Quote/Chart of the Day: The Sugar Lobby

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Today’s all purpose post begins with the quote of the day. It comes from the LA Times:

From the beginning, fast food and beverage company executives were uneasy about President Obama. He and his wife were known advocates of healthy eating.

That is scary! Advocates of healthy eating could pose a real problem. The industry’s response is our chart of the day:

The entire story is worth reading. As a policy matter I’m not sure whether I support a tax on sugared beverages or not, but in the end it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that the food industry doesn’t want it, they’re willing to spend a lot of money to make sure it never happens, and both interest groups and politicians are unwilling to risk losing their support. So, no tax.

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So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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