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For Immediate Release
October, 24 2011, 08:55am EDT
Contact:
Phone: 202-332-9110
America Celebrates Food Day with More than 2,000 Events in 50 States
Observations Include an “Eat In” in Times Square; a Festival in Savannah, GA; an Open House at the National Archives; and Events in Schools, Churches, Campuses, and Homes
WASHINGTON
Today a diverse range of organizations, public officials, and Americans from all walks of life are celebrating Food Day--a nationwide grassroots mobilization that encourages Americans to eat healthy, delicious food grown in a sustainable and humane way and to advocate for smarter food policies. Spearheaded by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Food Day is being observed in all 50 states with more than 2,000 events from coast to coast.
In the heart of Times Square, 50 notables from the food movement, including restaurateur Mario Batali, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, Food Network host Ellie Krieger, nutritionist Marion Nestle, and several dozen area food activists staged an Eat Real "Eat In." The group came together at a communal table, shared a healthy and sustainable meal (with most ingredients from the farmers market and recipes from Krieger's latest cookbook, Comfort Food Fix), and engaged in spirited conversation about the critical food policy issues facing the city and the nation. During the Eat In, the Reuters/Nasdaq signs in Times Square will carry Food Day messages.
"The typical American diet is promoting major health problems, causing serious environmental pollution, and unintentionally creating poor working conditions for those who harvest, process, and prepare our food," said Michael F. Jacobson, CSPI's executive director. "It's time to urge Americans to change their own diets for the better and to mobilize for desperately needed changes in food and farm policy."
In just a few months, the campaign gained tremendous significant momentum, including the active participation of numerous grassroots-oriented partners, like Slow Food USA, the labor group Unite Here, and the campus-based Real Food Challenge. Change.org is devoting its homepage to food issues addressed on Food Day. Dole Food Company and Bolthouse Farms have placed millions of Food Day stickers on bananas and bags of carrots, respectively. Media partners including Cooking Channel and the wellness-oriented cable channel Veria Living have promoted Food Day. Conde-Nast's award-winning Epicurious.com teamed up with Whole Foods Market to encourage dinner parties aimed at raising money for local food charities.
More than 30 governors and mayors have proclaimed October 24 as Food Day, including those in Colorado, Ohio, Oregon, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, and Washington, DC. Special Food Day menus will be served in all Detroit public schools. Schools across the nation are hosting Food Day events as part of the ongoing National Farm to School Month celebration. In Washington, the National Archives is hosting a Food Day Open House in conjunction with its "What's Cooking, Uncle Sam?" exhibit.
In New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will hand out New York State-grown apples to commuters in Queens to observe Food Day, and will appear on ABC's new daytime show, The Chew. The city's health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley, is coming to Times Square to announce about the city's expanded campaign to reduce consumption of soda and other sugary drinks. Also on Food Day, the city will be launching a new food policy web site, www.nyc.gov/nycfood.
The University of California-San Francisco and the Hastings School of Law are hosting a conference on food deserts and the food served in prisons. In Savannah, GA, organizers have planned a huge outdoor festival expected to draw around 15,000 attendees. Five days of lessons about food are planned in schools in Bentonville, AR. In California, groups including the Prevention Institute, the Strategic Alliance, the Environmental Working Group, and Roots of Change announced a statewide petition drive aimed at improving the next federal Farm Bill.
"Food Day is an important way to focus on the critical need to have well-funded public health agencies that work on preventing diet-related and other diseases," said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, who is serving as the Joan H. Tisch Distinguished Fellow in Public Health at Roosevelt House, Hunter College.
Besides events in public places, countless individuals will be celebrating Food Day at home with especially healthy meals and conversation about food. For inspiration, FoodDay.org has a free recipe booklet featuring recipes from Batali, Rick Bayless, Emeril Lagasse, Nina Simonds, and other top chefs and cooking authorities.
Food Day's advisory board, chaired by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), includes many of the most prominent voices for change in the food policy world, including urban farming proponent Will Allen, author Michael Pollan, scientists Walter Willett and Kelly Brownell, Seattle Mayor Michael McGinn, former Surgeons General Richard Carmona and David Satcher, chefs Dan Barber, Nora Pouillon, Barton Seaver, and Alice Waters, and other advocates for better health, sustainable agriculture, ending hunger, and improved labor practices.
"The many activities and events spurred by Food Day will help foster a robust dialogue on how to promote better nutrition and health, lessen hunger and increase access to food, enhance opportunities for farm families and rural communities, and conserve natural resources," said Senator Harkin. "There are differing ideas and perspectives on these issues and surely we all benefit from discussions about the connections among food, farms, and health."
"Food Day is about bringing people together, celebrating the incredible progress we have made in ensuring that Americans have access to safe, healthy foods--but also to recognize that there is still work to be done," said Congresswoman DeLauro. "A shocking one in five children in this country are termed 'food insecure,' which means simply that they likely do not have enough to eat each day. And we have seen in recent weeks a food safety recall of cantaloupes that have resulted in the deaths of 25 people. So on this very first Food Day, let us not only recognize the great strides we have made, but also keep moving forward and making progress towards a better, healthier America."
