Category: Other Developments
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Documentary Short on Prosecutorial Conduct Highlights Kosher Meatpacking Plant Executive’s Case
A recently released documentary short, titled “Unjustified: The Unchecked Power of America’s Justice System,” focuses on the fallout from a 2008 immigration raid on a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa. Former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin was later charged with numerous violations, including violating child labor laws, identity theft and bank fraud. He was convicted on…
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Australian Medical Association Tackles Alcohol Marketing
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has released a 60-page report in conjunction with its National Summit on Alcohol Marketing to Young People that accuses industry of targeting children with new media tactics as well as alcohol-flavored food and cosmetic products. Urging “more robust policy and stronger regulatory oversight,” the report aims to document current alcohol…
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Mercury Policy Project Report Targets School Tuna
The Mercury Policy Project (MPP) and a coalition of other consumer groups have released a report claiming that canned albacore tuna sold in U.S. schools may contain higher mercury levels than those reported by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Of the 59 canned tuna samples that MPP tested from this market sector, 48 were…
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Consumer Reports Finds Arsenic in Rice Products, Calls for Federal Standard
After testing more than 200 rice products, Consumer Reports purportedly found levels of total arsenic, both organic and inorganic, far in excess of the federal limit of 10 parts per billion (ppb) for arsenic in drinking water. Among the products tested were baby cereals, crackers, milk, pasta, flour, and an array of brown, white and…
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UK Doctors Urge 9 p.m. Watershed for Food Advertising
The U.K. Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has issued a statement urging regulators to prohibit all TV advertising for foods high in sugar, fat or salt before the 9 p.m. watershed. Citing a 2003 Food Standards Agency review that allegedly measured the impact of food promotion on children, RCPCH President Hilary Cass…
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CARU Recommends Changes to “Froot Loops” Website; Kellogg Agrees
The Kellogg Co. has reportedly agreed to modify its “Froot Loops” cereal website following recommendations from the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU), which called for better disclosure that advertising is present within the site’s games and activities. An “investigative unit of the advertising industry’s self-regulatory system . . . administered by of the Council of Better…
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Golden Rice Study Criticized on Ethical Grounds
A recently published study involving transgenic rice has reportedly drawn criticism from Greenpeace China, which has accused U.S. researchers of using Chinese children “as guinea pigs in [a] genetically engineered ‘Golden Rice’ trial.” According to media sources, the advocacy group has cited a joint Chinese-U.S. study appearing in the August 2012 edition of the American Journal…
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Treatment for Obesity Through Brain’s “Addiction” Center?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reportedly approved the use by Ohio State University (OSU) investigators of brain pacemakers as an obesity treatment. Deep-brain stimulation has apparently been approved for use in the treatment of disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, tremor, dystonia, and severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, and OSU researchers and clinicians evidently made the…