January 2012 Online Newsletter


Losing Faith in Big Food


by: Tom Laskawy | Grist

Four years ago, a coalition of agribusiness companies and industry groups, including Monsanto, the American Farm Bureau, the Midwest Dairy Council, and the National Pork Producers Council, got together to start the Center for Food Integrity (CFI), a nonprofit organization whose mission is "to build consumer trust and confidence in today's food system."

CFI fulfills its mission by performing market research and then concocting spinmeister Frank Luntz-style message testing to come up with ways Big Food can convince Americans to stop worrying and love industrial agriculture.

Full Article

Eat Your Greens or Your Gut Gets It


While Big Food rams its Tater Tots and frozen pizza school lunch agenda through Congress, we're learning more about the effects of diets high in starchy foods and low in green vegetables. And it's not pretty. I pointed yesterday to a vast recent Harvard study finding that heavy consumption of potatoes—even in nonfried forms—leads to unhealthy weight gain.
Full Article



That Honey in Your Bear Might Not Be Honey


If you've been feeding your kids spoonfuls of honey for their coughs this fall, you might want to think again about where that honey comes from. Food Safety News, a site set up by food safety lawyer Bill Marler, reports today that lab tests show that most honey sold on supermarket and drug store shelves today isn't really honey, according to safety requirements set by the Food and Drug Administration. Full Article



Newsletter

Sign up to receive our monthly newsletter. Just submit your email in the form above. We never share our email list. Unsubscribe




French Court Cancels Ban on Monsanto GMO Maize

France's highest court on Monday overturned a ban on the growth and use in France of a genetically modified (GM) maize developed by U.S. biotech company Monsanto, saying the farm ministry lacked the authority to impose the measure. The decision follows a ruling by the European Court of Justice in early September saying France had based its decision to impose a moratorium on the growing of Monsanto's insect-resistant MON810 maize on the wrong EU legislation. "Drawing on the consequences of the ECJ's ruling, the State Council finds that the agriculture ministry could not justify its authority to issue the decrees, failing to give proof of the existence of a particularly high level of risk for the health and the environment," it said.

Paris | Reuters

Contact:

Our monthly newsletter is compiled by Nicholas Smith. Questions? Email Nicholas at nicholas@srcommunitymarket.com