Over the last couple of days, news outlets have been having a field day with a proposal from Congress that pizza sauce be considered a vegetable to qualify for the National School Lunch program. Headlines like this one were typical: “Is Pizza Sauce a Vegetable? Congress says Yes.” (The blogs were a tad more childish; for example LA Weekly: Congress to USDA: Pizza is So a Vegetable, Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah.)
Big Food
What to do after Food Day? Join the Occupy movement
Today is Food Day, a national grassroots campaign for healthy, affordable food produced in a humane, sustainable, and just way. Created by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and modeled after Earth Day, the idea appears to be a huge success, with over 2,000 events scheduled around the nation. Even the food industry is taking notice by putting out their own silly messages about how “every day is Food Day for the food and beverage industry.” (Exactly, that’s why we need our own day.)
Pesticides Are Good for You
For years now, I have been hearing about the food industry’s influence on the annual conference of the American Dietetic Association — the nation’s largest gathering of nutrition professionals–with some 7,000 registered dietitians in attendance. Last month, I witnessed it for myself and discovered the corporate takeover by Big Food was worse than I even imagined. Read rest at Food Safety News…
PepsiCo wants to “scare the crap” out of your kids
The “chainsaw-wielding maniac” from Frito-Lay’s online game.
PepsiCo has long been my poster child for food corporations whose actions speak louder than words when to comes to responsible marketing. CEO Indra Nooyi loves to tout the company’s “Performance with Purpose” and show off the company’s “good-for-you” foods that it gets to define. Most don’t realize that PepsiCo is the nation’s largest food company, with five divisions spanning from soda to salty snacks to breakfast cereals. With annual revenues of $60 billion and 285,000 employees, PepsiCo is an multinational corporate behemoth.
Now the company’s true colors are revealed in all their twisted marketing glory. A legal complaint filed today with the Federal Trade Commission by the Center for Digital Democracy and several other groups called upon the agency to investigate PepsiCo and its subsidiary Frito-Lay for “engaging in deceptive and unfair digital marketing practices” in violation of federal law.
Why is the Federal Government Giving its Stamp of Approval to Ronald McDonald?
This statement was released today by Corporate Accountability International in response to the hearing held this morning in Congress on food marketing to children. See my previous article for more context.
Why is the Federal Government Giving its Stamp of Approval to Ronald McDonald?
By Sara Deon, Value [the] Meal campaign director, Corporate Accountability International
Bowing to industry pressure, the Federal Trade Commission announced today that its final proposed voluntary guidelines to protect children from predatory marketing would not require food corporations to remove “brand equity characters from food products that don’t meet nutrition guidelines.”
Did Walmart Buy Growing Power’s Silence for a Million Dollars?
General Mills to Feds (and Kids): Drop Dead
A colleague sent me this hilarious email message from one Tom Forsythe, vice president of corporate communications at General Mills. It seems that the mega cereal company found itself on the receiving end of a barrage of emails complaining about its opposition to the voluntary marketing to children guidelines proposed by the federal government. (I wrote about Big Food’s lobbying assault recently for Food Safety News.) So what else is the maker of Reese’s Puffs and Lucky Charms to do but put its PR machine into overdrive by explaining itself. Here is the company’s pathetic attempt in its entirety.
ConAgra Sued Over GMO ‘100% Natural’ Cooking Oils
If you use Wesson brand cooking oils, you may be able to join a class action against food giant ConAgra for deceptively marketing the products as natural. These days it’s hard to walk down a supermarket aisle without bumping into a food product that claims to be “all-natural.” If you’ve ever wondered how even some junk food products can claim this moniker (witness: Cheetos Natural Puff White Cheddar Cheese Flavored Snacks – doesn’t that sound like it came from your garden?) the answer is simple if illogical: the Food and Drug Administration has not defined the term natural. Read rest at Food Safety News.
Oregon Humane Society Responds to Egg Industry Deal
After my article, Who Really Benefits from the Egg Industry Deal? was posted today, I received the following email message from Sharon Harmon, executive director of the Oregon Humane Society in response. She has given me permission to post it here.
Who Really Benefits from the Egg Industry Deal?
Last week, the Humane Society of the United States held an unusual press conference. The group announced an agreement with its long-time adversary, the United Egg Producers, to jointly seek federal legislation that would improve the housing conditions of egg-laying hens. As a result, HSUS is calling off its recent efforts to get ballot measures passed in Oregon and Washington State on the issue.
Continue reading at Food Safety News.
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