food safety

The global increase in grain prices may make the meat supply less safe. The European Union is considering a relaxation of feed bans that prohibit animal by-products being used as feed for other animals in the human food chain. The proposal would "allow pig remains to be used to feed poultry" and would be the EU's first exception made to strict regulations enacted to respond to the BSE, or mad cow disease, crisis of a decade ago. Feeding pigs to pigs, cows and chickens is widespread and legal in the United States, which has had mad cow disease since the 1990s and is covering up its extent. But the European plan is facing opposition from a wide range of parties, including consumer groups, animal rights activists, and Muslim organizations. With nutritionists predicting that "there will be such a backlash from consumers that the idea would have to be dropped," some grocery outlets are already going on record as not being willing to carry the pork-fed poultry. The EU's Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that it could "only support it if we were fully satisfied that appropriate and effective testing had taken place to control the use of such proteins in poultry feed." Meanwhile, the Korean government's decision to sell US beef in that country has led to massive street protests in the capital. CMD staffers John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton wrote about the issue of feeding animals to other animals in their 1997 book "Mad Cow USA."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been criticized for not totally banning "downer" cows -- animals "too sick or hurt to stand for slaughter" -- from the food supply. So "when a coalition of major industry groups reversed their position and joined animal advocates and several lawmakers in calling for an absolute ban," why wouldn't the USDA agree? Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer hasn't responded to the new stance of the American Meat Institute and other industry groups. So, industry leaders are encouraging meat producers to institute their own voluntary ban. But the Humane Society of the United States says a total ban is needed and "the USDA should take immediate action." The limited regulation of downer cows was instituted after mad cow disease was found in the U.S. and Canada. CMD staffers John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton wrote about the issue in their 1997 book "Mad Cow USA."

Soybean plantThe biotechnology industry has invoked the need for genetically modified (GM) crops to meet the growing global food crisis. For example, Archer Daniels Midland called itself the "supermarket to the world" in its ads. But a recent study carried out on soybeans in Kansas found that GM crops produced significantly less food than their conventional counterparts. A GM soybean from Monsanto produced 70 bushels per acre, compared to 77 per acre for a virtually identical unaltered soybeans. Even after adding extra nutrients that Monsanto's weedkiller, Roundup, seems to block, production was only brought up to the same level as the non-engineered plants. An earlier study in Nebraska found similar results. Monsanto said "it was surprised by the extent of the decline found by the Kansas study, but not by the fact that the yields had dropped. It said that the soya had not been engineered to increase yields, and that it was now developing one that would." Others are skeptical. Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, said that "the physiology of plants was now reaching the limits of the productivity that could be achieved." The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development has also "concluded that GM was not the answer to world hunger." And, "when asked if GM could solve world hunger," the chief scientist at the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Professor Bob Watson, said, "The simple answer is no."

A new "grassroots" farmers' group with close ties to Monsanto has been formed to outlaw labels that would notify consumers they are buying milk from cows not treated with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). Monsanto genetically engineers rBGH, called Posilac, which is injected into cows, forcing them to produce more milk. The front group American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology (AFACT), which receives funding from Monsanto, was organized by Osborne & Barr, an agri-marketing firm started by two former Monsanto employees in 1988. The founding client of Osborne & Barr was Monsanto. Consultant Monty G. Miller of Estes Park, Colorado, also helped organize AFACT, which was formally launched in California in February 2008. The only contact information AFACT lists on its website is a fax number listed as belonging to "Outer Office." Outer Office provides secretarial and operational support (such as scheduling, newsletters and message-taking) to small consulting businesses. A call to Outer Office seeking the address and telephone contact information for AFACT was not returned.

