Category: Media Coverage
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Mobiledia Explores Food Traceability Technology
A January 18, 2012, Mobiledia article has highlighted the increasingly sophisticated technology used to trace food back to its source, exploring how QR codes and other tracking devices can help consumers, retailers and regulators follow products from farm to fork. According to Mobiledia contributor Janet Maragioglio, systems like IBM’s InfoSphere label products with unique bar…
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Biologist Criticizes Media “Paranoia” Sowed by Plant MicroRNA Study
A Slate.com science writer has penned a January 17, 2012, “Medical Examiner” blog post criticizing media coverage that used recent microRNA (miRNA) research to erroneously suggest a link between genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and human health. According to biologist Emily Willingham, Nanjing University scientists reportedly identified miRNA from rice and other plant foods in human…
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NPR Disputes Food Safety News Honey Coverage
“Maybe we’re too inclined to believe the worst about supermarket food,” writes NPR’s Dan Charles in a November 25, 2011, column about a recent Food Safety News report suggesting that most honey sold in the United States does not deserve the name. According to NPR, the article in question implied that producers use a process…
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Farmers Struggle to Cope with Alabama Immigration Laws
NBC’s Rock Center recently reported on how Alabama’s new immigration law is affecting farmers in the region, where stricter enforcement measures for undocumented workers have apparently left agricultural communities struggling to find workers. As cucumber farmer Jerry Danford explained to correspondent Kate Snow, the new rules have drained the seasonal labor pool and made it…
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Are Cupcakes as Addictive as Cocaine?
According to Bloomberg reporters Robert Langreth and Duane Stanford, as researchers publish more studies suggesting that processed foods and sugary drinks have drug-like effects on the brain, “the science of addiction could become a game changer for the $1 trillion food and beverage industries.” In their November 2, 2011, article “Fatty Foods Addictive Like Cocaine…
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WSJ Explores Child Obesity in Parental Custody Context
Wall Street Journal reporters Ashby Jones and Shirley Wang consider in “Obesity Fuels Custody Fights” how family courts have increasingly been asked to determine whether nutrition or obesity should be controlling factors in child-custody lawsuits. According to the article, the issue arises in several guises: sometimes the child is obese; other times a junk food…
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Denver Post Investigates Private Food Safety Auditors
The Denver Post has published an October 30, 2011, investigative report that examines the record of private auditors hired by manufacturers to ensure food safety. According to the article, “Many of the most notorious food-illness outbreaks in the recent years were preceded by glowing private safety audits of the producers, prompting calls for oversight of…
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Brownell Calls Soft Drink Industry “Bad as Big Tobacco”; Rudd Center to Issue New Report
Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, recently authored commentary for Time magazine’s online opinion section, advocating “a penny-per-ounce tax on any beverage with added sugar.” According to Brownell’s October 24, 2011, article, “Nearly 20 states or cities in the U.S. have considered or are considering the possibility of…