Day: June 9, 2025

All That And Tomatoes Too!

There is always something in the news about the food supply most times it is something is recalled because of some lingering disease….well this time it is tomatoes.

The Food and Drug Administration has updated an ongoing recall of tomatoes to its most severe level, warning there is a high risk of “serious adverse health consequences or death” to those who consume affected products. The recall, for potential salmonella contamination, applies to tomatoes distributed in late April. The New York Times reports consumers are unlikely to come across fresh tomatoes that have been recalled at this point, but the bacteria can survive for months in wet environments, so if any affected tomatoes were frozen, they could still be impacted. The tomatoes were sold in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, Newsweek reports. No illnesses have yet been linked to the tomatoes.

But wait there is more tomato news….

Framers in Florida are destroying their crops before market because of tariffs and lack of labor.

Thousands of unharvested tomatoes are being plowed over in South Florida in a sign of what is to come under President Donald Trump’s tariffs—or tariff threats—and immigration policies. Reporting by Miami’s local Fox affiliate, WVSN, revealed that farmers are cutting their losses and letting crops go to waste due to increased picking and packing costs.

“You can’t even afford to pick them right now,” Heather Moehling, president of Miami-Dade County Farm Bureau, told WVSN. “Between the cost of labor and the inputs that goes in, it’s more cost-effective for farmers to just plow them right now.” Moehling said tomatoes are currently selling between $3 and $4 per box.*

But farmers need to sell a box of tomatoes for closer to $11 to break even, according to Tony DiMare, president of DiMare Homestead, which owns over 4,000 acres of tomato farms in Florida and California. American farmers haven’t been able to out-compete cheaper Mexican tomatoes currently flooding the market, DiMare told WVSN.*

Even though the tariffs on Mexican imports never took effect for goods compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, including U.S. tomatoes, the threat of tariffs alone was enough to disrupt the U.S. market, DiMare told WVSN. “The Mexican industry exported, in some cases, double and triple the daily volumes to beat being subject to the 25 percent tariff in February and March and the 10 percent tariffs in April. That just devastated our markets in the U.S.,” DiMare said.

To protect U.S. tomato farmers from the harm caused by tariff policies, Trump plans to impose an import duty of 20.91 percent on most tomato imports from Mexico starting in July. The action, which will end a 2019 trade agreement establishing a minimum price on Mexican imported tomatoes, is expected to drive up the cost of tomatoes for U.S. consumers, according to Michael Strain, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

https://reason.com/2025/05/12/trumps-tariffs-and-immigration-policies-destroy-thousands-of-acres-of-tomato-crops-in-florida/

Granted I am not a farmer but I cannot understand why no income is better than some.

Will these farmers get government subsidies because of the loss of crops?

If someone can explain the economics behind this destruction then please do so for me it makes little sense.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Retirees And Their Money

As a retired old fart I keep my eyes on news that would impact new retirees and those near retirement….just my way to impart some FYI to help them navigate the complexities of retirement.

Regardless how attractive the ads are for some of these Medicare plans they are most likely a money trap that provides little in the way of help.

Plans like ‘Zero’ premiums and free dental, vision and hearing…..they are a trap and should be avoided….but here is why….

Choosing the right Medicare plan is one of the most important financial and health decisions older adults make. With so many plans promising lower premiums, free perks, and wide coverage, it’s easy to get drawn in by attractive marketing. But all too often, these plans hide critical limitations in the fine print, from unexpected out-of-pocket costs to restrictive provider networks. Knowing which plans to approach with caution can save retirees from serious financial and medical headaches. Here’s a look at 10 Medicare plans that seem helpful at first glance but often leave enrollees feeling misled.

https://www.savingadvice.com/articles/2025/06/03/10157823_10-medicare-plans-that-look-helpful-until-you-read-the-fine-print.html

It is common knowledge that I do not support these so called Medicare Advantage plans because to me they are a money trap and provide little…..but I am not alone….many retirees dump these plans once they see just how bogus they are….

Medicare coverage doesn’t just mean signing up for government insurance. In fact, more than half of Medicare recipients now get their coverage through a Medicare Advantage plan, or Medicare Part C plan, which is offered by a private insurer.

Advantage plans are an alternative to original Medicare, replacing Part A (hospital coverage), Part B (outpatient care coverage), and sometimes Part D (prescription drug coverage).

Enrollment in these plans is expected to grow to 60% of the eligible population by 2030, with many people drawn to them because they’re often marketed as “zero premium” plans with out-of-pocket limits, while Medicare Part B has uncapped spending and charges premiums. The Trump administration strongly favors the expansion of Medicare Advantage plans.

Yet, while Advantage Plans seem like a good alternative, a substantial number of older Americans who sign up for them don’t stick with them. In fact, among those who signed up between 2011 and 2022, around half left their plans within five years.

