“A third or more of all the honey consumed in the U.S. is likely to have been smuggled in from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals,” writes reporter Andrew Schneider in an August 15, 2011, Food Safety News article investigating the U.S. honey trade. Building on earlier media stories such as a January 5, 2011, Globe and Mail exposé covered in Issue 377 of this Update, the latest feature includes U.S. Customs import data indicating, for example, that the United States “imported 208 million pounds of honey over the past 18 months,” with almost 60 percent or 123 million pounds coming “from Asian countries—traditional laundering points for Chinese honey,” and “45 million pounds from India alone.” “This should be a red flag to FDA [the Food and Drug Administration] and the federal investigators. India doesn’t have anywhere near the capacity—enough bees—to produce 45 million pounds…
Category Archives Media Coverage
The New York Times “Room for Debate” series recently tackled illegal farm labor, with six labor policy and economic experts discussing whether “strict enforcement of immigration laws would drive up prices for fruits and vegetables.” According to the commentators, eliminating undocumented workers in the agriculture sector, if possible, would have far-reaching consequences for growers, consumers and other economic sectors. As agricultural and resource economist Michael Roberts explains, the strict enforcement of immigration laws would not only raise domestic fruit and vegetable prices and likely increase cheaper imports, but “the employment effect for citizens could be smaller than some might expect, because illegal immigrants don’t just fill jobs; they also buy stuff with the money they earn, spurring demand and creating jobs in other parts of the economy.” Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks USA, also agreed that expelling immigrant farm laborers would affect “whole sectors of the economy,” since “every farm…
“Insects—part delicacy, part gag—are chic again,” contends New Yorker staff writer Dana Goodyear in an August 15, 2011, article examining the rise of entomophagy, or insect-eating, among U.S. gourmands, sustainability proponents and more adventurous diners. According to Goodyear, “The current vogue reflects not only the American obsession with novelty and the upper-middle-class hunger for authenticity but also deep anxiety about the meat we already eat—which is its own kind of fashion.” She traces the efforts of enthusiasts like Montana State University entomologist Florence Dunkel and James Beard Foundation Outstanding Chef Award winner José Andrés, both of whom want to acclimate local palates to the insects enjoyed by 80 percent of the world’s population. “We need to feed humanity in a sustainable way,” Andrés tells Goodyear. “Those who know how to produce protein will have an edge over everyone else. World War Three will be over control of food and water,…
“The big question is this: How do we get the safest and most ethical food system possible while adequately feeding ourselves?,” asks New York Times columnist Mark Bittman in this latest opinion piece supporting “a massive overhaul of the food system.” Discussing recent E. coli outbreaks in Europe, Bittman concedes that the controversial process known as irradiation “could be a useful tool” in controlling bacteria and other foodborne illnesses, but warns that it should not be viewed as a panacea or replacement for other measures. “The answer will come in steps,” he writes. “[B]etter regulation and inspection of food production; stricter labor laws; more rigorous testing for pathogens, to name just a few— and eventually those steps may lead to a point where irradiation is unnecessary.” Bittman urges lawmakers to adequately fund the Food and Drug Administration’s Food Safety Modernization Act, even while citing “the ironies” inherent in a system…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) recent decision to exempt genetically engineered (GE) Kentucky bluegrass from federal approval has reportedly stirred debate over how the agency regulates biotech crops, with some critics calling the outcome “a blatant end-run around regulatory oversight.” According to a July 1, 2011, press release, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) dismissed a petition from the Center for Food Safety and International Center for Technology Assessment claiming that GE bluegrass developed by Scotts Miracle-Gro for golf courses should be regulated as a “noxious weed” under the Plant Protection Act. After conducting its assessment, APHIS apparently declined to regulate “Kentucky bluegrass, GE or traditional,” as a federal noxious weed because it does not contain plant pest components. As a July 7 New York Times article further explained, GE crops “are regulated under rules pertaining to plant pests” that “are really meant for pathogens and parasites,…
