Thursday, July 23, 2009

Update

I know that I havent written here in a week now and that I need to update this site more. I've been working on a few projects at work that have been keeping me busy. I promise that once my latest project is done. I'll spend a few more hours writing here to keep things interesting. There's a lot going on right now with Food and Food Safety but most people's attention are either on the Healthcare Reform Bill and it's passage or the Economy. I can't say that I blame anyone for focusing on those things as well, but we can't let the Food portion of this fall off of the charts either. Food Safety Reform is a huge issue and needs to be treated as such. 

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Bill to limit antibiotics in beef is introduced

There is a bill that is being proposed right now called the Preservation for Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act. (You can follow and read more about the bill here .) But here's a summary:


Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2007 - Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to deny an application for a new animal drug that is a critical antimicrobial animal drug unless the applicant demonstrates that there is a reasonably certainty of no harm to human health due to the development of antimicrobial resistance attributable to the nontherapeutic use of the drug. Defines "critical antimicrobial animal drug" as a drug intended for use in food-producing animals that contains specified antibiotics or other drugs used in humans to treat or prevent disease or infection caused by microorganisms.
Requires the Secretary to withdraw approval of a nontherapeutic use of such drugs in food-producing animals two years after the date of enactment of this Act unless certain safety requirements are met.
Requires the manufacturer of such a drug or an animal feed for food-producing animals containing such a drug to report sales information to the Secretary.

Right now over 70% of all antibiotics in this country is given to farm animals (specifically mostly feed lot cattle to fight off the myriads of problems that comes from eating a corn based diet) and this bill is designed to limit the use of those antibiotics for a couple of reasons. 

1. Those drugs should be going to humans that need them and not to feed lot cattle.

2. They produce an environment where antibiotic resistant illnesses are being born and bred. 

There's a simple way to fix this issue ... and that is to change feed lot cattle to a wheat based diet instead of a corn based one. This issue has been debated before so I wont bore you with the details. There are two great sites with interesting articles about this. One is the Scientific American and the second is of course one of my daily reads ... Marion Nestle's Food Politics

There's a lot more to say about this and I'll be doing some blogging about this later and go into more depth with some more facts and figures. 

Friday, July 10, 2009

World Food Prize + Hunger ... yes they do go together.

There is a really good article about the politics of Food and how it is being used throughout the "developing" world much like blackmail on Gourmet.com (story is here.) I think its great that our government is so concerned with addressing the needs of hunger and of food safety with one billion people worldwide now hungry or starving. To see how this plays together though here is another article from a few days ago that shows you what kind of dichotomy we live in in the West (Article is located here.) While the US is concerned with assisting countries that have large amounts of starving or hungry people, a suggestion would be that we need to look in our own backyards first. We have companies buying huge tracts of land in other countries to feed its own population meanwhile the people who are residents of that country cant eat the food that is being produced there. 

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Maybe We're Moving In The Right Direction

There was a major move forward today in dealing with Food Safety. The Food Safety Working Group announced today at a press conference a public-health based approach to food safety. The great people over at Obamafoodorama break it down very well. 


Food Politics

Marion Nestle, on her great site Food Politics, is saying that Mike Taylor has been appointed to the FDA and that he's a good choice. Here's a little snip of why she thinks so:

He really is a good choice for this job. Why? Because he managed to get USDA to institute HACCP (science-based food safety regulations) for meat and poultry against the full opposition of the meat industry — a truly heroic accomplishment. His position on food safety has been strong and consistent for years

Read about HACCP here.

At this point, I'm not so sure that I agree with Ms. Nestle, his industry ties are pretty deep even though (as she points out) that he "recused himself from matters related to Monsanto’s BGH and had “never sought to influence the thrust or content” of the agency’s policies on Monsanto’s products."

Her article (with an explanation) is located here. There is one thing clear though, with people that have interests like Mr. Taylor's, its important that we do everything we can to keep them "honest" and working for the best practices that they can for the consumer and not for big business like Monsanto. 

GMOs and Labeling

I've put up a poll to see how many people think that GMO's should be labeled. Right now, only the EU requires labeling of GMO's. Here's an excerpt about GMO's and labeling:

The five countries that regulate genetically modified organisms (GMOs)-Canada, USA, Mexico, Japan and the European Union (EU)-have all considered the appropriate role of labels in signaling these new production methods to consumers. Each of the five countries currently regulates the introduction of GMO products but only the EU requires labels that specify the presence of GMOs. This potential "technical barrier to trade" poses challenges to producers, consumers and governments alike.

