The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Despite government shutdown, Trump administration continues to work with the gas and oil indistries on offshore drilling

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, under the direction of acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, has issued a revised contingency plan ordering as many as 40 Interior Department personnel to continue work on the Trump administration’s revised five-year offshore leasing plan during the partial government shutdown. The agency said the move necessary to “comply with the Administration’s America First energy strategy.”

Earthjustice, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Natural Resources Defense Council are critical of the move.

“As the American people experience the painful effects of the Trump Shutdown, the administration is busy serving the oil and gas industry," the groups said in a joint statement Thursday. "Instead of working with Congress to end the longest government furlough in American history, the Trump administration is prioritizing a radical, unpopular plan to subject America’s coasts to more offshore drilling. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is asking dozens of employees to return to work at the behest of oil and gas industry lobbyists.

Castellón wine region in Spain working on rebuilding its wine industry

Recently, I was fortunate to visit my daughter in Madrid, and we had a wine-tasting road trip to the Castellón region on the Mediterranean south of Barcelona and north of Valencia.

The Castellón winemakers are working on rebuilding the wine industry of the region. In 1982, local producers were forced by law to uproot their hybrid vines. This seriously damaged the agrarian sector of villages such as Cabanes, Vilafamés, Vall d´Alba, Benlloch, and Les Useres.

The first winery we visited was in Vilafamés, 16 miles northwest of Castellón. We had to park outside the town of 2,000 and walk up a hill because tourist cars aren’t allowed in the town, only local residents.

USDA’s final rule on GMO foods is lacking

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released a final rule to carry out the mandatory GMO disclosure law passed in 2016. It will allow the genetically engineered ingredients in many foods to remain hidden from consumers.

“No one should be surprised that the most anti-consumer, anti-transparency administration in modern times is denying Americans basic information about what’s in their food and how it’s grown,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group.

The Trump administration has yet again put the interests of pesticide and biotech companies ahead of the interests of American consumers, Faber said.

Trump: The ‘Make America Great Again’ president wants dirty water and air

It was depressing to wake up this morning and read a news article on how President Trump is proposing changes to clean water laws that will benefit polluters. I hope states, local governments, and environmental organizations will step up and fight Trump’s proposal.

The Trump administration released its plan Tuesday to repeal safeguards that prohibit the dumping of pollution into sensitive waterways which provide tap water for more than 117 million Americans.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Army want to significantly roll back federal protections for a number of water sources under the Waters of the United States rule, or WOTUS, put in place in 2015 by President Obama.

Huge ground beef recall expanded to 12 million pounds

JBS Tolleson Inc. is recalling an additional 5.1 million pounds raw beef products, which were produced and packed from July 26 to Sept. 7, because the meat may be contaminated with Salmonella Newport. This is an expansion of the Oct. 4 recall in which 6.9 million pounds of raw beef products were recalled.

The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is concerned that some ground beef may be frozen and in consumers’ freezers. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

The raw beef items, including ground beef, have the establishment number “EST. 267” inside the USDA mark of inspection. These items were shipped to a retail locations and institutions nationwide. The affected brands include Kroger, Cedar Farms, and Showcase.

UDSA needs to do more to protect the public from Salmonella contamination in meat and poultry, consumer group says

The U.S. Department of Agriculture needs to exercise its authority under the law to set and enforce more rigorous standards to protect consumers from Salmonella contamination in meat and poultry, a report by the Consumer Federation of America recommends.

Illnesses from Salmonella in the United States have remained about the same during the past decade. However, in the European Union they’ve declined dramatically during the same period, to less than half what they once were, due to a farm-to-fork Salmonella control initiative launched in 2003.

In the last few months, a rash of Salmonella outbreaks linked to meat and poultry has caused hundreds of illnesses.

What do the new labels for romaine lettuce mean?

Romaine lettuce growers are beginning to label their lettuce with information on where it was grown and the date it was harvested

The labels are voluntary, so if the romaine lettuce isn’t labeled, don’t buy it, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advises.

The FDA has indicated that the romaine lettuce involved in the most recent E. coli outbreak was likely harvested from central and northern California growing regions. However, production in that area has now over and most domestic romaine production has moved to Arizona for the winter.

Don’t eat romaine lettuce, CDC warns

It’s no joke, although lots of social media posts are touting how chocolate and other fattening products are now better for you than lettuce.

U.S. consumers shouldn’t eat any romaine lettuce, and retailers and restaurants shouldn’t serve or sell it due to an outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 infections linked to romaine lettuce.

Consumers who have any romaine lettuce in their home shouldn’t eat it and should throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and no one has gotten sick, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

USDA needs to identify turkey brands linked to deadly, antibiotic-resistant salmonella outbreak, Consumer Reports says

The U.S. Department of Agriculture should identify the brands of turkey that have been linked to a drug-resistant strain of Salmonella that has sickened consumers across the nation, Consumer Reports said Wednesday. The outbreak in raw turkey products has been going on for a year, but neither the turkey industry nor the USDA has released any information about which brands are making people sick. 

“The USDA should immediately make public which turkey producers, suppliers, and brands are involved in this outbreak – especially with Thanksgiving right around the corner,” said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives for Consumer Reports. “This information could save lives and help ensure consumers take the precautions needed to prevent anyone in their home from getting sick.”

The outbreak of the drug-resistant Salmonella strain, known as Salmonella Reading, has been linked to 164 illnesses in 35 states, including one death in California, and about half of those sickened have been hospitalized. The outbreak has been found in live turkeys and many kinds of raw turkey products, and that it “might be widespread in the turkey industry,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has identified the Salmonella strain in samples of raw turkey products collected from 22 slaughterhouses and seven processing plants but hasn’t disclosed these facilities or the names of the companies that operate them.

Raw chicken causes drug-resistant salmonella outbreak in 29 states, sickening 92

Ninety-two people infected with Salmonella Infantis have been reported from 29 states. Twenty-one people have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.

An investigation shows that many types of raw chicken products from a variety of sources are contaminated with Salmonella Infantis and are making people sick.

In interviews, sick people reported eating different types and brands of chicken products purchased from many different locations.