Category: Media Coverage
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AlterNet Article Questions “Nutraceuticals”
“Energy bars and energy drinks are just the tip of this antioxidant-enhanced, vitamin-enriched, high-fiber iceberg,” writes Anneli Rufus in an August 3, 2010, AlterNet article examining health claims based on nutraceuticals such as “vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs, other botanicals, and that amorphous category known as dietary supplements.” According to Rufus, “nutraceuticals hark back to preindustrial…
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Elizabeth Kolbert, “The Scales Fall: Is there any hope for our overfished oceans?,” The New Yorker, August 2, 2010
In this literature review, The New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert recounts the decline of bluefin tuna and other aquatic species due to overfishing, technological advances and lukewarm governance by authorities like the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). According to Kolbert, the world passed “the point of what might be called ‘peak fish’”…
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Elana Schor, “Hydrocarbons in Cereal Stoke New Debate Over Food Safety,” The New York Times, July 13, 2010
This article examines the fallout from Kellogg Co.’s recall of 28 million cereal boxes that, according to a public statement, contained “elevated levels of hydrocarbons, including methyl naphthalene, normally found in the paraffin wax and film in the liners.” The company voluntarily pulled the products after receiving complaints about an “off-flavor and smell,” which caused…
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Food Blogger Claims Agribusiness Takes Page from Tobacco Playbook
La Vida Locavore blogger Jill Richardson claims in a July 6 AlterNet article that a recent webinar touting a “perspective on pesticide residues” was benignly marketed to federal and state health officials by a “self-described non-profit organization,” the Alliance for Food and Farming. While the Alliance’s website does not identify its supporters, Richardson asserts that…
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David Lazarus, “Junk Food and Obesity: Taking a Cue from Tobacco Control,” The Los Angeles Times, June 29, 2010
This article calls for government authorities to treat “junk food” and the obesity epidemic exactly as they addressed smoking. Noting that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest dietary guidelines have recycled the same advice given 30 years ago, while the rate of obese Americans has roughly doubled in that time, columnist Davis Lazarus calls for…
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Andrew Pollack, “Genetically Altered Salmon Get Closer to the Table,” The New York Times, June 25, 2010
“The Food and Drug Administration [FDA] is seriously considering whether to approve the first genetically engineered [GE] animal that people would eat—salmon that can grow at twice the normal rate,” reports New York Times biotechnology correspondent Andrew Pollack in this article about the decade-long regulatory process. Pollack identifies the petitioner as a Waltham, Massachusetts, company…
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Dan Mitchell, “Pollan’s New Rule to Ding Big Food,” The Big Money, June 21, 2010
This recent blog entry claims that author and activist Michael Pollan has publicly renounced his five-ingredient rule—“to eat only foods that list five or fewer ingredients”—because of “the ‘jiu-jitsu’ employed by the food industry whenever someone offers sound advice.” According to Big Money contributor Dan Mitchell, some marketers have capitalized on this widely disseminated “food…
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Mike Steinberger, “What’s in the Bottle?,” Slate, June 14, 2010
This investigative report by Slate’s wine columnist, Mike Steinberger, examines the retailer allegedly at the center of a multimillion dollar fraud rippling throughout the rare wine world. Manhattan-based Royal Wine Merchants apparently provided its clientele with highly desirable wines that were later deemed fakes and traced back to Hardy Rodenstock, a supplier suspected of creating…