Now for those of you that don't know or aren't aware, the common belief is that labeling of GMO's means that people wont eat them. The truth behind that is, that when surveyed, people in the countries that aren't currently labeling GMO's, have stated that they want GMO's labeled. 

Here's a conclusion written in The Journal of Agriobiotechnology Management and Economics:

Labeling goes to the heart of private sector, biotechnologically-based research and development in the agri-food business. Mandatory labeling is clearly a threat to the continued development of biotechnology products and processes. Nevertheless, in the absence of industry action to positively label, governments may be pushed by consumers and various lobby groups to impose mandatory labeling to ensure firms are held accountable for the product-specific credence uncertainties.

What is important here is that we as consumers know all that is put into our food. When we buy a new car, we can shop around to pick out the best deal based on the needs that we have, why aren't we allowed the same choices when it comes to GMO and non-GMO food? Senator Dennis Kucinich has attempted to write the GE Right to Know Food Act. This bill was killed in 2006 and as of today there is no bill like it in Congress. 

The Good Ole' Boys Network + The Revolving Door = No Food Safety for All of Us

The Ethicurean ran an article on June 30th that Mike Taylor would be joining the FDA. The article states that Mr. Taylor used to be part of the legal arm of Monsanto. Not only that, some of the positions that Mr Taylor has occupied recently has been that he was part of the AG transition team for the Obama White House. Now the rumour is that he is going to be tapped to be part of the FDA in a position coordinating food safety. According to PoliticalFriendster , Mr. Taylor has some friends who don't seem very concerned about Food Safety at all. 

Here's a little excerpt:

* Michael Taylor is a Senior Fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF) and Director of the Risk, Resources and Environmental Management division. As the creator of the biotech loopholes for Monsanto's GMOs he's perfect for "public policy".  

* Attorney for Monsanto who rewrote the "regulations" for Genetically Modified foods. His brilliant addition is the "substantial equivalence" measure which says if the nutrition measures are the same for the GMO as the natural food it is nobody's business what the chemical companies add. They add a lot.  

* One of Taylor's duties was to represent Monsanto's efforts to get its bovine growth hormone approved by the FDA. Taylor left King and Spaulding in 1991 to rejoin the FDA, this time as Deputy Commissioner for Policy. In that position Taylor was responsible for writing guidelines on the use and marketing of the controversial hormone that were favorable to the company. 
Specifically, Taylor drafted guidelines that exempted milk producers from labeling dairy products from cows that had been treated with rBGH. Now Taylor has returned to Monsanto to work on what the company calls "long range planning."

* Attorney for Monsanto who rewrote the "regulations" for Genetically Modified foods. His brilliant addition is the "substantial equivalence" measure which says if the nutrition measures are the same for the GMO as the natural food it is nobody's business what the chemical companies add.

As you can see, this is politics as usual. The large AG businesses have their people in place to do as much harm as the people who want to do the right thing can do good.  If you want to see all of Mr. Taylor's connections, go here. The article from the Ethicurean is here.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Take the Replace Roundup Challenge

I have to post the link since the video embedding isnt working. I'll try my best to get that working in the future. But in the mean time go here. (Make sure you watch the video.)

Vegetarian one day a week.


The city of Ghent Belgium has issued the above ad to promote that they are the first city in the world to go vegetarian one day a week. Read the whole story here.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Thank God for the Onion

New Taco Bell Food Takes Nothing from Nature.

My Letter To the President

It is becoming increasingly clear that there is a rampant epidemic seizing this country. The Trust for Americans Health released their  annual report on obesity today and for the first time in the history  of this country, obesity rates across the country went up. In some  states as high as 16.3 percent. There is a movement right now taking  its cue from citizens the world over, but none should be more  concerned than the citizens of our own country. It's called Meatless  Mondays, and it promotes the ideas of a healthy vegetarian alternative  to the fast food, high fat, high sugar content of what most of America  is currently consuming. Mr. President, we are standing on the verge of  a healthcare disaster waiting to happen. We are seeing the start of a  very deadly trend that will continue unabated unless something is  done. You have an historic and unprecedented chance to change the  health of millions of people with your leadership at this crossroads,  I implore you to consider promoting this idea for not only the health  of our country today but for generations to come.

Join The Movement

Obesity report has come out today

Adult obesity rates increased in 23 states and did not decrease in a single state in the past year, according to F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2009, a report released today by the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). In addition, the percentage of obese or overweight children is at or above 30 percent in 30 state. 

Read more about it here

I'll be commenting on this later today.