Category: Media Coverage
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NYT Covers California’s “Adieu to Foie Gras”
An October 15, 2011, New York Times article has covered the impending ban on foie gras sales in California, where several chefs are apparently staging swan-song dinners in honor of the fatty fare. According to the Times, a law signed eight years ago will in eight months make California the first state to criminalize foie…
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Ashby Jones, “Is Your Dinner ‘All Natural’?,” The Wall Street Journal, September 20, 2011
WSJ Reporter Ashby Jones provides an overview of the recent spate of lawsuits challenging food makers’ claims that their products are “All Natural” or “100% Natural.” Without an official Food and Drug Administration (FDA) definition of the term, determining whether such product claims constitute fraud can be difficult, according to lawyers such as Center for…
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Frances Moore Lappé, “The Food Movement: Its Power and Possibilities,” The Nation, October 3, 2011
The author of the 1971 bestseller Diet for a Small Planet has authored an essay that examines how global agriculture has changed since then. While Francis Moore Lappé notes that 1 billion people are hungry and agribusiness is concentrated in few hands—“in the United States, by 2000, just ten corporations—with boards totaling only 138 people—had…
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Thomas Watkins, “‘Corn sugar’ is false advertising, FDA warns,” AP, September 15, 2011
According to documents obtained by Associated Press reporter Thomas Watkins, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is currently considering a Corn Refiners Association petition to allow high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to be called “corn sugar,” has written to the association indicating concern with the trade group using the terms interchangeably. In the July 12,…
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Wired Blogger Questions Safety of Food Imported from China
Wired magazine’s “Superbug” blogger Maryn McKenna recently published an article questioning China’s food safety record after reports surfaced that 11 people from one Xinjiang province village died “and anywhere from 120 to 140 were sickened” by vinegar contaminated with ethylene glycol. According to McKenna, “The vinegar had been stored in barrels that previously contained antifreeze,”…
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Zoe Tillman, “Grocery bagged,” The National Law Journal, August 22, 2011
According to District of Columbia court reporter Zoe Tillman, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg is currently considering a motion to certify a class in litigation filed by a California consumer in 2008 to challenge the merger of Whole Foods Market Inc. and Wild Oats. As Tillman notes, in March 2009 the Federal Trade Commission settled…
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Food Safety News Examines Honey Trade
“A third or more of all the honey consumed in the U.S. is likely to have been smuggled in from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals,” writes reporter Andrew Schneider in an August 15, 2011, Food Safety News article investigating the U.S. honey trade. Building on earlier media stories such…
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NYT’s “Room for Debate” Tackles Illegal Farm Labor
The New York Times “Room for Debate” series recently tackled illegal farm labor, with six labor policy and economic experts discussing whether “strict enforcement of immigration laws would drive up prices for fruits and vegetables.” According to the commentators, eliminating undocumented workers in the agriculture sector, if possible, would have far-reaching consequences for growers, consumers…