Category: Issue 322
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SHB Partners to Address GMA Food Claims and Litigation Conference
GMA will conduct a conference in Austin, Texas, February 23-25, 2010, titled “2010 Food Claims & Litigation Conference: Emerging Issues in Food-Related Litigation.” Among those scheduled to speak are Shook, Hardy & Bacon Partners Amy Crouch, Greg Fowler, Paul La Scala, and Frank Rothrock. Crouch and Fowler will discuss “Trends in Global Food Litigation: Class…
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Prenatal BPA Exposure Allegedly Linked to Behavioral Problems in Girls
A new study claims that prenatal exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) may make girls more aggressive and exhibit hyperactive behavior. Joe M. Braun, et al., “Prenatal Bisphenol A Exposure and Early Childhood Behavior,” Environmental Health Perspectives (October 2009). Researchers at the University of North Carolina and British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University conducted the study, purportedly…
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Maddow Skewers PR Man and Lobbyist for Not Revealing Funding Sources
Rachel Maddow brought Rick Berman to her MSNBC-TV program on October 6, 2009, to find out how he funds the websites and other public relations initiatives he undertakes to challenge the science on issues ranging from trans fats and mercury in fish to high-fructose corn syrup. Berman claimed that his practice of nondisclosure, which is…
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Michael Moss, “E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection,” The New York Times, October 4, 2009
One hundred three years after Upton Sinclair published his meatpacking industry exposé, The New York Times has published an article explaining how current food safety standards may be responsible for the 16 E. coli-tainted beef outbreaks that have occurred over the past three years. Revealing how failure to test all the scraps and trimmings and…
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U.S. Poultry Industry Asks WTO to Examine European Ban on Antimicrobials
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…
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Groups Launch National Initiative to Fight Obesity
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…
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More Comparisons of Food and Tobacco Made
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…
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Canada Seeks WTO Resolution of COOL Dispute with United States
Canada’s government has reportedly asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) to establish a dispute settlement panel to hear its claims that U.S. country-of-origin labeling requirements for meat have unfairly reduced demand for Canadian products. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Trade Representative Ron Kirk responded to the request by stating, “We regret that formal consultations…