Archive: Sep 2000 (page3)

Contorations About ‘Portion Distortion’

The “blaming restaurants for obesity” crowd is taking aim at the plate again. While popular chains strive to please customers by providing value in a competitive marketplace, industry critics prefer…
PostedSeptember 14, 2000 at12:00 am

Food Politics Seen Through Organic Lenses

Example #1: The Organic Consumers Association’s Ronnie Cummins attempts to rally the anti-choice troops with “food politics” issues. Cummins asks his minions to be sure and buy organic (Could…
PostedSeptember 13, 2000 at12:00 am

PCRM And PETA: Singing From The Same Bad Song

After getting all the publicity it could, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) announced that it was stopping its advertising campaign which tried (in vain) to…
PostedSeptember 12, 2000 at12:00 am

Blood On The Nannie’s Hands?

Nigeria’s minister of agriculture and rural development has something to say to all those nannies who oppose genetically improved food: “Organic farming, sophisticated methods of distributing food and other…
PostedSeptember 11, 2000 at12:00 am

Not Required Reading

The title of syndicated radio show host and author Carol Simontacchi's new book, "The Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Brains," should be a tip off to just how nutty her ideas are. How someone who blames today's food for somehow being responsible for mental disorders in children and adults - depression, hyperactivity, panic attacks, attention-deficit disorder, and chronic fatigue, to name a few - continues to get media coverage is beyond us.
PostedSeptember 11, 2000 at12:00 am

Genetically Improved Foods Saving Lives

Scientists have discovered a way to genetically modify tomatoes and bananas to deliver the hepatitis B vaccine at less than one penny a dose. The development "will save hundreds of thousands of lives a year," predict the scientists. So tell us again why we shouldn't be genetically improving foods?
PostedSeptember 8, 2000 at12:00 am

Misleading The Children

Fenton Communications' Mothers & Others (who brought us the 1989 Alar-on-apples scare) outlines plans on how to get schools to forego conventional foods and "go organic." Notice the involvement of Chefs Collaborative board member Ann Cooper in such efforts. The Chefs are already working on this anti-choice angle with their "Adopt a school program."
PostedSeptember 8, 2000 at12:00 am

Anti-Biotech Battle Goes To Maine

Douglas R. Johnson, Ph.D, the executive director of the Maine Biotechnology Information Bureau, decries activist efforts to derail Maine’s burgeoning biotech industry. Johnson hits the nail on the head by…
PostedSeptember 7, 2000 at12:00 am

Nanny Think

So, let's see if we can get this right. Public Citizen's new report says Americans are at risk from contaminated meat and poultry because of the new USDA inspection program. Yet Public Citizen opposes irradiation, which would eliminate almost all threats from meat if the USDA inspection program, as Public Citizen claims, isn't really working.
PostedSeptember 6, 2000 at12:00 am

Feeding Fear

The Christian Science Monitor plays up nanny rhetoric about the supposed dangers of genetically improved foods. FDA Commissioner Jane E. Henney sets the record straight.
PostedSeptember 5, 2000 at12:00 am