ABC News: Turns out there’s no E. coli in Taco Bell’s green onion samples; they were mislabeled white onions — and even those aren’t the likely culprits. So much for that “CSI: FDA” series the agency was pitching. Three weeks later and the criminal is still loose: according to the L.A. Times, Taco Bell said the lab it hired has tested 300 food samples from its Northeastern restaurants and found no E. coli.
New York Times: Cribbing heavily from Eric Schlosser’s editorial yesterday, the Gray Lady calls for more funds for the FDA and more regulation on produce farms.
Washington Post: The results of an annual poll about American’s attitudes to genetically modified food are out, and this article’s lede says U.S. residents “remain ill-informed about and uncomfortable with biotech food” — but it’s a little murky on what constitutes “ill informed.” For example, respondents, “particularly women, do not like the idea of consuming meat or milk from cloned animals — a view that stands in contrast to scientific evidence that cloned food is safe.” Uh, safe according to which unbiased, long-term studies? Frankly, we expect better from Post reporter Rick Weiss, who’s done a nice job covering the GE rice outbreak and the contamination of Hawaiian native species by GE crops.
St. Louis Dispatch: Continuing in its series of suck-up-to-Monsanto pieces, the Dispatch bemoans how the Green Revolution passed by poor Africa. Sounds like Norman Borlaug has been busily planting seeds of organic discontent lately.
The Prairie Star: In a fit of home-state meat pride, Montana is getting ready to make good on its Country of Origin Placarding Act.
Guardian (UK): Just how bad are bacteria for business? Cadbury Schweppes announced that last summer’s salmonella scare cost the company £30 million.
Harvard Crimson: Harvard students are agitating for cage-free eggs.
New York Times: Energy drinks are getting a lot of buzz, but their side effects on adolescents should be better publicized.
New York Times: A chef experiments with substituting for trans fats in three dishes.
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