Top of the Food Chain (of Fools)
I happened to watch in the seatback in front of me at 34,000 feet two smarmy (ok, obnoxious) money men dangling carrots in front of contestants in a reality TV show about food. They weren't actual carrots but the hopeful competitors stood the chance to get some advice and financing, which could help launch their restaurant/food businesses and make them flourish.One team had a tasty-looking vegan hot dog, with homemade pickles and toppings, which one moneyman seemed to like. The ...
Wake Up, Consumers. Is Nanotech the New GMO?
No question, consciousness around genetic modification of our food supply has skyrocketed in the last few years. It wasn't that long ago when advocate and teacher Marion Nestle virtually gave up trying to wake up consumers and now, in 2014, there has been a groundswell of consumer and activist interest in ensuring that we at least know about (if not stop) genetic manipulation of our food through unnatural means (food where “genetic material has been altered in a way that does not occur ...
Bad Eggs: Even Cynics Find Meat Tactic a New Low
The Washington Post's The Influence Industry column writes about a new lobbying group charged with stopping provisions in the 2012 farm bill to make the egg biz a teeny bit more tolerable (for the birds not the eggs companies).This follows last year's agreement between the the Humane Society and the United Egg Producers, reached after years of enmity, on measures that would (in our humble opinion) only incrementally (at best) improve the lives of the poor hens. [Apparently, they'll ...
World Hunger & What We Know Now
Almost a billion people go hungry today... and that's the good news apparently. According to a recent Oxfam report, the worst is coming with food prices soaring while the mega food companies enjoy enormous profits. Something's wrong.In the wake of numerous reports about food cost increases, including the from the UN's food and agriculture organization, Oxfam has added its voice with a lengthy report explaining how things are just going to get worse. Apparently, while mega companies ...
Poison and What We Eat
... Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post wrote recently about the hostile "hyperbole and poisonous rhetoric from the business lobby" that seeks to resist anything that doesn't let business do what it wants. He talks about the energy industry, but it definitely applies to big agri-pharma-food businesses too."Attack," (like in trained dog) is how we'd characterize the basic lobbying style. Attack anyone and everyone who disagrees with you with the most vile and false claims all the ...
Why We love High-Fructose Corn Syrup…or, “Love that Top.”
We've heard that the High Fructose Corn people have been feeling a bit beleaguered. Even after Audrae Erickson, president of the the Corn Refiners Association, a trade group in Washington that represents the biggest makers of high-fructose corn syrup, put up a Web site, HFCSFacts.com, to blunt criticism of the sweetener (check out video of moms chatting about HFCS), it's not going well.The popular Facebook page attaching HFCS and some sometimes hilarious YouTube parodies (Love That ...
Good is Bad? Disinformation and Healthy Food
A news story today asserts that "Healthy Foods Carry Hidden Dangers," pointing out that foods like leafy greens can be dangerous, harboring E.Coli and other nastiness. Listing the top ten foods identified in a study by the Center for Science and the Public Interest, the story ratchets up the food hysteria a bit. One might think that for optimum health, we should just avoid these foods.Unfortunately, the problem is NOT the food... or even our food safety inspection system in the first ...
Influence Peddlers and What We Eat
The Washington Post, reporting all things politico, had a story today about our new Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, formerly Iowa governor. Apparently, he's trying to reassure worried food policy activists, Michael Pollan among them, who think it's going to be agribusiness as usual. Certainly in these times, with accusations of sleeping regulators who allow (even effectively condone) fraud and influence peddlers running amok (isn't that their job?), it's a real worry.The fundamental problem here, ...
