Michelle Obama, The New First Lady Of The Food Movement
For a while now, I’ve been saying that we need an Al Gore for the food movement. Â The food movment needs a good salesman and a connector, someone with ties to the ‘inside’. Â More importantly, the food movement needs someone that the public recognizes and trusts to have their interests at heart. Â With Michelle [...]
June 22, 2009
Tags: Health, heroes, Michelle Obama, obesity Posted in: Health, Politics 
3 Comments
Omnivore’s Dilemma Gets Booted And Then Re-Instituted
Food activists and Pollan fans alike were stunned to hear that Washington State University (WSU) had cut the author’s famous Omnivore’s Dilemma from its freshmen “common reading” program. They called foul play and wondered, rather bluntly in many cases, whether the cancellation was due to the school’s (big) agricultural endowments.
WSU officials site budgetary issues, [...]
May 29, 2009
Tags: agriculture, farmers, heroes, Michael Pollan, policy Posted in: Health, Politics No Comments
Marion Nestle Continues To Fight For The Integrity Of Nutritional Science
Nutritionist and food safety activist extraordinaire Marion Nestle wrote a sternly worded email in response to a letter of nomination from the American Society of Nutrition (ASN) to join the Board of Directors of the Smart Choices program. She declined, explaining her reasons in an open letter that she posted to her blog:
Marion Nestle: Smart [...]
May 18, 2009
Tags: education, Health, heroes, marketing, nutrition, policy Posted in: Health, Science & Technology No Comments
Reflections on the Future of Food & Nutrition Conference at Tufts
The problems I see in today’s agriculture and food policy aren’t just in my head, they are on everyone’s plates. The Future of Food and Nutrition Conference held by Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy was a small, but glorious affair of how intellectualism can be applied to our pressing food [...]
March 30, 2009
Tags: Add new tag, agriculture, education, food event, Health, heroes, nutrition, policy Posted in: Health, Politics, Science & Technology 4 Comments
Yes, We Can: The Obamas To Plant White House Vegetable Garden
The “Eat the View” campaign, thousands of concerned citizens, and notable figures in contemporary food movements (Alice Waters, Michael Pollan…) helped make the dream of an edible landscape on the White House lawn a reality. Today, 23 fifth graders from a local elementary school, which has had its own garden since 2001, will help [...]
March 20, 2009
Tags: Barack Obama, change, farmers, food event, green, heroes Posted in: Health, Politics One Comment
Obama Addresses Nation’s Food Safety
President Obama has said before that food safety is important to him. His radio address this past Saturday demonstrates that he is willing, rather literally, to put his money where his mouth is. In his speech he outlined the many issues befouling contemporary food safety regulation and defines part of the solution. [...]
March 16, 2009
Tags: agriculture, Barack Obama, FDA, food event, food safety, heroes, policy, USDA Posted in: Health, Politics No Comments
Vilsack Understands!
See, I told you to be optimistic about Vilsack.
The scientists, the foodies, and the economists have all been chanting, “Death to corn subsidies! Â Death to corn subsidies!” forever. Â And, now someone who has explicit authority to take subsidies to the guillotine has said, more or less explicitly, he is looking to axe them:
Vilsack called on [...]
February 17, 2009
Tags: agriculture, farmers, green, heroes, nutrition, policy, subsidies, USDA Posted in: Politics 5 Comments
Baby Formula, Nutrition, and…Communism?
At a congressional hearing in 1978, Nestle representative Dr. Oswaldo Ballerin accused American activists of engineering an “indirect attack on the free world’s economic system.” Â By his account, the numerous church groups, women’s groups, unions, and student’s groups were communists because they were boycotting Nestle products in order to protest its marketing of breast-milk substitutes [...]
February 10, 2009
Tags: baby formula, education, Health, heroes, marketing, moms, nutrition, policy Posted in: Politics No Comments
Sugar, the Industrial Revolution, and Women’s Rights
The colonial expansion into the Americas led to the discovery of vast lands ready for extensive production of sugar cane, a highly prized and rare commodity at that time. Investors and colonial explorers imported slaves from across the Atlantic from Africa to do the dirty work. The Atlantic slave trade and the mass [...]
January 16, 2009
Tags: food event, Health, heroes, nutrition, sugar Posted in: Fun Food Facts, Health, Politics 2 Comments
Calorie Counts on Menus – Is Big Brother Coming to a Restaurant Near You?
Or is it just honest advertizing that we are seeing on menus in New York?
Not miraculously, calorie counts have been dropping on some of the most heavily caloric laden food. What consumers may not be aware of is that calories have been taken down a notch more often by simply reducing portion sizes. [...]
November 5, 2008
Tags: fast-food, Health, heroes, nutrition, obesity, policy Posted in: Health, Politics 3 Comments
