Category: Other Developments
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Rudd Center Releases Guidelines for Portraying Obesity in the Media
The Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has issued new guidelines that aim to “educate media representatives on how to appropriately discuss the disease of obesity in the media.” Titled “Guidelines for Media Portrayals of Individuals Affected by Obesity,” the report notes that the media is an “important and influential source of information about…
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Friends of the Earth Report Targets Nanoparticles in Food
Friends of the Earth has released a May 2014 report titled “Tiny Ingredients Big Risks,” claiming that some popular food products contain unlabeled manufactured nanomaterials. Based on information obtained from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN), the report identifies 94 food and beverage products—including almond milk, cereal, soy and…
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Virtual Reality World Created for Chickens
Iowa State University Assistant Professor Austin Stewart has developed a virtual reality world that he says could be used to convince caged chickens that they are in a free-range environment. Stewart’s project, Second Livestock, envisions round skyscrapers filled with chickens wearing virtual-reality headsets and standing on omnidirectional treadmills. If implemented early in a chicken’s life,…
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NYC Food Policy Center to Host Salt Discussion
The New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College has announced a May 20, 2014, meeting at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College in New York City, to discuss ways of translating conflicting information about salt into public health policy. Professor of Public Health at the City University of New York…
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Coffee-Making Motions May Cause “Barista Elbow”
Repeated motions of lifting pitchers, steaming milk and stamping espresso may cause medial epicondylitis—golfer’s elbow—or other stress injuries in baristas. A recent New York Post article chronicles one woman’s experience with a stress injury allegedly resulting from her job duties as a barista. In addition, a former barista in Canberra, Australia, was recently awarded $600,000…
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Scientists Develop Magnetic DNA Tag to Protect Olive Oil from Counterfeiters
Researchers from Switzerland’s technology and natural sciences university, ETH Zurich, have reportedly developed a method of tagging olive oil that can determine the product’s origin and whether it has been adulterated. Consisting of tiny, magnetic DNA particles encapsulated in a silica casing that are mixed with the oil, a few grams of the material are enough…
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CCFC and CAI Criticize USDA Proposal on Food Marketing in Schools
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and Corporate Accountability International (CAI) published an April 25, 2014, letter to U.S.Department of Agriculture (USDA) School Programs Branch Chief Julie Brewer, criticizing a proposed rule that would require schools “to implement policies for the marketing of foods and beverages on the school campus during the school day…
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Apples Top EWG List of Most Contaminated Produce for Fourth Year
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has issued its 2014 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, which ranks pesticide contamination in “48 popular fruits and vegetables based on an analysis of more than 32,000 samples tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA] and the federal Food and Drug Administration [FDA].” Apples topped this year’s annual “Dirty…