Probably not where your bottled water comes fromRep. Al Wynn of Maryland and Rep. Hilda Solis of California have asked the Government Accountability Office to look into the bottled water industry. One concern is that the packaging of bottled water often uses images of mountain stream and other pristine natural settings, but as much as a third of bottled water comes from municipal water sources. While there are some added filtration steps in the processing, the product is much closer to tap water than consumers are led to believe. Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council said "I think that consumers are under the misguided impression that bottled water is being carefully regulated and fully tested, and that it comes from whatever place is on the picture on the label. That's not the case." While the Environmental Protection Agency monitors tap water, it is the Food and Drug Administration that is in charge of bottled water. Unfortunately, the "FDA's standard of quality regulations for bottled water set allowable levels for more than 70 different chemical contaminants."

José Bové is a leading French activist against biotechnologyThe government of President Nicolas Sarkozy wants the French people to be able to opt for genetically modified organisms (GMOs), not just to opt against them. A proposed law governing GMOs and defining several broad principles has been forwarded to the Conseil d'Etat (the French equivalent to the U.S. Supreme Court) and the executive branch hopes that it will be passed by Parliament by February 2008. Some passages appear positive, like "GMOs cannot be commercialized, cultivated or used except in a manner that is respectful to the environment and public health, and with complete transparency." But these are followed by obvious nods to GMO producers, such as a revision from the right to choose freely to produce and consume "without GMOs" to "the liberty to consume and produce with or without" GMOs. Arnaud Apoteker of Greenpeace said that he is disappointed. "The project doesn't give priority to non-GMO cultivation. It gives the impression that coexistence is possible, whereas the dissemination of GMOs is inevitable." GMO proponents don't see the proposed legislation as completely positive either. A spokesman for seed producers said that the articles that assign responsibility to the GMO users and the seed distributor for any damages caused to neighboring fields due to seed drift, and the need to register usage of GMO seed stock at a more local level than expected "are problematic."

By Judith Siers-Poisson

John Stauber and I attended a special pre-release campus screening in Berkeley, CA of "Fast Food Nation," the film based on Eric Schlosser's groundbreaking 2001 bestseller. In the book, Schlosser documented the links between exploitation of migrant workers, the meatpacking industry, fast food consumption, and the manipulation and outright toxicity of much mass-produced food.

Eric Schlosser

By Jonathan Rosenblum

An extract from Bob Burton's Inside Spin: The Dark Underbelly of the PR Industry.

Brian Page, a 42-year-old railway worker, had been busy before Easter 1992 buying furniture for a house he had just moved into at Mt Pritchard, a south-western Sydney suburb. On their way home, his daughter Melissa wanted to stop at McDonald's in Fairfield for lunch. Shortly after returning home, Brian Page began vomiting and had diarrhoea. As Page's symptoms were initially indistinguishable from a bout of the flu, his doctor gave him a medical certificate and sent him home. Page took to bed for the next three days but on the fourth day went back to work, even though he wasn't feeling well. His boss noticed that Page was unable to write properly and seemed disoriented and confused by his work. He was so concerned about Page that he called a taxi and sent him home, but by then Page recognised something was seriously wrong and went straight to Liverpool Hospital. What was unknown to Page and his doctor was that he had been exposed to Legionella bacteria. If detected early, Legionnaires disease can be treated with antibiotics. Untreated, it can be a killer. Two days after being admitted to the intensive care unit of Liverpool Hospital, Page died. On what would have been his 43rd birthday, more than 100 family and friends attended his funeral.¹⁴

Peggy O'Mara, the editor of Mothering Magazine, reports that "in addition to the inaccurate information on breastfeeding" by the media, the "marketing practices of the formula companies continue to undermine breastfeeding." She notes the existence of several "stealth" websites "that appear to be grassroots advocacy sites, but are actually mouthpieces for the formula industry." One of the websites, MomsFeedingFreedom.com, is campaigning against proposed restrictions on the free bags of infant formula being given to new parents by hospitals. The website, which was registered by the web-based marketing company ENilsson LLC, is funded by the International Formula Council and run by Kate Kahn. "A sister site, Babyfeedingchoice.org, is licensed to Kellen Communications, a public relations firm whose clients include the International Formula Council," O'Mara writes. BantheBags, which supports a ban on free samples, argues that the "sites use classic formula company strategies, paying lip service to benefits of breastfeeding even as they promote formula."