Category: Media Coverage
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Michael Pollan, “Big Food vs. Big Insurance,” The New York Times, September 10, 2009
“The American way of eating has become the elephant in the room in the debate over health care,” states Times writer Michael Pollan in this op-ed piece asserting that “our success in bringing health care costs under control ultimately depends on whether Washington can summon the political will to take and reform a second, even…
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Kristin Choo, “Hungry for Change: The Feds Consider a Steady Diet of Stronger Regulation to Help Fix the U.S. Food Safety Network,” ABA Journal, September 2009
Freelance writer Kristin Choo opens this overview of food safety in the United States by observing, “You could fill a shopping cart with foods recently linked to outbreaks of illness caused by contamination. In June, it was cookie dough. In May, it was alfalfa sprouts. Before that, it was pistachios, peanuts, spinach, tomatoes, jalapeno peppers…
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Meg Kissinger & Susanne Rust, “BPA Industry Fights Back: Public Relations Blitz Takes Cue from Tobacco Companies’ Past Tactics,” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, August 22, 2009
This article discusses a four-month Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel investigation into the initiatives allegedly undertaken by the plastics industry to forestall the proliferation of local, statewide and national restrictions on the use of bisphenol A (BPA) in food and beverage product packaging. According to the authors, “The industry has launched an unprecedented public relations blitz that uses many…
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Bryan Walsh, “America’s Food Crisis and How to Fix It,” Time, August, 20, 2009
Describing an Iowa pig’s miserable, short life as “the state of your bacon–circa 2009,” this author recaps the “horror stories about the food industry” and how he believes things have gotten worse. “The U.S. agricultural industry can now produce unlimited quantities of meat and grains at remarkably cheap prices,” Walsh writes. “But it does so…
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Steve Stecklow, “Fraud by Trial Lawyers Taints Wave of Pesticide Lawsuits,” The Wall Street Journal, August 20, 2009
“After responding to a radio commercial seeking former banana-plantation workers for a lawsuit against Dole Food Co., Marcos Sergio Medrano thought he might be entitled to some money,” begins this article exploring fraud allegations against lawyers and plaintiffs in banana-pesticide litigation. “He says an American law firm convinced him that a pesticide used on the…
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Karen Kaplan, “The Science of Salmonella,” The Los Angeles Times, August 10, 2009
“This is Salmonella’s world. We’re just living in it,” claims science writer Karen Kaplan of The Los Angeles Times in this article exploring the evolution of the deadly bug responsible for recent pistachio and peanut recalls. “The bacterium appeared on the planet millions of years before humans, and scientists are certain it will outlast us too.…
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Bijal Trivedi, “The Calorie Delusion: Why Food Labels Are Wrong,” New Scientist, July 15, 2009
This article explores how the method of estimating the calories in food, developed in the late 19th century, may provide misleading information on the amount of energy people actually get from a food. The calorie counts are calculated by burning small samples of food, and science writer Bijal Trivedi observes, “Nutritionists are well aware that…
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Sherry Colb, “Child Obesity as Child Neglect: Is the Standard American Diet Dangerous?,” FindLaw.com, July 22, 2009
Cornell Law School Professor Sherry Colb discusses the recent incident involving the removal of a morbidly obese teen from the custody of his mother for child neglect. Colb questions the wisdom of South Carolina’s decision to place the child in the state’s protective custody, suggesting, “the government could spend considerably less money providing [the mother]…