politics
-
![]()
![]()
Soda lobby gets its game on
HuffingtonPost has a piece up detailing the food lobby’s full court press over a federal soda/sweetener tax: During the first 9 months of 2009, the industry groups stepped up their lobbying in Congress. They have spent more than $24 million on the issue of a national excise tax on sweetened beverages and on other legislative […]
-
New allies in fight against Obama’s pesticide lobbyist nominee
I’m sure many of you have seen the various petitions zipping around the Internet encouraging opposition to President Obama’s nomination of pesticide lobbyist Islam “Isi” Siddiqui to the Office of the United State’s Trade Representative. The argument against him goes something like this: The White House has nominated Mr. Siddiqui for the position of chief […]
-
![]()
![]()
Save us, [insert techno-fix here], you’re our only hope!
Don’t worry about climate change and world hunger–this lady’s got your back!Watching SuperFreakonomics author Steve Levitt sitting next to Jon Stewart as they shook their heads in disbelief that everyone wasn’t on the climate change/geo-engineering bandwagon (It’s easy! it’s cheap! We know it works!) depressed me to no end. It seems like every challenge we […]
-
![]()
![]()
Scientists claim junk food is as addictive as heroin
With the rumors swirling that Michelle Obama is a big fan of former FDA Commissioner David Kessler’s new book The End of Overeating, it seems reasonable to check in on the science behind an “addiction model” for salty, sweet, and fatty processed food (an assertion at the core of the book). As it happens, a […]
-
![]()
![]()
Will FDA take quotation marks off “Smart Choices”? [UPDATED]
SUPER DUPER UNBELIEVEABLE UPDATE: The AP reports that the “Smart Choices” label is taking a break: The Smart Choices nutrition labeling program, created voluntarily by nine large U.S. manufacturers, is halting after federal regulators said such systems could mislead consumers, officials with the labeling group said Friday. … Officials with Smart Choices in Washington, D.C., […]
-
If the grass looks greener, it’s important to understand the nature of the fence
Cross-posted from The Bellows. One of the things about politics is that solutions always seem easier to implement and more promising before they stand a real chance of being implemented. People who have for one reason or another fallen in love with the idea of a carbon tax watch the difficulty Congress is having negotiating […]
-
Jill Richardson’s apt critique of the redesigned Senate Ag Committee website
The entire top half of the page is now dominated by a picture of the many healthy foods that our government’s ag policy does not promote: red and yellow bell peppers, purple cabbage, tomatoes, broccoli, sweet corn, onions, and leafy greens. — La Vida Locavore’s Jill Richardson noting the irony in the new Senate Ag […]
-
![]()
![]()
Is Michelle Obama about to take on Big Food?
With all the talk of Michael Pollan and Jamie Oliver lately, it’s easy to ignore the person who right now is, given her current address, the most influential voice on food policy in the country. Naturally, I’m talking about First Lady Michelle Obama. While she’s been exercising what diplomats would call her “soft power” for […]
-
![]()
![]()
Can Jamie Oliver cooking lessons cure obesity?
Jamie OliverPhoto: Downing Street via Flickr What struck me most about the profile of celebrity chef and food activist Jamie Oliver in the NYT Magazine’s Food Issue was not his valiant attempts to re-educate Americans on the importance of scratch cooking. It’s that the poor man could have used some serious therapy as a child. […]
