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News archives

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Historic Shareholder Agreement Reached with McDonald's on Pesticide Use Reduction
Washington, DC – March 31, 2009 -- Responding to shareholder concerns, McDonald’s Corporation has agreed to formally survey and promote best practices in pesticide use reduction within its American potato supply chain. As the largest buyer of potatoes in the US, McDonald’s commitment will support p... Continued...

NAACP opposes chicken dropping power plant
The NAACP said Friday that it opposes a Sampson County power plant fueled by chicken droppings. It's called for a rally Saturday in Clinton, NC to talk about it. Last April, Fibrowatt announced it's building three power plants in North Carolina. The first is to be located in Sampson County near t... Continued...

EU completes 16-year pesticide review
Detailed human health and environmental risk assessment of some 1,000 active substances authorised for use in pesticides before 1991 has led to the removal of more than two thirds of them from the market. The risk assessment review evaluated each substance with respect to the health of consumers,... Continued...

FDA says to avoid pistachios amid salmonella scare
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Federal food officials are warning people not to eat any food containing pistachios because of possible contamination by salmonella, in another food scare sure to rattle consumers already upset by the contamination of peanuts with the same bacteria. The Food and Drug Adminis... Continued...

Monday, March 30, 2009

Food may contain environmental estrogens
A discovery that two commonly used food additives are estrogenic has led scientists to suspect that many ingredients added to the food supply may be capable of altering hormones. More than 3,000 preservatives, flavorings, colors and other ingredients are added to food in the United States, and n... Continued...

New report calls food safety system antiquated, calls for reform
Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood JohnsonFoundation released a new report, Keeping America's Food Safe: A Blueprint for Fixing the Food Safety System at the U.S. Departmentof Health and Human Services, which examines problems with the fragmented and antiquated current system and propo... Continued...

Friday, March 27, 2009

Exposure to environmental toxins an everyday occurrence
Children in communities of color are the most vulnerable In the refurbished Georgian revival dwelling that now houses the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), we squeezed into a room not meant to hold the 70 people who had gathered. The backgrounds of the audience members ranged fro... Continued...

Diseases, sabotage take center stage at food conference
SMITHFIELD -- On a midsummer night in 2004, President George W. Bush sat down with his closest advisers in Washington, D.C., and talked about 18 cows on a dairy farm in Washington state. The farmer had noticed a mysterious reddish substance on their hides that morning and called his personal vet.... Continued...

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Report calls for new food safety oversight
Adding to the chorus seeking an overhaul of the nation's food safety system, a report issued Wednesday called on the Obama administration to put someone in charge of safeguarding the food supply and to create a Food Safety Administration. The food safety system is "plagued with problems," said Je... Continued...

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

'Green chemistry' movement sprouts in colleges, companies
Many companies are starting to emphasize reducing or eliminating hazardous substances to save money, reduce inefficiencies and promote their brands to consumers who favor eco-friendly products. "Industry really sees the value of 'green chemistry,'" said Julie Haack, assistant head of the Universi... Continued...

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Congress scolds food makers on safety lapse
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic lawmakers on Thursday scolded U.S. firms that purchased now-recalled peanut products for failing to ensure the goods were safe and relying on audits from a firm that had links with the Peanut Corp of America, which made the tainted products. Kellogg Co, King Nut ... Continued...

Antibiotic ban on livestock may hurt U.S. food safety
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bill that would ban the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in animals would hurt the health of livestock and poultry while compromising efforts to protect the safety of the country's food supply, the leader of the largest U.S. farm group said on Tuesday. Bob Stallman, pres... Continued...

'Low carbon diet' a healthy option for Earth
SAN FRANCISCO — A hungry student at the University of San Francisco last week couldn't find a few college staples at the campus eatery — a juicy hamburger and a cheesy slice of pizza. It was "Low Carbon Diet Day" on Tuesday, and beef and cheese were off the menu. With 18 percent of the world's... Continued...

Monday, March 23, 2009

Fraud common in seafood industry
Fraud takes place throughout the seafood industry due to a lack of proper oversight by U.S. federal agencies, a government group says. The Government Accountability Office said in a report that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has failed to act on numerous complaints of fraudulent seafood pr... Continued...

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Supermarket suspends sale of Johnson products amid debate
A major Chinese supermarket chain pulled baby products made by US-based health care giant Johnson & Johnson from its shelves Monday after allegations that the products contain carcinogens. Shanghai-based Nonggongshan Supermarkets Corp., which operates 3,500 stores in eastern China, pulled the pro... Continued...

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Rep. Slaughter Reintroduces Bill to Help Fight Antibiotic Resistance Crisis by Combating Misuse of Antibiotics in Animal Agriculture
Keep Antibiotics Working (KAW) — a national coalition of health, consumer, agricultural, environmental, humane, and other advocacy groups with more than ten million supporters — today welcomed the reintroduction of a bill that would help combat the antibiotic resistance crisis by targeting the overu... Continued...

Chicken Drink Products Recalled
Khong Guan Corporation, of Union City, California, has issued a recall for about 2,858 pounds of chicken drink products because they were, among other issues, ineligible for import into the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FS... Continued...

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Bio-renewable Chemicals Emerge as the Building Blocks of the Chemical Industry, Finds Frost & Sullivan
The change from a non-renewable to a renewable feedstock base in the chemical industry is accelerating. This is not only due to the increase in the prices of non-renewable feedstock but also because of the growing ability of certain microorganisms to yield higher productivity of the desired chemical... Continued...

