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French MPs want new tax to tackle France’s salt addiction
French MPs aim to introduce a new tax on salty foods in a bid to reduce the amount consumed in France where the intake of salt exceeds the recommended amount by a whopping 60 percent.
French food might be known for being mouthwatering but all those delicious cheeses, baguettes and saucissons don’t exactly help minimize your salt intake. In fact, the French consume an average of 8 grams of salt per day while the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends a maximum of 5 grams each day. That means the French exceed the recommended intake of salt by 60 percent. But now a group of 20 French MPs — all members of a committee carrying out an inquiry into industrial food production — is hoping to change all that by bringing in a tax on salty foods to encourage manufacturers to decrease the amount they include in their products, according to Le Figaro.
These MPs argue that at the moment consumers are too limited by what’s on the supermarket shelves. “The consumer has no choice: most of the salt that they eat is found in pre-prepared dishes” with the consumption of these kinds of meals “exploding in recent years”, said the committee’s spokesperson, MP for La Republique en Marche Michele Crouzet. [ . . . ]
Continue at THE LOCAL: French MPs want new tax to tackle France’s salt addiction – The Local
Tim Dup
Agnès Varda, the queen of the meme
Cats, strange vegetables, street art, foraged food, feminism and playful ironic self-reflection: these things are at the heart of Instagram culture, but Agnès Varda, the veteran French-Belgian documentary-maker, was filming them years ago. Although the grande dame of the French New Wave, it’s now at the age of 90, and with the superb Faces Places, that her legacy is being fully rediscovered. A touring cinema programme and a Curzon Home release of some of her early work is bringing her to wider attention.
Varda’s later-life documentaries are personal and playful, an older woman looking back at a life of curiosity amid major social change. The Gleaners and I (2000), in which she riffs on the traditional French idea of those who scavenge after harvests, gets all the attention. For me, it’s The Beaches of Agnès (2008) that’s the magical one.
In it, Varda reflects on her love of seaside locations, and uses the beaches of her youth as a backdrop for restaging memories of love and loss while playing games and pondering creativity. Mixing archive clips, observational material, constructed fantastical sequences and to-camera reminiscences, she roams the country, musing on interesting random encounters.
One moment she’s sailing down the Seine; the next, she’s walking around dressed as a potato in her own art exhibition. It could be twee, this national treasure having fun with her memories. But Varda is sharp and no pushover. She has strong opinions on being an artist, on feminism, on the need for culture-makers to depict the working class with dignity, and on the importance of film-makers and artists being part of social change [ . . . ]
Amorous dolphin forces bathers ashore in Finistère
Mayor of Breton town issues swimming ban as lovey-dovey dolphin causes chaos off coast
An overly amorous dolphin has prompted the mayor of a coastal town in Finistère to ban swimming in the sea.The dolphin, which has been named Zafar, is well-known in the Plougastel-Daoulas area – and has even become something of a mascot to kayakers and other water sports enthusiasts.But as it enters mating season, the animal has moved further down the coast to Landévennec, a small town famous for its abbey – where it has been butting up alongside boats and chasing swimmers. [ . . . ]
Continue at THE CONNEXION: Amorous dolphin forces bathers ashore in Finistère
French wine bounces back after horror 2017
Ministry forecasts 25% year-on-year increase in production
Wine production in France should be 25% higher than in 2017, when late Spring frosts wrecked the grape crop, the Agriculture Ministry has said.
Producers in France expect to create some 46.1million hectolitres of wine in 2018, the Ministry announced – a rise of a quarter on 2017. Winemakers themselves, meanwhile, predicted an output of 44.5million hectolitres this year.
The summer heatwave does not appear to have damaged crops – and, in some cases, it may have saved it from mildew that threatened vines in early summer.
Production is expected to be below the five-year average in Languedoc-Roussillon, Corsica and the south-east, due to mildew, while Merlot grapes in Bordeaux were also affected – but in the latter’s case it is not expected to hit recovery.
Meanwhile, the heatwave actually stopped the spread of mildew in Burgundy, Beaujolais, Alsace and Champagne – leading to what are expected to be bumper harvests.
