Category: Media Coverage
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Sarah Newman, “Is Goat the New Cow? Why American Foodies and Environmentalists Are Reviving the Old-World Staple,” AlterNet, March 16, 2010
“Goats were the first animals raised for food that were domesticated by humans 9,000 years ago,” writes Participant Media researcher Sarah Newman in this article examining the impact of goats on the world’s food supply. “Currently, two-thirds of all red meat eaten worldwide is goat meat,” common fare for a few billion people currently inhabiting…
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Claudia Kalb, “Culture of Corpulence,” Newsweek, March 22, 2010
This article invokes public-health campaigns of the past, including measures taken to increase seat belt use and stop drunk driving, to call for “big-think solutions” to the nation’s obesity problems. The author outlines the factors that have led to a tripling of obesity rates among teenagers, such as a decrease in physical activity; ubiquitous high-calorie,…
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Lyndsey Layton, “Alternatives to BPA Containers Not Easy for U.S. Foodmakers to Find,” The Washington Post, February 23, 2010
According to this article, companies trying to find ways to can their food products in metal containers without bisphenol A (BPA) have found that the search is costing millions and may not ultimately result in BPA-free foods. Companies no longer using cans with linings containing BPA have apparently found traces of the ubiquitous chemical in…
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Nicholas Kristof, “Do Toxins Cause Autism?,” The New York Times, February 25, 2010
“Concern about toxins in the environment used to be a fringe view. But alarm has moved into the medical mainstream,” writes New York Times op-ed contributor Nicholas Kristof in this February 25, 2010, piece examining a purported shift in how the scientific community perceives the likelihood that ubiquitous chemicals affect the developing brain. Kristof references…
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Sarah Elizabeth Richards, “The Irresistible Baconator,” Slate, February 16, 2010
“Chalk it up to the lack of willpower, sway of culture, or love of the processed carb, but humans aren’t always rational eaters,” argues Sarah Elizabeth Richards in this February 16, 2010, Slate article that questions the effectiveness of efforts to make calorie counts more visible on menus and food packaging. Citing numerous recent studies…
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Mark Bittman, “Soda: A Sin We Sip Instead of Smoke?,” The New York Times, February 12, 2010
“In their critics’ eyes, producers of sugar-sweetened drinks are acting a lot like the tobacco industry of old: marketing heavily to children, claiming their products are healthy or at worst benign, and lobbying to prevent change,” begins New York Times columnist Mark Bittman in this article questioning whether aggressive public health initiatives, like those deployed to…
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Stephanie Clifford, “A Fine Line When Ads and Children Mix,” The New York Times, February 15, 2010
This article claims that recent efforts to monitor and regulate marketing to children has had “an interesting side effect,” that is, a shift away from traditional tactics to “games, contests and events where the advertiser has only a subtle presence— exactly the opposite of what some of the advocacy groups were aiming for.” According to…
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William Neuman, “One Bowl = 2 Servings. F.D.A. May Fix That.,” The New York Times, February 6, 2010
This article discusses the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) renewed interest in revising its approach to food serving sizes as front-of-package labeling gains traction in the marketplace. According to Times writer William Neuman, “The push to re-evaluate serving size comes as the F.D.A. is considering ways to better convey nutrition facts to hurried consumers, in…