Describing an Iowa pig’s miserable, short life as “the state of your bacon–circa 2009,” this author recaps the “horror stories about the food industry” and how he believes things have gotten worse. “The U.S. agricultural industry can now produce unlimited quantities of meat and grains at remarkably cheap prices,” Walsh writes. “But it does so at a high cost to the environment, animals and humans. Those hidden prices are the creeping erosion of our fertile farmland, cages for egg-laying chickens so packed that the birds can’t even raise their wings and the scary rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria among farm animals. Add to the price tag the acceleration of global warming–our energy-intensive food system uses 19 percent of U.S. fossil fuels, more than any other sector of the economy. And perhaps worst of all, our food is increasingly bad for us, even dangerous.” Some Americans are working to transform the way…
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“After responding to a radio commercial seeking former banana-plantation workers for a lawsuit against Dole Food Co., Marcos Sergio Medrano thought he might be entitled to some money,” begins this article exploring fraud allegations against lawyers and plaintiffs in banana-pesticide litigation. “He says an American law firm convinced him that a pesticide used on the Dole-operated banana plantation where he had worked years ago had made him sterile. Lawyers for the 49-year-old peasant produced tests that purported to prove it. But DNA testing by Dole revealed that he had fathered three children—something Mr. Medrano says was news to him.” Stecklow writes that Medrano, of Chinandega, Nicaragua, is part of the “sorry fallout from a group of U.S. personal-injury and other lawyers who descended on this small, impoverished city, seeking to recruit thousands of clients and earn up to 40 percent of any awards. Emboldened by a developing-world legal system that…
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has filed lawsuits against companies that make, market or supply açai berry products, touted as weight loss dietary supplements, charging that they are scamming consumers with aggressive marketing campaigns, prematurely billing their credit cards, not always supplying the product ordered, and making it nearly impossible to cancel once a “free trial” has been implemented. The product ads purportedly feature images of celebrities such as Rachel Ray, Oprah Winfrey, Mehmet Oz, M.D., Gwyeth Paltrow or Courtney Love, despite their alleged lack of a promotional contract with the companies. The complaints seek injunctive relief, restitution and civil penalties.
A North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) tribunal has reportedly awarded $58 million in damages to Corn Products International’s Mexican affiliate after finding that Mexico imposed discriminatory taxes on beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The tribunal determined in January 2008 that Mexico had breached its NAFTA obligations to favor its domestic sugar industry by requiring a 20 percent tax on HFCS-sweetened beverages. According to a news source, the tax was also imposed in retaliation for U.S. curbs on surplus Mexican sugar imports in the 1990s, an anti-dumping practice declared illegal by the World Trade Organization. See FoodNavigator-USA.com, August 29, 2009.
In the wake of lawsuits filed by the manufacturer of a pomegranate-juice based product line, consumers have now begun seeking damages against the same defendants for alleged deception and fraud in the sale of pomegranate juice purportedly containing “little or no pomegranate juice.” Burcham v. Welch Foods, Inc., No. 09-05946 (C.D. Cal., filed August 14, 2009). Additional information about the lawsuits filed by POM Wonderful LLC against Welch Foods, Inc. and Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. appears in issues 290 and 313 of this Update. According to plaintiff Maryam Burcham, seeking damages for herself and a class of “All persons residing in California who purchased Welch’s ‘White Grape Pomegranate Juice,”’ the defendant’s product “purports to combine white grape and pomegranate into a single juice product. However, the truth is that the main ingredients in Defendant’s White Grape Pomegranate Juice are actually cheap white grape and apple juice, instead of pomegranate juice,…
A federal court in New York has decided to allow most parts of a new state bottle-deposit law to take effect, lifting a injunction that would have delayed implementation until April 2010. Int’l Bottled Water Ass’n v. Paterson, No. 09-4672 (S.D.N.Y., decided August 13, 2009). Additional details about the litigation challenging the law’s constitutionality appear in issue 305 of this Update. The court’s decision overturns an order entered in late May 2009 granting injunctive relief. According to a news source, the ruling means that soft drink and beer makers must now give the state 80 percent of the unclaimed 5-cent deposits, and store and redemption handling fees will increase from 2 cents to 3.5 cents per container. Water companies making products containing flavored water, vitamin water and artificial sweeteners have apparently been given until October 22 to comply with the law, unless they can prove compliance is impossible. They did…
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Department of Agriculture and Office of the Acting Secretary for Food Safety have announced a public meeting to address an upcoming session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the international food standards body established by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization. Slated for October 8, 2009, the meeting will consider U.S. draft positions pertaining to the 31st Session of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) to be held November 2-6 in Dusseldorf, Germany. CCNFSDU studies nutritional problems and advises the Codex on general nutritional issues; drafts general provisions concerning the nutritional aspects of all foods; develops standards, guidelines and related texts pertaining to foods for special dietary uses; and considers provisions on nutritional aspects proposed for inclusion in Codex standards. The U.S. agencies will also hold a working group on October…
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced the availability of draft guidance titled “Guidance for Industry: Labeling of Certain Beers Subject to the Labeling Jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration [FDA].” The agencies have issued the document “in light of the recent ruling by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) (formerly The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)) clarifying that certain beers do not meet the definition of a ‘malt beverage’ under the Federal Alcohol Administration Act (FAA Act).” According to HHS, beers that do not fall under FAA Act jurisdiction “are subject to the labeling provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) and the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA).” The draft guidance also “reminds manufacturers that the labeling of wine beverages containing less than 7 percent alcohol by volume, such as wine coolers, diluted wine…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it will decide by November 30, 2009, whether the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) is safe for use in food packaging. FDA Acting Deputy Commissioner and Chief Scientist Jesse Goodman has reportedly told the agency’s Science Board that a group of FDA scientists will conduct a new review of more than 100 studies on BPA and that the review will be assessed by a group of government scientists not affiliated with FDA. Commissioner Margaret Hamburg will review the science and recommendations, and then determine whether BPA is safe when used in food containers. Scientific evidence on whether the levels of BPA in products are harmful has been hotly disputed. Last year, FDA said the chemical was safe because the small amounts that leach from food containers do not threaten children or adults. But its Science Board rejected that decision, apparently claiming that…
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has determined that federal food labeling law does not preempt the state law-based claims filed by a consumer who challenged Snapple’s designation of beverages containing high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as “natural.” Holk v. Snapple Beverage Corp., No. 08-3060 (3d Cir., decided August 12, 2009). The appeals court reversed a lower court ruling dismissing the claims on the basis of implied preemption. The complaint, originally filed in state court, but removed to federal court in 2007 under the Class Action Fairness Act, initially asserted that Snapple products were not “All Natural” because they contained HFCS; they were not “Made from the Best Stuff on Earth”; and Snapple falsely labeled some beverages, naming them after fruit-juice varieties that were not actually in the beverages. The plaintiff alleged unjust enrichment and common law restitution, breach of express and implied warranties and violations of the New Jersey…
