Food and Farming
Who Deserves Our Thanks for Truly American Food?
What do turkey, sweet potatoes, and cranberries have in common? Yes, you eat them on Thanksgiving. Additionally, they are all distinctly American foods. So are potatoes and the corn in your corn bread. Believe it or not, the day that Columbus blundered into the...
Big Food Crushes Consumer Rights in Washington State
When you look at the numbers, how could Washington State's ballot initiative to require the labeling of foods made with genetically engineered ingredients ever stand a chance? I'm not talking about poll numbers. I'm talking about money. Just six weeks ago, voters...
Food Stamp Cuts Will Stoke Hunger
Would you believe that the nation's cabinet has approved an executive order defining food as a legal right? No, not our nation. India has taken this bold step. Malnourishment afflicts 42 percent of Indian children, and part of their government's response to this...
This Vanilla Experiment Stinks
Isn't it so inspiring to see global corporate giants crush small farmers, stomp on nature, circumvent our laws by hook or crook, and deceive and gouge consumers? Welcome once again to the phantasmagoric world of DNA manipulators. In particular, this branch of genetic...
Child Labor Shouldn’t Haunt Halloween
I can't bring myself to be the Grinch who stole Halloween. I just can't, even though I write about healthy food. I even eat (mostly) healthy food. Friends and colleagues expect me to have something to say about Halloween. But how can anyone condemn an innocent day of...
You Won’t Love These McSubsidies
Let us all now bow before the god of free enterprise, whose awesomeness was revealed in a recent news release announcing that the divine managers of fast-food deity McDonald's achieved a profit of $1.5 billion in just three months this summer. Holy Big Mac! How does...
The State of Worker Purchasing Power
Monsanto’s Absurdity Reaches New Heights
It was my privilege to go to Des Moines recently for a World Food Prize extravaganza recognizing Monsanto's work against global hunger. But wait, Monsanto is not a hunger-fighter. It's a predatory proliferator of proprietary and genetically engineered seeds. That's...
Jack-o-Lanterns Illuminate the Luxury in Our Lives
Every time I see a jack-o-lantern, I remember a conversation with my friend Kate Chumo. I met her in her home country of Kenya. We were talking about a favorite Kenyan food called uji, a fermented millet porridge. "Do you know what we do with millet in the U.S.?" I...
Meat So Cheap You Could Die
Thanks to the shutdown, the government is doing less to protect Americans from foodborne pathogens and deal with the aftermath of outbreaks. The timing couldn't be worse. Ten days after the shutdown began, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 317 people...
