Growers and Grocers

Buying “organic” definitely comes with a heftier pricetag, so it’s a good idea to know when it pays to make that choice. Generally speaking, if you are eating the skin or leaves of a fruit or vegetable, it’s usually better to buy organic, says Richard Wiles, Executive Director of the Environmental Working Group in […]

In a letter made public on Friday the Federal Trade Commission asserted that U.S. dairy producers must discontinue all advertising and marketing activities, which involve weight loss claims. As reported by Reuters, the milk-weight loss connection is not supported by enough scientific evidence. More conclusive research must be completed before such dairy campaigns […]

A few days ago, the Associated Press had an article with some stunning numbers and information about food imports. In U.S. Food Safety Strained by Imports, Justin Pritchard looks at the rapid rise in imported ingredients–items like guar gum, maltodextrin, and casein (a protein in milk)–and lays out the big picture:
While Americans are consuming more […]

Sunday’s news feeds brought two interesting articles about genetically- engineered crops to my RSS reader. The first was a piece entitled How to confine the plants of the future? by biotech expert Denise Caruso (author of Intervention). Caruso’s article focuses on pharmaceuticals derived from genetically-modified plants and the challenge of keeping them separated […]

The San Francisco Chronicle informs us that Wolfgang Puck has banned foie gras in any form from his restaurant menus. Now, this might not seem like that big a deal to many, but his restaurants included foie gras in the spotlight. For example, his San Francisco restaurant Postrio served “Trio of Hudson […]

The FDA is expected to approve the use of a powerful antibiotic in cattle, despite warnings it would speed the appearance of resistant microbes.  InterVet, Inc. has applied to market their drug Cefquinome for treatment of a pneumonia-like disease in cows.  It seems that the application will probably be granted due to a change in […]

I attended the long anticipated debate/cage match/love fest between author Michael Pollan (author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma) and John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods Market (and one of the founders). After a public exchange of letters (links here) following the publication of Pollan’s book, a public face-to-face was set up. Originally planned for a […]

Whole Foods has announced that they plan to purchase rival Wild Oats Market. It isn’t a major surprise to see the country’s largest natural food retailer gobble up their number two competitor. Especially as their slowing growth could benefit from the positive momentum that the Wild Oat’s family of stores has been experiencing.
In […]

A Baltimore news station, WJZ, is reporting that “Carolina Culinary Food is recalling packages of Oscar Mayer ready-to-eat chicken breast strips with rib meat because they may be contaminated.” The nationwide recall was confirmed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. It covers “all six-ounce packages of ‘Oscar Mayer/Louis […]

Last week the Government Accountability Office released their 2007 High Risk Update, which focuses on federal programs that are “high risk due to their greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement.” The 2007 update includes three new high risk areas: transportation financing and capacity, protection of technologies critical to U.S. national security, and […]