ICYMI, on Saturday the USDA cancelled its food security survey. I'm certain there are depths of stupidity left to plumb, but ignorance about hunger has yet to be proven a path to ending it.

Here is the abstract of the most recent #FoodSecurity survey that the Trump Admin has now cancelled, moving forward, claiming that it is "overly politicized." #USDA www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

TODAY, I AM OFFICIALLY AN AUTHOR!!! A CHILDHOOD DREAM COME TRUE!!!!! #TheDoubleTax is the first book I've ever written and it’s OUT EVERYWHERE TODAY. Four years. 100s of stories. Countless drafts. I woke up today as a FIRST TIME author. WOW. Get your copy TODAY: annagifty.com #booksky #blacksky

This is so, so concerning. Y'all would not believe how much work I still have to do to convince my undergraduates that, e.g., red wine is not good for your health. That stuff was de-bunked before they were born, and still they believe it.

Happy Pythagorean Theorem Day (3-4-5) -> 9/16/25 When all else fails, math. www.npr.org/2025/09/16/n...

I'm all for trying to eat more plants, myself, and helping my patients to do so. Focusing on fermented foods, depending on the situation, can be good, but @statsepi.bsky.social is right, this is an ad for Zoe, and doesn't address nuances/unknowns in the research.

Remember how Vitamin A cannot treat the #measles? Well, Vitamin B-9 (#folate) cannot treat #autism. Love, your friendly neighborhood #dietitian. (if Vitamin C is next, because alphabet, it cannot treat any diseases either. it is an essential #nutrient, but it can't treat diseases).

Just added my signature to the letter. This is a no brainer. It’s wild we’re having a conversation about US central bank independence in 2025. But here we are. Please read and consider adding your signature.

Absolutely. Sending poor people a food box vs. food stamps has a very small chance being equivalent to just food stamps, and absolutely zero chance of being better than just food stamps. Most likely outcome is that more food boxes and less food stamps will make the beneficiaries worse-off.

The incomparably excellent Dr. Lisa Cook is trending (unfortunately, for infuriating reasons). So today I'm going back to listen to Planet Money's episode about her research on innovation. It is still, of course, so relevant. @planetmoney.bsky.social www.npr.org/transcripts/...

Yes indeed, and this page explains how to get the password: sites.tufts.edu/foodeconomic.... Should be quick and helpful to join the elist, and passwords should protect the files from appearing in search and AI training content.

For university courses about #FoodEconomics, a full set of class slides, weekly exercises, & exams is now available for use with the free online textbook from @afinaret.bsky.social and me. Audience is advanced undergrads and first-year grad students using graphical diagrams, examples and global data

Excellent article by Pratik Pawar on the consequences of cutting the Demographic and Health Surveys, and efforts to revive them. I'm quoted briefly.

Prof. David Ortega at Michigan State University calls the new third edition of Food Policy in the United States "an indispensable resource for my graduate food policy course and anyone looking to engage with and influence the food policy landscape." www.routledge.com/Food-Policy-...

Have you ever wondered how #ChildGrowth is assessed around the world when ppl from different places seem to be taller or shorter (on average), depending on their #race or #ethnicity? A lot of #research over many decades has found that there are no racial or ethnic differences in growth or #height.

🎉 Just 1 week to go! #ANH2025 kicks off with online Learning Labs 💻 free and open to all from anywhere 🌍 Join 20+ expert-led sessions on 🌱 food environments, 📊 data analysis, 👥 gender & more! 🗓️16–18 June 🔗 Explore & sign up: bit.ly/4jHXbzt #FoodSystems #Nutrition #Health

Do you teach #FoodEconomics #FoodEcon and want a jump-start and some time and space to develop materials and plan your course? Register for our free Online Learning Lab with the Agriculture, Nutrition and Health Academy: www.anh-academy.org/academy-week... Next week 6/16 Monday 8am-10am EDT.

If you #TeachEcon and cover agriculture & nutrition, on Monday June 16th we'll have a big online ANH Learning Lab online with @afinaret.bsky.social about #FoodEconomics. Textbook etc. is here: sites.tufts.edu/foodeconomics, and link below to free registration at @anhacademy.bsky.social:

Agreed on all counts. Just ask any hospitalist if they'd like more responsibility/more work to do on their own/have to keep up with more CEUs, or the ability to delegate/refer to an allied health team member like a dietitian... I bet I know what most would prefer.

"Getting rid of USAID is a very easy way of winning headlines... But if your one accomplishment in government is to rip funds away from the neediest, so that they can die, so they can be unmedicated, so that they can starve, that is a moral stain that I hope will haunt you 'til the day you die."

Tinned fish is tasty, healthful, & convenient. It's also a lot fancier than it used to be. Don't be afraid of recession because of more tinned fish consumption, I recommend in CNN Business. (Separately: Be afraid of uncertainty, tariffs and the bond market instead.) www.cnn.com/2025/05/27/b...

(Reuters) - Food rations that could supply 3.5 million people for a month are mouldering in warehouses around the world because of U.S. aid cuts and risk becoming unusable, according to five people familiar with the situation. www.reuters.com/world/us-aid...

