Author Archives: RoslynCranswick

Yet Another State Succumbs to Obamacare’s Greatest Weapon: Math

by RoslynCranswick Posted on May 16, 2016

Mother Jones

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Oklahoma has been resisting expansion of Medicaid for years, but they might finally be ready to cave in:

A bust in the oil patch has decimated state revenues, compounded by years of income tax cuts and growing corporate subsidies intended to make the state more business-friendly. Oklahoma’s Medicaid agency has warned doctors and other health care providers of cuts of up to 25 percent in what the state pays under Medicaid.

….In the poverty-wracked south­eastern corner of the state, where 96 percent of babies in the McCurtain Memorial Hospital are born to Medicaid patients, most health care would end, said hospital CEO Jahni Tapley. “A 25 percent cut to Medicaid would not put my hospital in jeopardy, because we are already in jeopardy,” Tapley said. “A 25 percent cut would shutter our doors for good, leaving 33,000 people without access to health care.”

….Under the proposal, which would be funded in part with a $1.50-per-pack tax on cigarettes, Oklahoma would shift 175,000 people from its Medicaid rolls onto the federal health exchange created by the Affordable Care Act.

Oklahoma’s governor is calling this “Medicaid rebalancing,” but her constituents are too sharp for her. They know what’s going on: “They can call it Medicaid rebalancing, but there’s only one federal program that offers a 9-to-1 federal match, and that’s Obamacare,” said Johnathan Small, president of the Oklahoma Council on Public Affairs. There’s just no fooling some people.

Anyway, it’s good to see that they’re not planning to fund this with, say, an increase in the income tax or the oil tax or the corporate tax. That might actually hit rich people, and God knows that would be the wrong way to pay for indigent services.

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Yet Another State Succumbs to Obamacare’s Greatest Weapon: Math

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The Almond Board Is Now Advertising on NPR Stations

by RoslynCranswick Posted on July 25, 2015

Mother Jones

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I recently heard a spot on KQED, San Francisco’s NPR affiliate radio station, that caught my attention. “Support for KQED comes from the Almond Board of California. The water needs of almond trees are not unique among trees, and almond growers are committed to innovation and water efficiency. More at almondsustainability.org,” read a radio host.

The defensive tone might be due to the unwanted press almonds have been getting, from Mother Jones and others, about how much water almonds use in drought-ridden California. The state accounts for 80 percent of the world’s almond production, and each almond takes about a gallon of water to grow. All told, growing the crop takes as much water in a year as Los Angeles homes and businesses use in three years. Over half of the almonds produced in California are exported abroad.

Now, it appears that the Almond Board of California, the trade group representing growers of the $6.5 billion crop, has gone on the offense, sponsoring messages through National Public Media, NPR’s sponsorship branch, on five NPR affiliates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Sacramento. In San Francisco, the ads appear to be running during peak driving hours, during Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

When asked in an email about the reason for the ads, the Almond Board’s Stacey Humble said, “The radio spots were developed more recently to serve our California communities’ need for more recent, accurate research and information reflecting the almond industry’s innovation and commitment to sustainable growing practices.”

An Instragram shot from the Almond Board’s Shark Week campaign.

The ads coincide with other Almond Board PR pushes over the past month. In late June, the Board announced that it would spend $2.5 million on research devoted to sustainable farming practices, including projects targeting water management and honeybee health. It also launched an oddly elaborate Shark Week campaign in the beginning of July, featuring the adventures of a shark who’s stopped being preying on people after he discovered the wonders of the crunchy snack.

On the website publicized in the radio ad, entitled “Get the Facts about Almonds and Water,” the Board argues that acre for acre, almonds use about the same amount of water as other fruits and veggies, and almond growers have cut water use per pound of product by 33 percent in the past two decades.

Despite their water use, almonds are more popular than ever, with Americans eating two times the amount of almonds per year as they did just seven years ago. But the continued drought has leaders in the industry worried—particularly as crop production is declining slightly despite increased acreage.

“The biggest concern for almond users continues to be the impact of ongoing drought on California almond production and how long it could be before sufficient water is available to reverse the downward yield trend,” read a recent Blue Diamond report. Increased demand and shorter supply is causing almond prices to soar. “Almonds a year ago were priced at about $3.30, and we thought that was an exorbitant price,” said Stephen Smith, the CFO of Hain Celestial, a food company that sells almond butter and almond milk. “And here we are looking at prices in the mid-$4 range.”

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The Almond Board Is Now Advertising on NPR Stations

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