Category Archives for "Food Supply & Food Politics"

If it is not already clear to you what stakes Big Ag has in biotechnology, here’s what is coming down the pike. There is a new “super alliance” recently formed, called the Alliance to Feed the Future. This new syndicate brings together huge megacompany members such as the Council for Biotechnology Information (whose members include BASF, DuPont, Dow, and Monsanto), with other huge food processing companies like the International Food Additives Council, American Soybean Association, CropLife America (whose website features stories such as “Benefits of Pesticides and Crop-Protection Chemicals”) the International Formula Council and the National Association of Margarine Manufacturer.

Conventional understanding about fats is based upon a mistake. A giant misconception. An error that has greatly benefited the vegetable oil and food processing industries. Before 1920, heart disease in this country was rare. However, by the 1950’s heart disease was the leading cause of death in America. It still is today. If heart disease is, in fact, related to consumption of fats, we would expect it to be lower, as for the last 30 years we have decreased consumption of saturated fats. However, during this same period, we have greatly increased consumption of polyunsaturated fats from vegetable oils, in the form of liquid oils and margarine.

It takes a group of focused and concerned people such as those at the Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based food and farm policy group, under the leadership of Mark Kastel (CEO) to catch wind of some of the many unethical tactics employed by food companies.

I really like Jamie Oliver. Some of his recipes are great. But what I particularly like about him is his activism and his commitment to making things better for kids. He is out there teaching kids and families a good message. The message is, freshly prepared foods are necessary to stay healthy.

The childhood obesity epidemic is becoming a grave concern to many health care groups. According to the Center for Disease Control, results from the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)—using measured heights and weights—indicate that an estimated 17 percent of children and adolescents ages 2-19 years are obese.

While I don’t always agree with Mark Bittman of the New York Times, his article on Feb 16, 2011 about the dangers of GM (genetically modified) foods and the issue of the FDA and the USDA allowing their manufacturers to NOT label them as GM, is important. This is a controversy that has become glaringly […]

How appropriate that the Weston Price Foundation orchestrated a very interesting press conference on Valentine’s Day (the day of the heart) in Washington DC. to publicize and refute the newly revised USDA Food Guidelines. (Watch the video here). After all, for the past thirty years we have been following their low-fat advice in order to […]