Food / Nutrition Articles

FDA ‘Cherry Picked’ Evidence to Push Cloned-Animal Foods

A watchdog group is challenging the US government’s stance on food from cloned animals, accusing regulators of downplaying evidence of health risks in order to serve industry interests.

GE Contaminated Rice Turns up in Mexican Markets

Six months after the US Department of Agriculture announced that the US long-grain rice supply had been contaminated with illegal rice, the genetically modified grains are still showing up in unexpected places.

Monsanto Merger Sows Fears over Skewed Seed Market

A pending merger in the cotton-seed industry is prompting sharp legal and environmental criticisms of biotechnology in US agriculture.

FDA Lab Closure Plan Endangers Public, Watchdogs Say

The Food and Drug Administration is aiming to cut back its research infrastructure at a time when critics say monitoring and regulation are more crucial than ever.

USDA Stocks Organics Board with Business Reps

Food-safety activists are protesting the government's attempt to stack an organic-food advisory board with representatives of corporate agribusiness and food commerce.

More Families to Face 'Heat or Eat' Choice this Winter

Over the next few months, families across the country will be deciding which comes first: staying warm or staying fed. Heating-fuel costs have soared in recent years, now rivaling food, health care and other essential expenses squeezing low-income households.

Meat Contributes to Climate Change, UN Study Confirms

The typical American diet adds significantly to pollution, water scarcity, land degradation and climate change, according to a United Nations report released last week.

Contamination Leads to Legalization of Gene-Spliced Rice

Rather than penalize the company that slipped an illegal strain of genetically modified rice into the human food supply, the USDA has simply approved the grain for marketing.

NYC Considers Ban on Trans Fat in Restaurant Food

The New York City Board of Health has proposed requiring restaurants in the city to phase out their use of trans fats, arguing that consuming the substances can lead to heart disease.

Immokalee Workers Tell Chipotle to Walk Its Talk

Tomato pickers have targeted McDonald’s and the green-tongued Chipotle restaurant chain for buying tomatoes from growers that underpay workers.

Med Students Slam Hospitals’ Fast Food Hypocrisy

Doctors’ lectures on healthy lifestyles do not often translate outside the office, where even hospitals are offering fast food to patients, a new study has found.

Biotech Firm, Govt. Hid Rice Contamination from Public

The recently revealed spread of genetically modified rice has critics alarmed on two levels: the problem itself and the fact that authorities suppressed the news.

Giant Factory Farms Encroach on Communities, Evade Regulation

Environmentalists are warning a new regulation loophole proposed by the EPA would allow more factory farms to pollute with little oversight.

Protesters Resist Sheriffs, Developers in Fight to Save LA Farm

As the conflict over gardeners' access to the nation’s largest known urban community agriculture site heats to a boil, activists use direct action to stave demise.

Critics Warn About Open-ocean Aquaculture; Govt. Plods Ahead

Slammed from nearly every angle for known or expected negative impacts on everything from ecological balance to economic class, should-be “regulators” of a mass fish-farming method may soon get a blank check from Congress.

Consumer Advocates Challenge ‘Misuse’ of ‘Organic’ Label

In the latest skirmish over the meaning of the label "organic" as it is applied to food, small farmers and natural-food advocates are asking the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to impose a minimum pasture time for cows in organic dairies.

Courts, Congress Threaten Protective Food Labels

Legal and legislative moves to standardize federal food warnings – or lack thereof – chip away at states’ prerogative to warn consumers about hazards posed by certain foods.

Fuel Subsidies ‘Undermine’ Small Farmers, Favor Agribusiness

Small farmers and their advocates say funneling tax dollars to big corporations is unwise and unappreciated, especially while an even playing field is the scarcest resource of all.

Farmers Sue USDA Over Modified Alfalfa Crop

Concerned over losing livelihood and ecological diversity, conventional farmers and environmentalists team up to take on the US government’s approval process for genetically engineered crops.

Food-Safety Regulations Threatened by Congress

A bill purportedly designed to create a universal food-labeling standard would, according to consumer advocates, actually undercut laws already in place across the nation. The House of Representatives may vote on the measure as soon as Thursday.

White House Poised to Cut Food Aid for Seniors, Moms

The Bush administration’s 2007 budget proposal includes the total elimination of a program that helps some 500,000 impoverished Americans obtain enough food to make it through each month.

Biloxi, Miss. Suspiciously Evicts Katrina Relief Center

A highly acclaimed nonprofit hurriedly founded in the days following Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of the Gulf Coast has closed its doors on orders from the city government, allegedly to make way for developers.

New Report Shows Increase in Urban Hunger, Homelessness

A the US grows richer as a nation each year, the number of people needing food and shelter likewise continues to grow. Despite claims of an improved economy, the number of hungry and homeless residents rose over the past year, according to the annual US Conference of Mayors report. The news affirms previous studies by a variety of groups and shows a trend documented by the annual study since its 1982 inception.

Gulf Coast Hunger Spreads as Food Banks Struggle

After experiencing record demand for food immediately after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Gulf Coast food banks are now in danger of coming up short. Local food banks throughout the region are warning that many people in the area are already going hungry.

Food Stamp Decision May Leave Some Out in the Cold

The Bush administration told several states earlier this week that they could not use the projected rise in home-heating costs to increase food-stamp benefits. The decision came as Congress prepares cuts to the program in a move that may leave an additional 250,000 needy people without food aid this year.

Junk-food Marketing Out of Control, Report Concludes

Food makers continue to market products high in fat and sugar and low in nutrients to children, aiding a growing trend in poor nutrition and childhood obesity, a newly released report found. The marketing efforts have grown more sophisticated, crossing over into virtually every entertainment venue.

Fruits, Veggies Now Linked to Most Major Salmonella Cases

In an analysis that raises more questions about the safety of food-processing and food-handling regulations in the United States, a public-health advocacy organization this week revealed that the most widespread and dangerous Salmonella outbreaks in the nation are now being caused by produce that has come in contact with byproducts of the meat, poultry and fishing industries.

FEMA Held Off on Requesting Hurricane Relief Workers

Adding fuel to recent and growing criticism of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, a recently revealed government memo shows that the federal agency tasked with handling emergency relief efforts waited until after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast before seeking additional authority to deploy thousands of Department of Homeland Security personnel to the area.

U.N. Relief Supplies, Teams Sit Waiting for Bush to Say ‘Please’

Even though the United Nations has at the ready disaster relief teams, generators, water storage tanks, high-energy biscuits, water purification tablets, airplanes, tents and other supplies for emergency relief, the Bush administration has not asked the world body for help.

Fisheries Panel, Factory Fishing Co. Differ on Menhaden Limits

A regional body responsible for overseeing the ecological health of the nation’s mid-Atlantic coast decided Wednesday to limit the amount of menhaden that commercial fishers are allowed cull to fully 25,000 metric tons less than the largest menhaden-catching company proposed last week.