Monday, March 16, 2009

Companies cut synthetic hormone from dairy products
Got rbST?

That's not the latest space critter in a George Lucas film. It's a synthetic growth hormone (recombinant bovine somatotropin) used to spur cows to produce more milk. Many dairies and retailers — including General Mills (GIS), Dannon and Wal-Mart (WMT) — are nixing it from dairy p... Continued...

Friday, March 13, 2009

Sunoco acknowledges safety concerns with bisphenol-A, prohibits use in baby products
Sunoco has begun restricting sales of a controversial chemical used in baby bottles and food containers that some researchers believe can harm infants. The move by the gas and chemical giant makes Sunoco the first manufacturer to acknowledge safety concerns about bisphenol-A, or BPA, which recent... Continued...

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Our Sick Farms, Our Infected Food
Agriculture has fueled the eruption of human civilization. Efficiently raised, affordable crops and livestock feed our growing population, and hunger has largely been banished from the developed world as a result. Yet there are reasons to believe that we are beginning to lose control of our great ag... Continued...

'Low carbon diet' a healthy option for Earth
A hungry student at the University of San Francisco last week couldn't find a few college staples at the campus eatery — a juicy hamburger and a cheesy slice of pizza. It was "Low Carbon Diet Day" on Tuesday, and beef and cheese were off the menu. With 18 percent of the world's greenhouse gase... Continued...

Minnesotans and millions of other Americans are expected to raise of bumper crop of backyard vegetables this year.
A couple of weeks ago, local gardening editor Mary Lahr Schier thought she'd start sprouting vegetable seeds indoors to get a jump-start on the Minnesota growing season. But when she went to Menards to buy the grow light she needed, the store was sold out. An employee told her more folks seem to be ... Continued...

Monday, March 9, 2009

New Bills Expand FDA Power
WASHINGTON - New legislation introduced in Congress last week seeks to strengthen the Food and Drug Administration's ability to monitor food safety. The measures - one bill that was introduced in the Senate and another that was expected late last week in the House - follow recent calls from major... Continued...

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Ninety-Three Percent of U.S. Consumers Aware of Recent Food Safety Concerns
More than nine in ten U.S. consumers (93 percent) have recently read or heard reports of food safety issues and recalls and almost a fourth of Americans said the recalls will change their long term food buying behavior, according to a new study of U.S. consumer attitudes about food safety published ... Continued...

Friday, March 6, 2009

No BPA For Baby Bottles In U.S.
The six largest manufacturers of baby bottles will stop selling bottles in the United States made with bisphenol A, a controversial chemical widely used in plastics but increasingly linked to a range of health effects. The manufacturers declared their intentions after Connecticut Attorney Genera... Continued...

Wash. House OKs ban on chemical in baby bottles
The House has approved a measure that would ban a controversial chemical from baby bottles, sippy cups and sports water bottles. The measure to ban bisphenol A was passed on a 76-21 vote Thursday and now heads to the Senate. The federal government says bisphenol A is safe in low doses, but sup... Continued...

New York County Bans BPA Baby Bottles
A New York county banned baby bottles and sippy cups made from a common compound found in many plastic products. The bill passed Tuesday in the Suffolk County Legislature. It bans bottles made with bisphenol A, more commonly known as BPA. Stores selling bottles with BPA face $500 fines. The count... Continued...

The Third Conference on Local, Sustainable Healthcare Food
Detroit, Michigan June 30th - July 1st
FoodMed 2009 Web site

As places of healing, hospitals have a natural incentive to provide food that's healthy for people and the environment in which we live. By understanding the link ... Continued...

No BPA For Baby Bottles In U.S.
The six largest manufacturers of baby bottles will stop selling bottles in the United States made with bisphenol A, a controversial chemical widely used in plastics but increasingly linked to a range of health effects. The manufacturers declared their intentions after Connecticut Attorney General... Continued...

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Tests find Bisphenol A in majority of soft drinks
The estrogen-mimicking chemical BPA, already banished from baby bottles and frowned upon in water jugs, has now shown up in significant levels in soft drinks. Tests by Health Canada scientists revealed the highest levels were in energy drinks, the often caffeine-loaded beverages that have become... Continued...

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

NY county lawmakers vote to ban BPA baby bottles
Lawmakers in one New York county have voted to ban the sale of baby bottles made with a chemical that some studies have suggested is harmful to young children. The measure passed Tuesday by the Suffolk County legislature would ban the use of the chemical BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups sold fo... Continued...

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Heart study may raise pressure to cut acrylamide levels in snacks
According to findings published in the new issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, consuming 160 grams of potato chips per day may increase levels of compounds linked to oxidative stress and inflammation, both of which may increase the risk of certain chronic disease. “These novel f... Continued...

History shows few food safety jailings
U.S. foodborne illness outbreaks such as the one recently traced to a Georgia peanut plant rarely result in people being jailed, observers say. Even though nine deaths and nearly 700 illnesses have been attributed to salmonella-laced peanut paste made at the Peanut Corporation of America facilit... Continued...

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Press Release: Golden Opportunity to Deal With Poisonous Quicksilver Pollution
This month the world's environment ministers meeting in Nairobi, Kenya can take a landmark decision to lift a global health threat from the lives of literally hundreds of millions of people. A strategy to begin seriously dealing with the heavy metal mercury and its highly toxic compounds is to c... Continued...