“House Republicans are siding with food companies resisting the Obama administration’s efforts to pressure them to stop advertising junk food for children,” writes Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick in a July 6, 2011, article examining the efforts of individual legislators to stymie proposed Federal Trade Commission (FTC) food marketing guidelines. According to Jalonick, while food companies have lobbied “aggressively” against the proposal, Republican representatives have sought to include a provision in next year’s FTC budget “that would require the government to study the potential costs and impacts of the guidelines before implementing them.” As Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) explained, the guidelines might otherwise “lead to extraordinary pressure from the federal government” on those who do not conform to the voluntary measure. But consumer advocates like the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) have disputed this reasoning. “The industry is exaggerating the influence of these voluntary regulations to gin…
“[T]he movement to preserve heirloom varieties goes way beyond America’s renewed romance with tasty, locally grown food and countless varieties of tomatoes. It’s also a campaign to protect the world’s future food supply,” writes National Geographic’s Charles Siebert in this July 2011 article discussing the dangers of homogeneity when it comes to commercial agriculture and highlighting the work of modern seed banks. Estimating that “we have lost more than half of the world’s food varieties over the past century,” Siebert claims that lack of biodiversity has left the current crop of high-yield vegetables and grains increasingly susceptible to diseases such as Ug99, “a virulent and fast-mutating strain” of Puccinia graminis, or wheat stem rust. “Roughly 90 percent of the world’s wheat is defenseless against Ug99,” writes Siebert, who warns that a significant humanitarian crisis is now inevitable, especially in countries introduced to industrialized agriculture during the green revolution. “Given the…
An Advertising Age article discusses recent litigation filed by parents against Facebook® alleging that the social network has used names and/or likenesses of their children in product endorsements without obtaining parental consent. While no child younger than age 13 is supposed to be able to set up a Facebook® account, Consumer Reports estimates that some 7.5 million of these children have such accounts, with an additional 14.4 million users between ages 13 and 17. When they click a “like” button for a product, such as a food or beverage, no mechanism is apparently available to limit how the children’s images and preferences are then used for advertising purposes on the Internet. According to the article, a large part of the social network’s advertising strategy is to turn users’ “likes” into advertisements showing the users’ names and images. Legal experts are reportedly unsure whether this strategy is legal, even when adults’…
“Push a cart through … any supermarket anywhere in America, and you just might start believing in miracles—or at least in food miracles,” according to Natasha Singer writing in The New York Times about the latest trends in functional foods. “In aisle after aisle, wonders beckon. Foods and drinks to help your heart, lower your cholesterol, trim your tummy, coddle your colon. Toss them into your cart and you might feel better. Heck, you might even live longer.” Singer asks whether these products are actually healthy “or are some of them just hyped.” Noting that the functional food market increased by nearly $10 billion since 2005 to $37.3 billion in 2009, Singer reports that federal regulators and others are concerned about the accuracy of health marketing claims. The article quotes New York University Professor Marion Nestle, who contends, “Functional foods, they are not about health. They are about marketing.” As…
“Over the course of the past half century, during which PepsiCo’s revenues have increased more than a hundredfold, a public-health crisis has been steadily growing along with it. People are getting fatter,” opines The New Yorker’s John Seabrook in this article examining the tension between the ubiquitous snack food empire and its recent foray into “authentic, scientifically advantaged” functional foods designed “for different life stages—snacks for teens, snacks for pregnant women, snacks for seniors.” In particular, Seabrook focuses on PepsiCo’s recruitment of academics, scientists and former regulators to bolster its new global health agenda, which includes efforts to reduce sodium and sugar in its flagship products, as well as launch “better for you” foods that re-create both the physical and aspirational experience associated with high brand recognition. “No one I met at PepsiCo better represents the complicated relationship between private food companies and public health than Derek Yach, the company’s…