Recent research published in the journal Health Affairs helps demonstrate why so many are opting out of their Advantage Plan during open enrollment, either by switching to a different Part C plan or by returning to traditional Medicare instead. Since these Advantage plans are less likely to attract beneficiaries over the long term, the study warns that such plans will likely have less incentive to cater to participants with chronic conditions.

https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/medicare/should-you-ditch-your-medicare-advantage-plan-most-people-do

Please do not fall for the BS do your research before you retire and do not be swayed by promises that will not be fulfilled.

The way things are going you will need all your retirement to just exist so do not fall for the BS that could eventually put you into the poor house.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Make America Healthy Again”

What an absolutely pitiful acronym, MAHA, apparently the brain (I use the term loosely) child of HHS leader RFK,Jr….an idiot at best.

The new report was issued last month and it was not met with glowing approval….

During his election night party, President Trump promised to let Robert F. Kennedy Jr. do whatever he wants to “make America healthy again.” With Kennedy as America’s top health official, that process is now well underway. The Make America Healthy Again Commission that Trump established after taking office released its first report on Thursday and Kennedy, the commission’s chair, described it as a “diagnosis” of what the report calls America’s “chronic childhood disease crisis,” USA Today reports. He said the commission will now work on policy recommendations for the White House. “The prescription comes in 100 days,” he said. At a White House event, Kennedy said the report was a “call to action for common sense,” adding that America has “relied too much on conflicted research, ignored common sense, or what some would call ‘mother’s intuition.'”

  • A “unifying theory.” Axios describes the report as seeking to set out a “unifying theory around what’s causing conditions like obesity, autoimmune conditions, and behavioral disorders in kids”—though it also seeks to strike a balance with economic interests, especially when it comes to pesticides.

  • The 69-page report was split into four sections dealing with ultra-processed food, chemicals in the environment, children’s screen time, and the “over-medicalization of our kids.” Health experts praised the report’s focus on the importance of whole foods, the Washington Post reports. But the widely anticipated hard line against pesticides was watered down after pushback from farm groups and chemical companies, the Post reports. The report did, however, say an updated assessment on the herbicides glyphosate and atrazine will be released next year, USA Today reports.

    The “overmedicalization” warned of possible long-term risks of psychiatric and weight-loss drugs. It also criticized the growth of the childhood vaccine schedule and said parents are worried about the “appropriate use of vaccines and their possible role in the growing childhood chronic disease crisis.”

  • More criticism. The report “reflects some of Kennedy’s bugbears where science is unsettled, but argues research ‘demonstrates the need for continued studies,’ such as on fluoride in water and electromagnetic radiation,” Jessica Glenza writes at the Guardian. She notes that the report compares US life expectancy and healthcare costs to other wealthy nations, but “it does not mention how other nations typically finance healthcare for all citizens: often at minimal or no cost.”

This report like I stated was not met with open arms and after the document was analyzed more BS has been detected….

The Make America Healthy Again commission led by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued an exhaustive report last month prescribing changes for Americans’ health. It was crammed with more than 500 footnotes citing studies to buttress its findings—but multiple outlets have found that many of those studies don’t actually exist. The best guess is that the MAHA report made use of artificial intelligence that hallucinated them into existence, or morphed them with actual studies. Some examples from coverage:

  • The news outlet NOTUS first reported on the nonexistent studies, finding at least seven of them. It even tracked down some of the supposed authors. “The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,” Columbia University epidemiologist Katherine Keyes tells the outlet when asked about a study cited from JAMA Pediatrics on adolescents and anxiety that she supposedly authored.
  • The Washington Post counts 522 footnotes but finds that 37 were repeated multiple times. “Other citations include the wrong author, and several studies cited by the extensive health report do not exist at all,” per the story. The Post also notes that the report includes the word “oaicite” in some of the reference URLs, a telltale sign of the use of OpenAI.
  • The White House acknowledges the mistakes but characterizes them as minor gaffes that will be cleaned up. “I understand there was some formatting issues with the MAHA report that are being addressed and the report will be updated,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday, per the AP. “But it does not negate the substance of the report, which, as you know, is one of the most transformative health reports that has ever been released by the federal government.”
  • However, the NOTUS analysis also asserts that some of the legit studies cited were mischaracterized. For example, the report cites a study asserting that therapy is better than psychiatric medicine, but a study author says they made no such comparison. Kennedy has long criticized the use of medication for mental health.
  • All in all, outside experts say the multiple mistakes call into question the report’s credibility. “It makes me concerned about the rigor of the report, if these really basic citation practices aren’t being followed,” Keyes tells the New York Times.

This report is full of BS just like most anything that is released by Donny and/or his minions that will do whatever it takes to brown nose the prez.

Nothing about this man nor his policies/reports is going to make America healthy again….if anything it will just increase the chances of death by disease.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”