Digest: EWG database debuts, curbing kid ads, Mississippi polluter ID’d
NEWS
Everybody must read Mulch: The Environmental Working Group’s just-unveiled new online database provides “nearly” full disclosure of federal farm subsidy beneficiaries — and has a handy Google map feature to check out the porky people in the Bay Area. (More on that later, wethinks.) So what’s new? For the first time, the thousands of subsidy recipients who previously hid behind layers of limited liability corporations and other business structures are revealed in all their federal-welfare glory. EWG prez Ken Cook’s blog Mulch is the database’s front door, and he’s been posting like mad about the database; or you can check out some of the frenzy of coverage.
Sick at Nite: Researchers found that 88 percent of Nickelodeon commercials, 76 percent of its magazine ads and 60 percent of the branded grocery products promote foods of poor nutritional quality, including candy and sugary cereals, to kids. (Medical News Today) In related news, the New York Times reports that Kellogg announced today that it will phase out advertising its products to children under age 12 unless the foods meet specific nutrition guidelines for calories, sugar, fat and sodium. Kellogg and Viacom, the parent company of Nickelodeon, were threatened with a lawsuit over their children’s advertising by two advocacy groups and two Massachusetts parents.
The Dread Zone: Scientists have at last confirmed that agricultural fertilizer runoff is responsible for the ginormous ‘Dead Zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico.The panel said the pollution was not irreversible, but could take decades to fix and recommended paying farmers “to change behavior.” They also warned that “extreme rapid growth of grain-based ethanol production has major water quality implications” for the Mississippi River basin and the country. (St. Louis Today)
Organic label standardized in EU: The amount of organic farmland in the European Union has doubled since 1998. The EU has agreed to rules for an “EU organic label” for foods that have 95% or more of the ingredients produced using organic methods. One part of the rule is receiving some criticism: an allowance for 0.9% of genetically-modified content when it is “technically unavoidable.” (Houston Chronicle (AP))
Tar Heels show heart: North Carolina law allows farmworkers to live in conditions that many people would find unimaginable. Cardboard stands in for mattresses at the worst, and workers are guaranteed only 50 square feet of space. (In California, a source says, farmers have stopped providing housing and don’t care if workers are homeless as long as they show up.) The N.C. General Assembly appears ready to make changes — albeit modest — to improve some of those conditions. (Charlotte Observer)
The PRC strikes back: China seizes rancid U.S. nuts amid health scares. (Reuters)
Heavy pesticide exposure linked to brain cancer (Reuters)
Ethanol projected to use 30% of U.S. corn crop in 2012 (Reuters)
ON THE BLOGS, ETC.
Organic exceptions: Sam Fromartz put up a simultaneous counterpoint to our post below about the additions to the USDA’s approved ingredient list for organic food. He offers a lot more insight into how it’s decided what’s allowed in that mystery 5%, and offers an intriguig take: these exemptions are necessary “unless you want to take the next logical position and ban many organic processed food products.” (Chews Wise)
Do not pass go, monopolies: Friend o’ Ethicurean Aimee Witteman tackles the Department of Justice’s schizophrenic stance on consolidation in the food industry with a wonderfully wonky post at Gristmill. (Whole Foods & Wild Oats? Far more dangerous than the meatpackers’ consolidation, says the DoJ.) “Given such brazen inconsistencies, Congress needs to step in and give the executive branch some direction when applying antitrust theory to food companies,” says Aimee — like by adding a Competition Title to the Farm Bill. (Gristmill)
Give this man a Food Network show, STAT!: Jay of The Linkery restaurant ruminates on Michael Pollan’s recent lecture and how “when we crave a steak or a pork chop, and go into a restaurant with that in mind, we create a world in which it’s economically sensible for restaurants to always have steaks and pork chops on hand” — and why the whole-animal alternative is better. We wish Jay had a bigger megaphone, because the country needs a chef like him talking about these issues. Even if he doesn’t like us calling him a chef. (Casing the Joint)
Katzen jam: To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Moosewood Cookbook, the June 9 edition of Sierra Club Radio features an interview with veggie visionary Mollie Katzen.
Want to drink raw milk? Turn up the heat in your state by “adopting a regulator” (The Complete Patient)
Why I Hate Food Bloggers By Mario Batali (Eater.com)
FEATURES & COMMENTARY
Catch-22: A good overview by Olivia Wu of the ethical tradeoffs involved in eating farmed fish. Salmon, we’re talking to you. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Bitter contest: A stellar feature recounts the unusual origins and philosophy of tiny, eco-friendly, politically correct Grenada Chocolate Co. Can it survive in a Hershey’s world? (Salon)
Step up, Bay Area: “Diet for a Dead Planet” author Christopher Cook proposes a food bill for San Francisco, one that “could be a model for making America’s food future truly healthful, socially just, and sustainable — and encourage other cities to buck the corporate food trend.” (San Francisco Bay Guardian)
Multi-culti market in Maryland: A new D.C.-area farmers market features minority and immigrant farmers and is intended to serve the predominantly Salvadoran and increasingly West African, Indian and Caribbean immigrants in the surrounding areas. Plus, it is the first Maryland market to accept food stamps. (Washington Post)
Fats of strength: Frank Bruni’s paean to pork belly and pork butt, sweetbreads (”the gateway offal”) and the other examples of the fat fad sweeping New York’s restaurants is a fun read — for carnivores, anyway. But we wish he’d mention that conventionally raised hogs have had almost all fat bred out of them, or that fat from hogs raised on pasture appears to have a much healthier fat profile than that of strictly grain-fed, factory-confined hogs. (New York Times)
Rebuilding the ecosystem: Reduced pesticide use in Britain helps river otter populations rebound, reminding us that whether organic food is inherently more nutritious or not, reducing pesticide use in agriculture has benefits far beyond the farm. (Reuters)
Barbara Lee eats for me: For Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland, CA), surviving for a week on $21 worth of groceries — the Food Stamp diet — was a lesson in why poverty and chronic health problems often go hand in hand. (Inside Bay Area)
Chew something: Slow Food founder and leader Carlo Petrini shares 5 concrete ways food lovers can join the eco-gastronomic revolution. (Epicurious.com)
Tap water vs. crap water: With the special Pur Flavored Water Filter faucet mount, you can drink filtered strawberry, peach, and raspberry flavored water. We guess if it stops people buying fossil-fuel drenched bottles of vitamin water… (DailyCandy)
COOL opinion: Debra Eschmeyer, project director of the National Family Farm Coalition, says we’re victims of uninformed consent when it comes to our food. “It’s sad that we often know more about where our clothes come from than where our food originated.” Country-of-origin-labeling standards would help. (AlterNet)
Poultry deception: Processors have been injecting some fresh poultry with up to 15 percent water, salt and elements of seaweed in recent years because, they say, it makes the meat taste better and government regulators allow it. (Baltimore Sun)
California’s prison chow acommodates vegetarians and vegans (San Francisco Chronicle)
Nutritionally, brown sugar and white sugar are not much different (New York Times)
