Food/Water

New President Needs New Anti-Hunger Plan

Every holiday season for the past eight years, our nation's editorial and opinion pages have been filled with outrage against America's growing hunger problem.

They often discussed the soaring number of Americans who lived in homes that can't afford enough food -- at the last tally, in 2007, that number was 36.5 million people, 700,000 more Americans than in 2006. There are now more than 12 million American children who live in homes without enough food.

Posted in beyond obama, Food/Water

Massive Crackdown on the Use of Scores of Toxic Pesticides

Britain is to get its toughest crackdown on toxic substances in food and the environment, despite determined resistance to the safety measures from Gordon Brown.

Scores of pesticides suspected of causing cancer, DNA damage and "gender-bender" effects are to be phased out under new EU rules, which are being hailed as a revolution in the way the public is protected against poisonous chemicals.

The use of all pesticides in public places is to be dramatically reduced, with aerial spraying banned anywhere in the country.

Posted in agriculture, Environment, Food/Water

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2008
11:30 AM

CONTACT: Food and Water Watch

Patty Lovera or Erin Greenfield
(202) 683-2500

Bush Administration Exempts Factory Farms From Regulation

Statement of Wenonah Hauter, Food & Water Watch Executive Director

WASHINGTON - December 18 - “The latest in a long list of midnight regulations released by the Bush Administration to undermine federal environmental standards is the Environmental Protection Agency’s new rule, published today, that will let factory farms off the hook from reporting hazardous air emissions. This move to exempt confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) from reporting requirements sends a clear message that EPA is no longer interested in doing its job.

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Food & Water Watch is a national consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, DC. Visit www.foodandwaterwatch.org.

Posted in epa, factory farms, Food/Water, pollution

In 'Eat Local' Movement, Cuba Is Years Ahead

HAVANA - After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Cuba planted thousands of urban cooperative gardens to offset reduced rations of imported food.

Now, in the wake of three hurricanes that wiped out 30 percent of Cuba's farm crops, the communist country is again turning to its urban gardens to keep its people properly fed.

"Our capacity for response is immediate because this is a cooperative," said Miguel Salcines, walking among rows of lettuce in the garden he heads in the Alamar suburb on the outskirts of Havana.

Posted in Food/Water, localism

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 12, 2008
3:24 PM

CONTACT: Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)
Chris Waldrop 202-797-8551
Jeff Cronin 202-777-8370

Consumer Groups Call on Obama Administration to Take Action on Food Safety During First 100 Days

OM Recommendation to Move Meat and Poultry to FDA Questioned

WASHINGTON - December 12 - The Institute of Medicine today stated that the Food and Drug Administration's food safety system remains ill-equipped to meet emerging challenges and that the legal authority underlying all government inspection programs should be updated to emphasize prevention of foodborne illness. The IOM further suggested there would be benefits to creating a new focused food safety entity within the Department of Health and Human Services rather than continuing at FDA.

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Consumer Federation of America is a non-profit association of 300 consumer groups, representing more than 50 million Americans. It was established in 1968 to advance the consumer interest through research, education and advocacy. The Food Policy Institute at CFA works to promote a safer, healthier and more affordable food supply.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is a nonprofit health-advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on nutrition, food safety, and pro-health alcohol policies. CSPI is supported largely by the 950,000 U.S. and Canadian subscribers to its Nutrition Action Healthletter and by foundation grants.

Posted in Food/Water

Obama’s ‘Secretary of Food’?

As Barack Obama ponders whom to pick as agriculture secretary, he should reframe the question. What he needs is actually a bold reformer in a position renamed "secretary of food."

A Department of Agriculture made sense 100 years ago when 35 percent of Americans engaged in farming. But today, fewer than 2 percent are farmers. In contrast, 100 percent of Americans eat.

Posted in beyond obama, Food/Water

Burger King's Greasy Campaign

When European germs wiped out Indians, at least that aspect of conquest was unintentional. Burger King has no such excuse.

Posted in Food/Water, Indigenous peoples

'Yes We Can' Create a Sane Food Policy in the US

Two extensive reports released in April indicate that our current method of devising food policy is broken and that the current system is doing tremendous harm in many areas, including those that are of particular interest to President-elect Obama: human health, the environment, and global poverty.

Posted in beyond obama, Food/Water, Health

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 4, 2008
12:02 PM

CONTACT: Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)
phone 202.332.9110;
fax 202.265.4954

Industry Not Lowering Sodium in Processed Foods, Despite Public Health Concerns

A Few Companies Actually Hike Salt Levels Dramatically in Some Products, Says CSPI

WASHINGTON - December 4 - Health experts have been ringing alarm bells about the amount of sodium, or salt, in processed foods for years. But according to discouraging new data published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, most food companies aren't listening. The average sodium content of 528 packaged and restaurant foods stayed essentially the same between 2005 and 2008, increasing by under one percent.

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Posted in Food/Water, Health

A Message for Climate Change Negotiators: Small Farmers Key to Combating Climate Change

As world leaders meet in Poznan, Poland this week to work out a foundation for a new international climate change treaty, they would do well to seek the council of some unconventional advisors: peasant farmers. Agricultural policy has been virtually ignored in "official" discussions of climate change. One place it hasn't been ignored is by farmers themselves. In October hundreds of small farmers from all over the world met in Maputo, Mozambique for the fifth international conference of La Via Campesina, a global movement of peasant farmers.

Posted in financial crisis, Food/Water