Category: Issue 326
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Elizabeth Kolbert, “Flesh Of Your Flesh: Should You Eat Meat?,” The New Yorker, November 9, 2009
“How is it that Americans, so solicitous of the animals they keep as pets, are so indifferent toward the ones they cook for dinner?,” asks Elizabeth Kolbert in this review of Jonathan Safran Foer’s latest nonfiction work, Eating Animals. According to Kolbert, Foer attempts to tackle this inconsistency through a series of vignettes exploring the…
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Krista Mahr, “The Hunt for Tuna: A Tough Catch,” Time, November 9, 2009
Describing the world’s tuna trade as “an awesome 21st century hunt,” Mahr’s article explores how “for some species of tuna, the chase is becoming unsustainable.” In 1950, she reports, about 600,000 tons of tuna were caught worldwide while in 2008, that number hit nearly 6 million tons. Particularly worrisome are the dwindling numbers of Atlantic…
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Paul Voosen, “Trade Chaos Looms as GM Crops Proliferate,” Greenwire, November 2, 2009
The third in a five-part series about genetically modified (GM) crops, this article focuses on the frustrations of importers and exporters over stringent European rules about even trace amounts of GM material in conventional crops. Apparently, European regulators have stopped more than 10 soybean or soy meal shipments from the United States this year because…
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Litigation Could Foster Weight-Based Discrimination by Employers
According to a news source, employers may have more reason to avoid hiring overweight employees after a workers’ compensation board in Indiana and the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that employers must pay for weight-loss surgery if their obese employees suffer weight-related injuries on the job. With no laws banning employment discrimination against the obese, beyond…
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CSPI Reports Noncompliance with Bt Corn Regulations
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) recently published a report titled “Complacency on the Farm: Significant Noncompliance With EPA’s Refuge Requirements Threatens the Future Effectiveness of Genetically Engineered Pest-Protected Corn,” which maintains that “one out of every four farmers who plants genetically engineered (GE) corn is failing to comply with at least…
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Consumer Reports Publishes Results of BPA Testing
Consumers Union (CU) has issued the results of bisphenol A (BPA) testing on 19 name-brand canned foods such as soups, juice, tuna, green beans, and infant formula. According to a December 2009 Consumer Reports article titled “Concern Over Canned Foods,” the tests revealed that both organic and conventional foods contained detectable BPA levels, including “some…
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Chinese Honey Maker Pleads Guilty in Conspiracy to Illegally Smuggle Goods
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has brought conspiracy charges against the president of a honey manufacturer from China in an alleged scheme to illegally dump adulterated honey on the U.S. market, and recently announced that the defendant pleaded guilty. The product was apparently shipped through the Philippines and Thailand between 2005 and 2008 to avoid steep…
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Californians Sue Unilever for Marketing Margarine with Trans Fat as Healthy
California residents have filed a putative class action in federal court against the company that makes a number of margarine products, alleging that the products are falsely marketed “as healthful despite the fact its margarines have dangerous levels of artificial trans fat, a toxic food additive banned in many parts of the world.” Red v.…