Growers and Grocers

Many thanks to Kate at Accidental Hedonist for the original inspiration for this story.
A funny thing has happened on the way to eating healthier over much of 2006. Organics have positively exploded on grocery store shelves, making well-informed consumer decisions more difficult than ever. A while back, I wrote about the USDA’s […]

Philippine tuna exporters appeal to the government to help persuade Japan to lift its 9-year ban on smoked tuna products.
Japan’s Department of Health and Welfare barred shipments of filter-smoked tuna and tilapia products from the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand citing that the smoking process to preserve freshness posed a health hazard to Japanese consumers. Philippine […]

We’ve known for years that the term “natural” when it comes to food is a dubious one. Technically, everything is “natural”, even chemical additives – hey, they started as something found in nature. Any savvy food shopper knows that “natural” as a marketing term is meaningless.
But what about when it comes to the ingredient list? […]

Japan announced on July 27, 2006, that it will start allowing US beef imports once again after suspending it early this year. 34 out of the 35 authorized US beef processing plants have been cleared upon recommendation from Japanese inspectors who toured and evaluated the facilities for compliance with the export agreement.
December 2005 saw Japan […]

I admit it; I’m suspicious of most anything the US government does. I’m not a fan of the current administration’s big business-loving policies, and I think that the system we have of a few powerful lawyers lobbying Congress on every issue you can think of is a bad thing for consumers. […]

The FDA has established strict labeling guidelines for bottled water, but with so many different categories, how helpful are they to consumers? Bottled water is generally defined in the regulations as “water that is intended for human consumption and that is sealed in bottles or other containers with no added ingredients except that it […]

Recent news about Wal-Mart carrying items labeled “organic” got me to thinking about what organic really means. The USDA set standards for organic labeling in October of 2001, and continually updates those standards, most recently in June of 2006. (Full text of those standards can be found here.)
But how does the United […]

A 9-month investigation by the Washington Post has left newspapers across the country calling foul over farm subsidies that are going to non-farmers.
According to the Post, it’s not the landowners that are to blame but a poorly written law that was intended to give farmers more freedom to respond to market changes. The law, […]

Environmental group Defenders of Wildlife is making news by reporting that mercury levels in many imports of canned tuna exceed federal mercury limits. Canned tuna from Ecuador and Mexico were the worst offenders. Defenders of Wildlife previously targeted the same countries for their failure to follow dolphin-safe tuna practices.
The higher mercury […]

The American war between federal rights and states rights is as old as the Constitution.
The latest salvo has been fired by the House of Representatives, who want to pass a bill that would prevent states from passing stricter pesticide laws than the federal government’s. Curiously, the bill has been put forward by Republicans. Didn’t they […]