Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Peanut Butter Crisis A Year On

The strange and disturbing result of last year’s crisis with  salmonella tainted peanut butter is that there hasn’t been much change at all.  In fact, the criminal investigations into the now bankrupt Peanut Corp. of America (and its top executives) resulted in no charges whatsoever.  The outbreak was linked to 700 sicknesses and 9 deaths [...]

February 7, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Obama Announces Plan For Lunchroom Reform

In a special interview with an intrepid 11-year-old, Obama explained how he was going to make school lunches both tastier and healthier.  Damon Weaver comes from a low-income school district in Pahokee, Florida, and has previously scored interviews with Dwayne Wade, a basketball star, and then-senator Joe Biden.  Weaver asks what many parents want to [...]

August 19, 2009  Tags: , , , , , ,   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Food Politics Taking Its Rightful Place In Mainstream Media

There were not one, not two, but three different food policy and food research articles in the Chicago Tribune’s Friday paper.  Do you have a Mom that tells you about newspaper articles that are of interest to you?  I do, and I think it’s great.  Anyways, these articles she tells me were on the front [...]

July 13, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Michael Taylor, The New Old Guy At The FDA

Michael Taylor may be a controversial choice for the special assistant to the FDA Commissioner for food safety.  After all, he worked for several years as a lawyer working to represent Monsanto, vilified by many as the face of genetically modified foods.  He personifies the ‘revolving door’ between governmental positions and the food industry.  Taylor [...]

July 10, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

A Bit of Foodie Fan Fiction

This next piece necessitates an introduction.  It is a vignette I wrote in response to an essay prompt some time ago.  Unfortunately, the prompt is long forgotten.  What remains is the short, bittersweet story of one man’s struggle with his insatiable relationship with food.  Please, enjoy:
I had an addiction – – a habit worse [...]

January 24, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

Death Sentences Handed Out for the Melamine Crisis

From the BBC:
Two men have been given the death penalty for their involvement in China’s contaminated milk scandal.
The former boss of the Sanlu dairy at the centre of the scandal was given life imprisonment.
They were among several sentences handed down by the court in northern China, where Sanlu is based.
Yes, those involved in the melamine [...]

January 23, 2009  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Waste Not, Want Not: Donating Food in America

According to Jonathan Bloom at wastedfood.com, Americans waste more than 40% of the food we grow for consumption.  Adding it up, this can cost us over $100 billion annually. Think about it.  Do you ever wonder where that extra bread goes to at the restaurant?  How often do you end up with brown mush in [...]

January 1, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Politics, Uncategorized  5 Comments

Burger King Pops Whopper Virgins’ Cherries. Says He’ll Call, Doesn’t.

What could Burger King’s PR people be thinking? Probably that if they produced something outrageous, everyone would write about it, as I am now doing. Burger King spent a fortune to go to the ends of the earth and ask people who supposedly had never eaten a hamburger before whether they preferred a Whopper to [...]

December 9, 2008  Tags: ,   Posted in: Fun Food Facts, Science & Technology, Uncategorized  No Comments

KFC Challenge: 0, Home-Made Meals: 1

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of fast-food restaurants billing themselves as the go-to answer for all of our food concerns.  Take the recent string of commercials by KFC: they challenge an “average family” to procure items needed to make a KFC dinner at lower cost than at the restaurant.  Needless to say, the family is stumped.  [...]

December 8, 2008  Tags: , , , , ,   Posted in: Health, Uncategorized  No Comments

Saving the Rain Forest One Latte at Time with Shade-Grown Coffee

You know that slightly annoying, hippy-ish/yuppy-ish guy who visits the trendy coffee shop every day, who brings his own cup and always tips the barista? Well, if he’s ordering the organic, fair-trade, shade-grown coffee, you can add saving the forests to his list of virtuous habits.
Jane Goodall, scientist turned environmental activist, has seen first-hand the [...]

December 7, 2008  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment