Some 40,000 Atlantic salmon have reportedly escaped a fish farm into Pacific Ocean waters off the coast of British Columbia. They apparently slipped through a hole in the net while farm crews removed fish that had died from low oxygen levels. Recovery was apparently delayed, and Atlantic salmon were found some miles away by commercial fishermen. Fish farm critics have called for closed containment systems for the 35 million salmon raised in fish farms, noting that while Atlantic salmon are not supposed to survive in B.C. waters, escaped farm fish have apparently been found in 80 B.C. rivers, and juvenile Atlantic salmon have been found in three rivers. They called the latest escape “another blow to the health of our marine ecosystems and wild-salmon population.” Meanwhile, the Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources has apparently approved the nation’s first tuna farm off the coast of the Big Island. The…
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Members of the “Size Acceptance Movement” reportedly protested outside the mayor of London’s office recently, urging him to ensure that employers are not prejudiced against overweight people. The group claims that surveys show 93 percent of employers would rather employ a thin person rather than an overweight one even if such individuals are equally qualified. The group evidently wants to ban “fat-ism” in the UK by emulating a San Francisco ordinance that prohibits height and weight discrimination in housing and employment. Demonstrators said the overweight should be protected on the same grounds as race, age and religious discrimination, and that attacking someone for being fat should be a hate crime. “I have been punched, I have had beer thrown in my face, I have had people attack me on the train,” one protestor said. See BBC News, October 19, 2009.
A recent episode of CSI: Miami has reportedly drawn criticism from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and other trade groups for the show’s portrayal of a foodborne illness investigation. Titled “Bad Seed,” the October 20, 2009, installment of the popular CBS drama focused on a fictional outbreak that eventually led the crime scene investigators to discover, not only the origin of a deadly new E. coli strain, but a feedlot using genetically modified (GM) corn. According to the Agricultural Law blog, the plot also covered a wide range of legal issues such as Veggie Libel laws, organic standards, pollen drift and genetic contamination, farmer liability for unauthorized GM crops, undocumented farm workers, farm consolidation, and crop contamination via irrigation water. Plaintiffs’ attorney Bill Marler reportedly provided CBS producers background information for the episode. See Agricultural Law, October 20, 2009 Both the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA)…
The Royal Society has issued an October 2009 report, Reaping the Benefits: Science and the sustainable intensification of global agriculture, that calls for “a £2 billion ‘Grand Challenge’ research program on global food security.” According an October 21 press release, the world must increase food crop production by at least 50 percent by 2050 to meet global demands without damaging the environment. The “Grand Challenge” program should thus aim to support public research and policies designed to explore “new methods of crop management to increase yields and minimize environmental impact. It should also support the development of improved crop varieties by both conventional breeding and genetic modification.” The report assesses “science-based technologies and developments in biological science that are seen to have potential benefits for increasing crop yields.” It specifically examines the consequences and complications of food crop innovation stemming from short-term (less than eight years), medium-term (nine to16 years) and…
A new Rand Corporation study claims that South Los Angeles’ 2008 ban on new or expanded fast-food restaurants is unlikely to improve residents’ diets or reduce obesity because the area actually has a lower concentration of these establishments per capita than other areas of the city. Researchers apparently discovered that South Los Angeles has an abundance of small food stores and other food outlets where residents consumed significantly more “discretionary” calories from sugary or salty snacks and soft drinks compared to residents of wealthier neighborhoods. The ban, approved by the Los Angeles City Council in August 2008, “may have been an important first by being concerned with health outcomes, but it is not the most promising approach to lowering the high rate of obesity in South Los Angeles,” the study’s lead author was quoted as saying. “It does not address the main differences we see in the food environment between Los…
The National Chicken Council and several other industry groups have signed a letter to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, requesting the initiation of a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel to re-establish poultry exports to Europe. According to the letter, the European Union prohibits four antimicrobials commonly applied in the United States to reduce pathogens on processed poultry. The trade groups have reportedly estimated that U.S. poultry exports could exceed $300 million if EU regulators permitted the in plant use of chlorine dioxide, trisodium phosphate, acidified sodium chlorite and peracetic acid in products destined for the European market. “[T]he United States should continue to pursue with the European Union resolution of the issue,” stated the letter, which concluded that “it would be most appropriate to take the issue to the next step in the WTO dispute settlement process.” See NCC News Release, October 1, 2009; Law360, October 2,…
More than 40 retailers, non-governmental organizations, and food and beverage manufacturers have launched a national initiative to reduce obesity in the United States by 2015, especially among children. The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation aims to provide tools to help people achieve healthy weights through “energy balance—calories in balance with calories out” in three areas where they spend the most time: the marketplace, workplace and schools. Founding members have committed $20 million to the endeavor, which will be independently monitored by organizations that will produce public reports about their findings. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) will monitor the marketplace component; the National Business Group on Health will assess workplace efforts; and the Center for Weight and Health at the University of California, Berkeley will audit schools. “If current trends continue, today’s young people may be the first generation in American history to live sicker and die younger than their parents’…
Venture capitalist and physician Mitchell Blutt, writing for Forbes.com, suggests that the rising cost of health care will lead inexorably to the stigmatization of unhealthy foods as the “new tobacco.” According to Blutt, unhealthy food will one day be “publicly identified as an addictive problem and perhaps even some day, deemed a drug.” He believes that government will likely impose taxes on unhealthy foods and beverages, described as those high in calories, such as soft drinks and snacks. He calls the “scientific data demonstrating the health hazards of excessively sugared beverages in children” compelling. But, while he acknowledges that “sin taxes” will reduce consumption of unhealthy foods, he does not believe that these trends will reduce the chronic diseases associated with obesity and poor diet. “That’s generations off,” he concludes. See Forbes.com, October 6, 2009.
The Public Education Center’s (PEC’s) DC Bureau has published a two-part investigative report titled Fish and Paint Chips: The Science and Politics of Ocean Trash, which explores “how plastic and other debris in the world’s increasing pollutants could be channeling toxins straight onto our dinner plates through tainted seafood.” The first part considers research suggesting that once in the ocean, “small bits of plastic are thought to soak up chemicals from paint chips, old metal and other garbage and eventually end up in the guts of the fish we eat.” According to PEC, these floating plastic pellets can act as a “toxic sponge,” absorbing chemicals like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), when passing through “five so-called pollution gyres – massive fields of waste collected by wind and ocean currents in the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific and Indian oceans.” Although some experts are apparently reluctant to extrapolate human health…
The Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI Canada) has issued a report claiming that excess sodium “likely kills more Canadians every year than any other chemical substance” added to food. Titled “Salty to a Fault: Varied Sodium Levels Show Lowering Salt in Processed Foods IS Feasible,” the report surveyed 318 foods and purportedly found that a majority of Canadian restaurants and perhaps most packaged foods sold in grocery stores contain unhealthy and unnecessarily high levels of sodium. It calls on Health Canada to set category-by-category sodium-reduction targets for foods, alleging that “salt remains largely untouched by food safety laws and is grossly underestimated as a public health risk by government officials who generally direct much more attention to substances that pose rare or more acute risks.” The report apparently found varying degrees of sodium among groups of comparable foods, citing as an example two restaurant french fry orders…
