Category: Issue 516
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New Book About Caffeine Generates Buzz
Mother Jones has published a March 5, 2014, interview with journalist Murray Carpenter about his forthcoming book, Caffeinated: How Our Daily Habit HelpsUs, Hurts, and Hooks Us, which aims to “bring us the inside perspective at the additive that Salt Sugar Fat overlooked.” Speaking with Maddie Oatman about “how much caffeine is healthy, where the…
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Largest U.S. Grocery Stores Join Pledge Against GE Salmon
The nation’s two largest grocery stores, Kroger and Safeway, have pledged not to sell genetically engineered (GE) salmon, joining a growing group of stores, including Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Aldi, H-E-B, Meijer, Hy-Vee, Marsh, and Giant Eagle, that have already rejected the GE salmon currently under final review by the U.S. Food and Drug…
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EWG Ramps Up Pressure on Companies Using Azodicarbonamide in Foods
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has followed up FoodBabe.com’s Vani Hari’s petition to Subway about using azodicarbonamide (ADA)—a “chemical used to make yoga mats, shoe soles and other rubbery objects”—in its U.S. food products, by launching its own petition directed to major brands purportedly using the chemical in some 500 food products. Details about Hari’s…
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Organic Winemaker Faces Prison and Fine for Refusing to Spray Grapes
A French organic winemaker has reportedly appeared in court to answer to charges that he defied an official order to spray his vineyard with a pesticide to prevent the spread of a leafhopper insect believed to be responsible for a devastating bacterial disease that has affected vines in Burgundy’s Côte-d’Or region, where Emmanuel Giboulot produces…
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Chipotle Employees File Wage-and-Hour Class Action
A former Chiptole Mexican Grill employee has brought a wage-and-hour complaint against the company, including claims of harassment, gender discrimination, retaliation, battery, and wrongful termination. Roberts v. Chipotle Mex. Grill, Inc., No. BC537487 (Cal. Super. Ct., Los Angeles Cty., filed February 26, 2014). Filing on behalf of herself and in a representative capacity on behalf…
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4-MEI Action Filed Against PepsiCo
A California resident has filed a putative statewide class action against PepsiCo, Inc., alleging that the company “touts Pepsi One as follows—‘Full Flavor and One Calorie are now living in complete harmony inside Pepsi One—the drink that unites the taste of regular cola with all the things you like about diet cola’”—without disclosing that it…
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POM Wonderful Seeks Class Decertification in False Advertising MDL
According to a news source, counsel for POM Wonderful LLC has urged federal district court Judge Dean Pregerson to decertify the nationwide class action he certified in consolidated false advertising multidistrict litigation, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Comcast v. Behrend and the plaintiffs’ failure to establish a valid damages model supported the…
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Black Farmers Not Included in Settlement Denied Reconsideration
A federal court in Washington, D.C., has reportedly refused to reconsider its denial of hundreds of claims by African-American farmers who alleged that they were owed a share of the $1.25-billion settlement fund established to compensate a class of farmers allegedly discriminated against by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) loan application process. In re…