Food Day, like CSPI, is people-powered and accepts no funding from corporations or government grants.
Since 1971, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has been a strong advocate for nutrition and health, food safety, alcohol policy, and sound science.
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Cuba's top diplomat in the United States on Friday underscored the inviolability of her country's sovereignty amid tenuous negotiations with the Trump administration and mounting fears that the US is planning to criminally indict a former Cuban president and possibly invade the island to abduct him.
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Torres Rivera acknowledged that ramped-up US pressure—including President Donald Trump's invasion threats and tightening of the internationally condemned 65-year economic embargo—is inflicting tremendous suffering on the Cuban people.
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The Cuban government said Thursday that Trump's oil blockade has left the island and its 11 million people without fuel—a situation United Nations experts last week described as illegal "energy starvation."
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The delicate balancing act Cuba is being forced to perform was on stark display on Thursday as Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana for talks aimed at pressuring Cuban officials into complying with demands that critics say would inrfinge upon the nation's sovereignty. These likely include political and economic reforms, releasing political prisoners, and ending or weakening Cuba's alliances with US adversaries including China, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for Cubans, as the CIA was behind myriad efforts to topple their government, from assassination attempts against revolutionary leader Fidel Castro to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion to supporting Cuban exile terrorists who carried out deadly attacks that Havana says killed thousands of people.
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Others surmised that the reported planned indictment is a pretext for a US invasion and arrest of Castro similar to January's abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on dubious—and partially retracted—narco-terrorism allegations.Thirty-two Cubans, including military and police officers providing security for Maduro, were killed by US forces during the abduction operation.
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ACLU head of digital engagement Stefan Smith said on social media: "Remember Maduro and Venezuela? If you’re a foreign leader indicted in American courts, we claim the right to send the military to kidnap you. Indictment is permission to invade."
Following his visit to Cuba, Ratcliffe said that negotiations "will not stay open indefinitely," remarks that followed numerous threats by Trump to "take" Cuba.
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Torres Rivera insisted that protests over the blackouts don't mean Cubans won't rally in defense of their homeland.
“When they are enduring 20 hours of blackouts, they have grievances, and they express it,” she told The Hill, cautioning US officials against a "wrong reading" of the demonstrations.
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Trump also gave Peters a symbolic federal pardon and pressured Polis—who is term-limited and set to leave office next January—to act on her case. The president was not able to free Peters from her nine-year sentence himself because a jury convicted her of state felonies and misdemeanors for her role in breaching election equipment in 2021.
After the governor's decision, which was announced alongside dozens of other pardons and commutations, and sets up Peters to be released from prison on June 1, the president wrote on his Truth Social platform, "FREE TINA!"
Peters also turned to social media on Friday, thanking Polis, apologizing for her "mistakes," and writing that "upon release, I plan to do my best through legal means to support election integrity and, based on my own personal experiences, to elevate the cause of prison reform."
In an interview with The New York Times, Polis denied trying to placate the president by freeing the former clerk. He said that "she committed a crime; she deserves to be a convicted felon," but "she was given an unusually harsh sentence."
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Meanwhile, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold declared that "this clemency grant to Tina Peters is an affront to our democracy, the people of Colorado, and election officials across the country. The governor's actions today will validate and embolden the election denial movement, and leave a dark, dangerous imprint on American democracy for years to come."
US Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said that "Tina Peters is guilty as sin and a disgrace to Colorado. She tried to undermine Colorado's free and fair election system. When she was caught red-handed, she was prosecuted by a Republican district attorney and rightfully convicted by a jury of her peers. Reducing her sentence sends the wrong message to those seeking to undermine trust in our elections, and it will do nothing to deter Donald Trump's illegal attacks on Colorado. I strongly disagree with this decision."
Fellow US Senate Democrat Michael Bennet, who is running for governor, was similarly critical, saying: "I vehemently disagree with Gov. Polis' decision to commute Tina Peters' sentence. She broke the law, undermined our elections, and was convicted by a jury of her peers. With Trump continuing to attack Colorado, we must stand strong for our institutions and the rule of law."
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The jubilee, which will also feature an 18-wheeler "Freedom Truck" featuring educational content made by the right-wing group PragerU and the Christian school Hillsdale College, comes after numerous displays of religiosity from the Trump administration.
Even many of the president's supporters on the Christian right were aghast at an artificial intelligence-generated image he posted last month on social media, appearing to depict him as a Christ figure. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is set to speak at the jubilee, has spoken about the US-Israeli war on Iran as Christian crusade and has hosted evangelical worship services at the Pentagon, while Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins wrote, "He is Risen indeed!" in an Easter email to federal employees that recounted the biblical story of the resurrection.
Robert Weissman, co-president of government watchdog Public Citizen, noted that the corporate sponsors of Freedom 250, the public-private partnership that's organizing the 250th anniversary, "may want to curry favor with the Trump administration."
The sponsors, including John Deere, Oracle, and Lockheed Martin, "should be forced to answer whether they support the extreme agenda they are celebrating," he said.
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