CEI Daily Update

Issues in the News

1. CONGRESS

The chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee expresses doubts about the 2007 Farm Bill.   

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Scholar Fran Smith on the deficiencies of the current bill:

“These outdated farm programs not only carry a high cost for taxpayers, but can hit consumers with higher food prices. In addition, heavily subsidizing U.S. crops means that poor countries can’t compete in the world market.”

2. HEALTH

A new study attributes increased cancer risks to eating processed foods and even mild levels of obesity.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst Steven Milloy on the study’s flaws:

“Significantly, not a single case of cancer among the tens of thousands studied in the ‘7,000 large-scale studies’ was definitively linked with any specific dietary factor. The [American Institute for Cancer Research] report’s claim to link diet with cancer largely amounts to post-facto guesswork abetted by statistical hijinks and imagination run amok.”

3. ENVIRONMENT

A newspaper article dated November 2nd reports “unprecedented” melting of ice in the Arctic.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: General Counsel Sam Kazman on the article that originally appeared 85 years ago:

“In 1922 some people thought the Arctic was melting away forever, and in the 1970s scientists were warning of an impeding ice age due to global cooling. Overheated rhetoric about environmental disasters has been around for a long time. Hopefully when the next story of impending doom hits the news, it won’t take 85 years to put the claims in perspective.”

Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

To contact a CEI expert for comment or interviews, please call the CEI communications department at 202-331-2273 or email to [email protected].