"'We're going to have four-page dietary guidelines that tell people essentially, eat whole food, eat the food that's good for you.'" Broad "advice" that is going to help exactly no one. Also impossible to inform policies/programs/menus with no details. www.reuters.com/business/hea...

My coauthor @jasonbcook.bsky.social & I recently showed that making parents of younger children comply with SNAP Work Requirements does nothing but take food away from the neediest families. These parents don't work any more because they face barriers to work. econofact.org/efficacy-of-...

The DOGE vision for government technology involves centralizing Americans’ private data. But this isn’t a new idea: it’s one that has been considered, reconsidered, and left alone many times over the years—for good reasons.

"...early indicators suggest substantial preventable mortality, particularly among pregnant women and children." "Secretary of State Marco Rubio has claimed that humanitarian aid would continue, however, reports from the field suggest otherwise" ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S000...

In case anyone is looking

Everything you wanted to know about teaching #FoodEconomcis but were too afraid to ask. In AEPP here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #FoodEconomics site w/ links to preprints: sites.tufts.edu/foodeconomics/ Sign up for updates with #teaching materials: elist.tufts.edu/sympa/subscr...

Interestsed in resources to help you teach (or learn!) #FoodEconomics? Our new Open Access textbook is here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007... With the #AEPP explainer paper just published yesterday for a quick glance at the whole thing: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Our new paper shows how critical it is to use reliable data to achieve effective targeting and use of development resources: doi.org/10.1038/s414.... Sadly, the source of these data was terminated a few weeks ago. Draw your own conclusions...

So excited to see our article in @natcomms.nature.com, led by Valentin Seidler & w/ Edson Utazi, @sluckene.bsky.social , Gregor Zens, Maksym Bodarenko, Abigail Smith (@alleghenycollege.bsky.social alum!), Sarah Bradley, Andy Tatem, and @patrickwebb.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A major update to the CONSORT reporting guidance for clinical trials was published last week. 📌 CONSORT 2025 replaces all previous versions and should be used from now on. So what’s new and what’s different? 1/7 #MethodologyMonday #116 (COI - I am a co-author)

🚨UPDATE: Rümeysa Öztürk has now suffered three separate asthma attacks while in DHS custody. She has not received her required asthma medications—a violation of her fundamental right to medical care. This is cruelty, it is neglect, and it is a damning moral and legal failure.

I took graduate macro in Fall of 2008 and my professor, the wonderful Leigh Tesfatsion, was so helpful in explaining everything to us. It made a huge difference. So in my class we'll be going over why the US trade deficit is not a "subsidy to other countries."

I’ll be on MSNBC Last Word tonight (10-11) talking about Trump’s cuts and the impact on global health, especially TB 🫁 @madhupai.bsky.social @tbfighters.org @wearetb.bsky.social @partnersinhealth.bsky.social @tbfightertofu.bsky.social @tbppm.bsky.social

Video of the international student at Tufts being arrested by "federal authorities" in Massachusetts has been released and it's terrifying. They're not even uniformed officers. Just secret police thugs in hoodies and masks. From WCVB: youtu.be/PuFIs7OkzYY

At my university, Tufts University, the PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk has been seized by federal immigration authorities, according to an email University President Sunil Kumar sent to our community. There is a rally at Powderhouse Square at 5:30pm today.

#AAEA #AgEcon #AppliedEcon #FoodEcon people affected by job loss/insecurity or funding loss/insecurity: Apply for one of the travel grants sponsored by sections this year (due April 30th) www.aaea.org/meetings/202...

The answer to the question, "Can [common food] prevent [common chronic ailment]?" is always "No".

My new article - "Navigating the Measurement Frontier: New Insights Into Small Farm Realities in Agricultural Economics" is now available in the special issue of AE publishing papers based on the 2024 IAAEA plenary talks. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Bitter satire from Miranda Dotson as a private jet flier: "The goal is to wake up after 10 hours completely unaware of the climate emergency going on around me." I am second from left in the top photo at the linked article. Who would have expected me to be photographed for Teen Vogue?

In a new analysis (note, back-of-the-envelope) @charlesjkenny.bsky.social and @justsand.bsky.social estimate that US foreign aid saves around 3.3 million lives per year. You can read more about their methodology and results here: www.cgdev.org/blog/how-man...

While these threats to health and well-being are connected, it is striking how nutrition and food insecurity are particularly "donor dependent." 57.2% of funding for humanitarian programs in nutrition was from the US in 2024. Article here: www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/202...

Quick thoughts & facts on nutrition, vitamin A, and measles. Nutritional status is an important determinant of measles mortality for children who are living in very poor settings and have a risk of Vitamin A deficiency. Malnutrition causes poor immunity against any infectious disease.

Rubio's gutting of USAID is illegal and unconstitutional. There is no form of democracy anywhere of any kind that would allow the executive branch to unilaterally cancel budgets and programs passed by the legislative branch and signed into law. It's utter lawlessness.

People will get very sick and some people will die because of this. #FoodSafety is no joke and often is overlooked. Absolute disaster waiting to happen.

I got your waste, fraud, and abuse right here

@madhupai.bsky.social puts together what I think is the best short course on global health currently out there . He brings together a cast of lecturers with so much experience. Worth enrolling if interested. I highly recommend it . www.mcgill.ca/summerinstit...

Here's Canada's response to the looming Trump tariffs.