Friday Link Round-up
By Lisa Becker Shea on May 29, 2010 – No Comment
- During an agency briefing on the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative, the USDA revealed a preliminary study mapping the gaps in the current local meat processing infrastructure. You can read the full report here, and check out a fair amount of commentary collected at Marion Nestle’s Food Politics blog. Despite these processing challenges, it seems butchers are seeing an increase in business with consumer focus on the local food movement.
- As a growing number of cities and states talk soda tax — this week, DC jumps on the bandwagon — the beverage industry retaliates. And while the food industry’s pledge to cut 1.5 trillion calories from the U.S. food supply is encouraging, public health lawyer, Michelle Simon, skeptically addresses this goal as industry redirects their efforts overseas.
- Michael Pollan revisits the food movement in a thoughtful essay at the New York Review of Books.
- Salmonella contamination is turning good foods bad. NPR covers the FDA recall of Caldwell Fresh Foods alfalfa sprouts after a reported 22 cases of contamination in 10 states. Fresh Express’s romaine-based ready-to-eat salads were also recalled due to salmonella threat. The FDA is hoping their new Safety Reporting Portal makes it easy to capture these problems with human and pet food to help keep our food supply safe.
- The Boston Globe pictorial portrays how Louisiana’s shores are now affected over one month after the BP offshore drilling explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Judson Berkey at the Goodeater Collaborative frames the genetically modified foods debate around food security.
- Take a tour of urban farms at Breaking Through Concrete whose mission is to “put a face on this new food movement and inspire the growing connection between people, place, and food.”
- The New York Times discusses the ubiquitous children’s menu at restaurants and how it cripples a child’s developing taste buds and food preferences, yet adults seem to favor more bold, diverse flavor combinations according to the Wall Street Journal.
- The link between income level and obesity is discussed at the Fresno Bee.
- Tom Laskaway at Grist covers why endocrine disrupters, like pesticides and BPA, really just “suck.”
- The most recent Department of Justice hearing in Alabama turned into a disgruntled forum for chicken growers tired of low pay, unfair treatment, and a lack of control with major chicken company contracts. .
- A new study shows that China now has more people with diabetes than any other country due in large part to a growing economy that contributes to increased calorie intake and decreased physical activity.
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will determine whether more concentrated animal feeding operations require regulation due to concerns over water pollution.
- Research from an independent watch dog group in Berlin suggests that organic foods have no health benefit over conventionally manufactured foods. They tested a range of processed products from baby food to cinnamon in 85 investigations over 8 years excluding raw and fresh foods.
- In state news, the local food movement helped Colorado create a new food council per recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help combat obesity. In New York, Cornell University Dining services has committed to buying three cows per week from local farmers. Finally, in Tennessee, the Benwood Foundation announces local farm grant recipients to help build strong connections in the local food system. Awards include building a cooperative of small farms, a fledgling farmers market, a chef’s collaborative, and a produce distribution company with a 300-mile reach.
