Growers and Grocers

Jamie Maw, food editor of Vancouver magazine, and frequent eGullet contributor, has started a thread on that discussion board about the book Market Day in Provence, which claims that French “farmer’s markets” aren’t always what they seem. Producers often just buy their wares from wholesalers and resell them to American tourists eager to taste “authentic” […]

The Blog for Rural America gives readers a heads-up about a new Senate bill that would reorganize the USDA and make it more responsive to anti-trust violations. Regular readers may remember when auditors found that the Department of Agriculture was making stuff up about their investigations. Clearly, the three Senators (one Democrat, two Republicans) who […]

Kellogg just isn’t feeling the love of late. As the cereal giant heads towards a Massachusetts lawsuit about advertising to children (reported earlier), an advertising industry group has slapped them on the wrist.
The Children’s Advertising Review Unit complained that Kellogg’s “Bad Apple” character might give kids the wrong idea about real fruit, according to this […]

The United States Food and Drug Adminstration issued guidelines—not regulations—about the use of the term “whole grain” on labels. The FDA “considers ‘whole grain’ to include cereal grains that consist of the intact, ground, cracked or flaked fruit of the grains whose principal components — the starchy endosperm, germ and bran — are present in […]

Barbara Fisher, my peer at Paper Palate, sent me a link to this story at the Washington Post about choosing steak (free registration or quick search on bugmenot required). Author Candy Sagon consults experts throughout the meat industry and collects tips to help you get the most for your money.
Of course, I’d add that you […]

Andrew Pollack wrote a piece about the next generation of genetically modified organisms for the New York Times. New genetically engineered foods will go beyond the “herbicide resistance and pest control” that has dominated the field for the last ten years. Instead, they’ll offer the health benefits that idealists have long envisioned. Hypoallergenic soybeans, omega-3 […]

The Flaming Grasshopper, a blog from progressive publisher Chelsea Green,has a post about Nebraska’s attempts to save “Initiative 300,” a law that prevents corporate ownership of farms. According to TFG, this is one of the strongest such laws in the country, but a federal judge has declared it unconstitutional. The state is appealing the judgment.
The […]

The World Trade Organization has rebuked the European Union for banning the import of genetically modified food from 1998 to 2004. The EU did this because it wanted more testing of GM food.
That seems like a reasonable request, but this USA Today article suggests why some countries in the WTO were so annoyed: “the complaint […]

USA Today breaks the news that major food producers aren’t likely to decrease their low-fat products, despite a recent government study that shrugs off the benefits of low-fat diets vis à vis cancer and heart disease. Food corporations might shift their message a bit, says the piece, but low-fat foods continue to attract waistline-watching consumers.
That’s […]

Megacorporation Wal-Mart has announced that all their wild-caught fish will conform to the Marine Stewardship Council’s guidelines for sustainable fishing.
Seems good, right? Big producer effecting change by demanding sustainable fishing practices? But if you’ve seen Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, or read Reclaim Democracy’s report on Wal-Mart’s farmed salmon, you’re probably skeptical of […]