These gains don't cause pain. A capital gain is the amount of money you pocket by selling one of your investments for more than you paid for it. Technically, capital gains only count for what's called a capital asset, but that's really just anything you own for investment purposes. Stocks and bonds obviously qualify, but your house and household furnishings can also count.

For tax purposes, capital gains are classified as either long-term (held for more than one year) or short-term (held for less than one year) and there are different tax implications for how long you hold onto a capital asset. For most long-term capital gains, you're taxed no more than 15% of the value of the asset. Short-term gains get taxed as regular income, so you pay the rate for the tax bracket you're in.

Capital gains can also be realized or unrealized. When you physically sell an asset like a stock, you've realized the capital gain. When you're holding the stock, and it has a value over its purchase price, but you're not selling it, you've got an unrealized gain, and you won't realize it until you sell.

In a perfect world, we'd all have capital gains. But no one¿s that smart or lucky. When the value of an asset at sale is below what you've paid for it, it's called a capital loss. The good news is that the government lets you count that loss against any gains you've had, lowering the taxes you pay. In fact, many people who sell a stock that has risen far over their purchase price tend to sell some stinkers, too, at the same time for the tax benefit. This is known as a capital-loss offset.

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Monday, August 18, 2008

ConAgra Foods to Eliminate Eight Million Pounds of Plastic Waste with New Frozen Meal Tray Design

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OMAHA, Neb., Aug 18, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) ----ConAgra Foods (NYSE:CAG) announced today that it is the first company in North America to incorporate post-consumer recycled plastic in its frozen meal trays, which will divert approximately 8 million pounds of plastic from landfills to the recycling stream annually.

ConAgra Foods has begun to use between 30 percent and 40 percent post-consumer recycled plastic in nearly all of its frozen meal trays for Healthy Choice(R), Banquet(R), Kid Cuisine(R) and Marie Callender's(R) products. Most frozen meals trays used by other companies are made of crystallized PET plastic, a material that uses only newly produced plastics and that requires more energy and resources to produce. ConAgra Foods is the only company in North America using post-consumer recycled plastic in frozen meal trays.

Post-consumer recycled plastic is packaging that has been used by consumers that primarily is sent to landfills, such as plastic bottles. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, only about 30 percent of plastic soda bottles are recycled each year. Through these new meal trays, ConAgra Foods will use at least 8 million pounds of post-consumer recycled plastic annually.

ConAgra Foods partnered with Associated Packaging Technologies to utilize a new technology that cleans recycled plastic for use as a component in frozen meal trays. Older plastics technologies limited food companies to using only new plastic to comply with regulations for direct food contact materials. The new ultra-clean processing technology makes it safe for consumers to eat the prepared food directly from the frozen meal trays. The new trays are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as direct food contact materials.

"Our commitment to innovation means we are looking at all aspects of our products as we consider new ways to improve them, including finding ways to be more environmentally responsible," said Gail Tavill, ConAgra Foods vice president, Sustainability. "As a leading packaged foods company, ConAgra Foods can make a positive impact on the environment by finding new ways to reduce waste, and our new frozen meal trays with post-consumer recycled plastic will ensure that the equivalent of 128 million 20-ounce plastic bottles won't go to landfills each year."

By incorporating post-consumer recycled plastic in its frozen meal trays, ConAgra Foods will:

-- Eliminate about 8 million pounds of plastic from going to landfills, which is the equivalent of approximately 128 million 20-ounce plastic bottles, per year.

-- Save 236 million BTUs of energy, which is enough energy to run 2,593 average American homes for one year.

-- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15,200 tons of CO2 per year, which is the same as taking nearly 2,000 cars off the road each year.

ConAgra Foods began the transition to the new trays in June 2008. The company's frozen meal trays are now being produced using the more environmentally friendly material and will appear on store shelves this summer.

ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) is one of North America's leading packaged food companies, serving grocery retailers, as well as restaurants and other foodservice establishments. Popular ConAgra Foods consumer brands include: Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Hunt's, Marie Callender's, Orville Redenbacher's, PAM, and many others. For more information, please visit us at www.conagrafoods.com.

SOURCE: ConAgra Foods, Inc.

ConAgra Foods, Inc. Stephanie K. Childs, 402-595-6258 Director, Communication stephanie.childs@conagrafoods.com
   www.conagrafoods.com

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