Food & Beverage (page 181)

Last week, we were the first to report Fenton Communications’ (the firm behind the unnecessary “Give Swordfish A Break!” campaign) new effort to discourage the consumption of caviar, especially imported…

NBC Today show correspondent Phil Lempert, commenting on restaurants' alleged link to rising obesity rates, questions "the social consciousness of a super-sizing strategy that emphasizes high-fat, high-calorie food." As we've said before, no one forces anyone to eat anything. ("Dining well in a jumbo-portioned world," Los Angeles Times, 12/18/00)

The Center for Science in the Public Interest’s (CSPI) Michael Jacobson continues his crusade for a “Twinkie tax” on high-calorie food in this month’s CSPI newsletter. Jacobson says the…

Greenpeace's unwarranted genetically improved foods fear mongering has so upset consumers that many of them will buy only organic food products. Greenpeace is stepping in to fill the organic demand it created with its own line of organic products, on sale now in Brazil. Don't be surprised to see Greenpeace products on a supermarket shelf near you soon. ("Greenpeace to license organic products in Brazil," Agence France Presse, 12/12/00)

In November, we told you about how Fenton Communications (the firm behind the unnecessary “Give Swordfish a Break!” campaign) organized Chefs Collaborative and Environmental Defense to launch an offensive against…

National standards for organic food will be released soon, and they will make clear that such products aren't safer or more nutritious than conventional products, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman says. (Some people maintain that organic foods are actually more dangerous. Glickman said the final regulations "will be clear that these rules are not to disparage in any way any other kinds of foods."

Maryland's Jim Stump and Jon Mayer, the "Feasty Boys," have a cooking show on local area cable that people just can't seem to get enough of (with good reason!). The Feasty Boys stand by their assertion that there is no food that "cannot be improved with a generous layer of cheese-topped off with a dollop of butter to promote browning." As Stump says, "We don't have a garlic press, so we buy garlic powder. We cook a lot of ground beef and chicken, down-home cooking with a lot of fat involved." To each his choice.

Despite apocalyptic predictions from opponents of genetically improved foods, a panel of scientists has advised the Environmental Protection Agency that there is a "medium likelihood" that Starlink corn could cause allergic reactions in people and there is so little of the corn in the food supply that there is a "low probability" consumers could have developed allergies to it. The panel urged further study of the corn before it is approved for human consumption.

The American Institute for Cancer Research continues to blame restaurant portion sizes for obesity in this very sympathetic write-up in the San Antonio Express. As we've said before, nobody makes anybody eat anything.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest's Michael Jacobson, who wants to force labeling of everything, tells the New York Times, "in the current environment, [a mandatory label for genetically improved food] would be almost a kiss of death on a product."