Last week, after I declared my refusal to watch the HBO series, “Weight of the Nation,” Marlene Schwartz, of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity (a group featured in the program) politely suggested that I give all four episodes a chance before I criticize. I did. It was even worse than I feared.
Child Nutrition
Why I Am Not Attending or Watching “Weight of the Nation”
The national hysteria over obesity has reached a crescendo this week, as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hosts the conference, “Weight of the Nation” in Washington, DC. If you couldn’t make it, no worries, more fear-mongering is on the way in a four-part mini-series on HBO to air next week. The show of the same name is produced in coordination with several federal government agencies. The trailer alone almost brought me to tears, seeing all the awful stereotypes of fat people.
New Fact Sheets on Food Safety, Nutrition, and Food Stamps
In my work as a consultant for various organizations, I’ve had the pleasure to write the following fact sheets. Please share far and wide. You can learn more about my consulting services at EatDrinkPolitics.com
Center for Food Safety:
Foodborne Illness
Nutrition, Obesity, and Processed Food
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy: Part of What’s at Stake series on the 2012 Farm Bill
Enough to Eat: Food Assistance and the Farm Bill
What happens when your 6-year-old asks you to look up camels?
I just received the following disturbing email from my friend and colleague, Sarah Mart, research director at Alcohol Justice. It seems that while Joe Camel may be gone, his spirit lives on.
McDonald’s Now Using Goats to Exploit Children
by Michele Simon and Kelle Louaillier
To call McDonald’s latest advertising campaign aimed at children cynical doesn’t give enough credit to the fast food giant and its ad agency, Leo Burnett. The company says the new series of ads starting this month is part of McDonald’s “nutrition commitment to promote nutrition and/or active lifestyle messages in 100 percent of its national communications to kids.”
Whistleblower to Maker of Pink Slime: “Quit Harassing Me”
This past week, the media woke up to the shocking reality that our meat supply is in fact industrialized. Long gone are the days of your friendly local butcher grinding meat for your kids’ hamburgers. Taking its place is a corporate behemoth you probably never heard of called Beef Products Inc.
Is it Time to Define ‘Natural’?
Thanks to an increasing awareness of where food comes from and its impact on our health, shoppers are becoming more discriminating, especially when it comes to processed foods. In response, many product manufacturers, fearful of losing customers, are slapping the “natural” label on foods that are anything but.
Read rest in Functional Ingredients magazine.
PepsiCo: Master of Corporate Spin?
When I ask people to name the largest food company in America, most don’t realize the answer is PepsiCo. You may just think soft drinks when you hear the name, but PepsiCo actually owns a dizzying array of food and beverage brands across five massive divisions: Pepsi-Cola, Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Tropicana, and Quaker Oats. As I recently told CNBC for their documentary, Pepsi’s Challenge, perhaps the leading maker of sugary drinks and salty snacks should bear some responsibility for America’s bad eating habits.
List of Groups to Donate to – Courtesy of Corporate Lobbyists
I had been planning to blog about groups that I make end-of-year donations to when a handy list came along that closely overlaps with mine. Ironically, it’s from an industry front group called the Washington Legal Foundation. These corporate shills recently started a silly website called Eating Away Our Freedoms. (They even trademarked the name, that’s how clever they think it is.) The best part (in addition to the creative re-do of the federal MyPlate image above) is the page called, “Who’s Eating Away Our Freedoms?” – a list of my favorite colleagues (such as Marion Nestle and Mark Bittman) and non-profit organizations, complete with links to their websites. Two groups I have close working relationships with and whom I especially recommend you donate to are: Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and Corporate Accountability International. I also highly recommend Food Democracy Now and MapLight.
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