WASHINGTON, DC - October 29 - As the U.S. Senate prepares to vote on the 2007 Farm Bill, more than 300 cancer specialists and 400 pediatricians and other physicians from across the nation have signed petitions circulated by the Cancer Project and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine calling on lawmakers to reform farm subsidies and food assistance programs to put good nutrition at the forefront of the battle against cancer and other diet-related diseases.

The petitions—modeled on similar statements from the American Medical Association and the President’s Cancer Panel—say subsidies and nutrition programs should support and promote foods low in fat and cholesterol. The Farm Bill now under consideration in the Senate would channel billions of dollars a year in subsidies and price supports to producers of sugar, oil, meat, dairy, alcohol, and feed crops used to fatten farm animals.

“Subsidies for meat, cheese, and other fatty foods foster the epidemics of childhood obesity, as well as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer,” says PCRM president Neal D. Barnard, MD. “Senators now have a choice—to vote for healthy foods and healthy kids, or to vote for the same old pork.”

In June, the American Medical Association called for subsidies and food assistance programs to be based on health. In August, the President’s Cancer Panel echoed the call for reform. As an alternative to the Senate Agriculture Committee’s Farm Bill, PCRM and many other health organizations are supporting Sen. Lugar’s FRESH Act, a recently introduced bill that would cut subsidies for unhealthy foods.

For a copy of PCRM’s petitions or an interview with Dr. Barnard, please contact Ms. Simon Chaitowitz at 202-686-2210, ext. 309, or simonc@pcrm.org.

Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is a nonprofit organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research. The Cancer Project is an independently incorporated PCRM affiliate that works to educate the public about the benefits of a healthy diet for cancer prevention and survival.

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