Are you safer if the cook is wearing gloves?. Not really, just like hands, gloves can go anywhere and unlike hands they may make the wearer less careful about food safety as they give a false sense of security.
Lunch Line: Telling the Story of School Food
Civil Eats reviewed the film Lunch Line: Telling the Story of School Food. Interesting analysis, also you can see the preview of the movie.
Posted in Uncategorized
Global Hunger Index
There is some good news from the fight on global hunger. Progress has been made toward achieving the Millennium Development Goal to halve the number of hungry people in the world by 2015, reports IFPRI, and South Asia , in particular, has made a significant move forward. However, Sub-Saharan Africa continues to display alarming trends. Childhood malnutrition is a big contributor to the Global Hunger Index. The window for rectifying this is the period during gestation and the first two years after birth. After this, the effects of under nutrition cannot be reversed. This brings to mind the peanut wonder paste, Plumpy’nut which has been brought into use with great results for infants in many countries, most recently in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. More on its benefits and also controversies, here.
GM Foods: another view
Time magazine has an interesting article on the GM foods that are already in the market. I wanted to post this because many people I speak to seem unaware that GM foods are already available and indeed, we have been consuming them already. The example of Golden Rice is important because it highlights a point often lost in angry din of the GM debate: genetic modification is a technology which can be safely used as so many other technologies are used. It is not essential that a giant corporation be the sole provider of this technology and hence gain monopoly control over the crop. Biotechnology can also be developed by research organizations, governments, non-profits etc. and the benefits of this technology can be reaped by farmers and consumers alike.
Posted in Food Policy, Food Security, Nutrition
Tagged food policy, food security, nutrition
More on the HFCS Renaming Issue
Much has been said about the HFCS renaming issue and I wrote about it earlier here. Much of it has been strident in the opposition to the change. How did all this start and how did we get here? James McWilliams of Texas State University writes in the Atlantic how one “viral sentence” as he describes it ignited this issue. He argues that instead of getting all steamed up about the name change, we should ask ourselves why high fructose corn syrup is so ubiquitous in the first place. The answer is massive government subsidies to the corn growers. Can we change that? And what would happen if we did? Very interesting read.
Also, an informative piece on the same issue by Marion Nestle at Food Politics.
Posted in Food Policy, Nutrition
Food Safety Bill in Coma
The Senate will not take up the Food Safety Bill before the members leave for election campaigning. There is a small chance they may take it up at the end of the year or have to start all over again next year. Why did this happen? In the past two years alone, there has been a steady drumbeat of outbreaks of illnesses related to unsafe food (lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, eggs to name a few) so the urgency is quite clear. Sen. Coburn (Republican of Oklahoma) ) who has opposed the Bill, says we do not have the money to make our food system safe in the face of a huge deficit. Here is an alternative: unsafe food=more sick people=higher healthcare costs=higher premiums for all of us. Add to this the loss in productivity due to time lost in dealing with sickness.This cost is likely to be far higher than the proposed outlay on overhauling the food system. Others have opposed to inspections of farms. Why? There has to be a way to protect consumers from being sold unsafe food, why would anyone object to participating in that system? Also, concerns have been raised over the rights of small and organic farmers and that should definitely be addressed. But it is a crying shame that big money can stand in the way of public health in this country. If you are voting this November or happen to meet the people you voted for, ask them why this is so. Perhaps you could show them this video.
The full text of the Bill is here and some important FAQs here.
High-Fructose Corn Syrup by another name…
….would be just as sweet! The Corn Refiners Association has applied to the FDA to change the name for High Fructose Corn Syrup to “Corn Sugar” on product labels. It seems that HFCS use is at a 20 year low as concerns about it become more intense (research shows a correlation between HFCS intake and obesity). In an attempt to boost sales,therefore, they want to rename the product. It is still the same product and our bodies will continue to metabolize it differently from cane sugar . But the industry hopes that enough people will be confused between cane sugar and “corn sugar” or will not try to research the ingredients in prepared foods ensuring that sales can continue to thrive. So, we are back to our favorite Thought+Food mantra: “Always Read the Label!”
Wheat Crisis Update
Earlier reactions on the Russian wheat crisis seemed encouraging. As I wrote then, the problem would be contained as other countries, apparently, were in a position to pick up the slack. Now the U.N. reports that the situation is somewhat volatile because consumers fear a repeat of 2008 with shortages and high prices. There is also increased hoarding and speculation fueling higher wheat prices. Such crises are going to be more common in the future with climate change playing a big role. Consider the situation in Pakistan where floods have washed away crops, and destroyed wheat seed stocks. The planting season is here and there is a dearth of seeds. In water-logged areas planting seeds, even if there are any available , is not possible. In a country where wheat is a staple food, this will unleash unmet demand and escalating prices which would have an impact elsewhere as well.
The Price of Sustainable Living
The FDA is going through the process of consultations and public meetings to ascertain if a newly developed strain of genetically modified salmon is suitable for human consumption. There are also reports from Europe on the success of breeding the endangered bluefin tuna. The first news was greeted by the usual scary warnings about “fish-zilla” and “frankenfish” while the second has been termed abhorrent because we are breeding the fish merely to satisfy our own greed. Let us set aside for the time being the question of the safety or viability of either technique and consider a very simple issue: the arrogance of a species that seeks to reorganize the planet to fit its own needs. We have eaten the bluefin to extinction and are reviving them to satisfy our appetites and we are trying to re-engineer the salmon so it grows faster to keep up with our demands. What if we thought instead about what we could be doing with humans? How about moderating our behavior instead? Instead of farming salmon fed on corn, we could we eat less fish and more plants. Or instead of finding spending huge amounts of money trying to breed a species solely to consume them, lets spend instead on creating awareness of the need to stop overpopulating the planet.
This is not fear mongering, we are on a slippery slope of no return so why is there no will to do what is needed? Because, sadly, a sustainable planet is the ultimate public good. We would all like it, no one wants to perish , but we figure there are plenty of others to make the sacrifices, the outcome will not depend on the actions of a single individual so we take the easy path out. So, very few people actually do the right thing and the possibility of a negative outcome grows. These are hard times, we say, give me a break. A break, a bargain, call it what you will, just inches up the price of a sustainable future for our children just that much higher and pulls it that extra distance away from our empty hands.
Think twice before you act and share your concerns with others, remember we need to get everyone to act responsibly.This is a huge task and its going to take a planet to do it.
Egg Farm Inspections
The news is that the FDA is going to send inspectors to large egg farms in an effort to prevent future salmonella outbreaks. So, they finally figured out who needs to look at eggs and that they need to look at the eggs before people start getting sick…..excellent work! It is a tribute to the enormous power of big money and lobbyists that it took so long to accomplish such simple and obvious measures to ensure food safety and quality.
Thought + Food 