for so many Americans -- they must facilitate healthy eating. Federal food programs should improve the access and affordability of healthy foods in communities of need, and ensure that all foods sold at schools meet the USDA's nutritional guidelines. Sen. Lincoln's legislation realizes these principles, and moreover ensures that food served on school campuses "promotes student health and reduces childhood obesity," expands funding for nutritious meals and provides reimbursements for federal school lunches.
The Task Force also declared that:
"School districts should be encouraged to create, post, and implement a strong local school wellness policy."
In March, the Senate Agriculture Committee unanimously passes the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 out of committee, and right now it awaits action from Senate leadership to be brought to the floor. This child nutrition reauthorization would establish standing local wellness policies for local school districts, including policies for physical education and food marketing and advertising. Additionally, it would provide assistance to schools through a clearinghouse and assure adequate assessment and evaluation.
Lastly, among its recommendations, the Task Force laid out that:
"Active transport should be encouraged between homes, schools, and community destinations for afterschool activities, including to and from parks, libraries, transit, bus stops, and recreation centers."
We agree. When people don't have safe places to move or play, they're less likely to be active. Congress should continue to fund strategies to improve the nation's infrastructure in ways that encourage physical activity, and to support measures that promote physical fitness for children and adults.
The Campaign to End Obesity has long advocated for the coordinated Federal response to the obesity epidemic. We commend the Task Force for working diligently these last few months with the goal of reversing this crisis among children within a generation.
Now, the work begins. We need to make these recommendations a reality by making our voices heard on Capitol Hill. Call (202) 224-3121, and tell your Senator that you want to see Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 brought to the floor. You can also use that number to reach your Representative and encourage support of Representative Kind's Healthy CHOICES Act.
Realizing these steps through tangible legislation, perhaps this generation will not have to suffer its very frightening diagnosis.
Follow Penny Lee on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ObesityCampaign

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