Free Republic

When former first lady Michelle Obama’s strict limitations on school lunches went into effect, students across the country dumped the unappetizing offerings in the garbage, a debacle that cost taxpayers billions in wasted food and lunchroom sales. Students, parents, administrators and lunch staff pleaded with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to roll back the restrictions – specific limits on everything from total calories to fat, sugar, sodium, and whole grain content – and the government created various waivers to allow schools to serve students food they will actually eat. Now, the Trump administration is scrapping the unnecessary bureaucracy altogether by...

im Crawford was rushing to load crates of freshly picked organic tomatoes onto trucks heading for an urban farmers market when he noticed the federal agent. A tense conversation followed as the visitor to his farm — an inspector from the Food and Drug Administration — warned him that some organic-growing techniques he had honed over four decades could soon be outlawed. "This is my badge. These are the fines. This is what is hanging over your head, and we want you to know that," Crawford says the official told him. Crawford's popular farm may seem a curious place for...

Are you now, or have you ever been, a shill for Coca-Cola? A conservative think tank denounced Tuesday a nutritional advocacy group for its attacks on Olympic figure skater legend Michelle Kwan for being a pusher of soft drinks while sitting on President Obama’s fitness council, while the group doubled down on its position. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) had said Miss Kwan’s dual roles as a Coca-Cola “ambassador” to the Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, and her membership on the Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition were “unacceptable.” It “cannot be reconciled, since Coca-Cola and...

Health organizations and U.S. nutrition experts say they are calling on fast-food restaurant chains to take sugary drinks off their children's menus. Margo G. Wootan, nutrition policy director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said McDonald's agreed to drop soda and sugary drinks from Happy Meal menus last year, and 100 U.S. and local health organizations along with nutritional experts said in a letter to Wendy's, Burger King and 21 other restaurant chains that they too should remove the items from their children's menus. Subway, Chipotle, Arby's and Panera already exclude sugary drinks from kids' meals. "With...

Taco Bell is pulling a TV ad after receiving complaints that it discouraged people from eating vegetables. -snip- The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a health advocacy group, this weekend urged people to tweet their complaints about the ad and the chain quickly made the decision to pull it.

The history of Islam is based on numbers and facts that you may not see anywhere else and explains why we may be afraid to see Islam for what it is based on its own doctrine and practice.

In a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the consumer watchdog group Center for Science in the Public Interest called on officials to ban the use of caramel coloring in popular soft drinks, citing a possible cancer risk. This isn’t the first time that CSPI has targeted the food additive that gives colas, including Coke and Pepsi, their familiar brown color. But the far bigger worry for soda drinkers remains high-fructose corn syrup and other sugars used in soft drinks. "Soda drinkers are much more likely than non-soda drinkers to develop weight gain, obesity, diabetes and other health...

‘Food Day’ was earlier this week, an event sponsored by The Center For Science In The Public Interest (CSPI). To celebrate the CSPI released their ‘Terrible Ten’ food list. It seems fitting that this list was released just before Halloween, as it makes ‘monsters’ out of food. “Vending machines dispensing soft drinks and candy are the ubiquitous, mute, metallic monsters that promote unhealthy diets 24/7”, according to the list. Even Toucan Sam is among CSPI’s list of terrors, “Kellogg’s Froot Loops, a fruit-less sugary cereal gussied up with synthetic dyes, is one of a host of junk foods marketed heavily...

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-20-why-is-the-fda-about-to-rubber-stamp-ge-salmon Gregory Jaffe: Last and perhaps most concerning, the committee’s supposed consumer advocate is a lawyer (not a scientist) representing the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an organization that favors the use of agricultural biotechnology. Like Van Eeenennaam, he has served on AC21, from 2004 to 2008. His views can be seen in a paper he wrote called “Creating the Proper Environment for Acceptance of Agricultural Biotechnology.” In it he states CSPI’s unequivocal support for agricultural biology and his belief that genetically engineered crops have increased productivity and farmer income while reducing pesticide use, and that GE crops...

While CSPI is busy suing McDonald's for Happy Meal toys and Coca-Cola for "deceptive" claims about its VitaminWater products, they are allowing the American Diatetic Association - a group partly-funded by McDonald's and Coca-Cola - to act as a steering committee member on its National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA) nutritional advocacy coalition. Can you say, "Hypocrisy?" http://freedomandlinux.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/define-irony-member-of-cspis-nana-nutritional-advocacy-coalition-also-fronts-for-coca-cola/ http://freedomandlinux.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/define-irony-member-of-cspis-nana-coalition-is-a-mcdonalds-front-group/ http://freedomandlinux.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/center-for-media-and-democracys-jill-richardson-guilty-of-covering-up-crimes-against-humanity-by-leftwing-food-industry-apologists/ http://freedomandlinux.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/define-irony-when-an-anti-obesity-crusader-is-a-member-of-a-nutritional-advocacy-coalition-headed-by-food-industry-front-groups/

On June 22, 2010 Jim Skinner, Vice Chairman, CEO and President of McDonalds Corporation, received a letter from Stephen Gardner, Litigation Director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). In this letter CSPI "demands" that McDonald's USA, LLC ("McDonald's") immediately stop using toys to market Happy Meals to young children" and "This letter details McDonald's illegal practices and offers to discuss resolution before CSPI files a lawsuit." A lawsuit? Over toys?The letter goes on to name the amount of money McDonald's spent in advertising, and then states, "By advertising that Happy Meals include toys, McDonald's unfairly and...

This week, a consumer interest group announced its intention to bring the very important social issue of childhood obesity to court. The Center for Science in the Public Interest announced it will sue McDonald's for the chain's promotion of Happy Meals. CSPI says the toys that come with the meals encourage children and parents to make unhealthy choices. "McDonald's is the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children," CSPI litigation director Stephen Gardner said on the organization's web site. "McDonald’s use of toys undercuts parental authority and exploits young children’s developmental immaturity—all this to induce children to prefer...

When the networks get a story involving food, labeling and health, they know just how to cover it: get reaction from their favorite lefty advocacy group, and paint consumers as defenseless patsies. That's what CBS' "Early Show" and ABC's "Good Morning America" did on March 4. In an alleged violation of the Federal Food Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the FDA has issued its biggest crackdowns in fifteen years, putting seventeen food manufacturers on notice for what they say are misleading product labels for consumers. The food companies have fifteen days to respond to the charges, either challenging the allegations or...

Researchers at MIT and Columbia University believe the answer to the so-called obesity “epidemic” lies in getting Americans to eat more regional food. So they’re outlining different “foodsheds” that we should all be relying on for our needs—especially if we live in a U.S. city. Will it work? Can we afford it? Let’s take a look.The PhysOrg news service spells out the proposal: Each metropolitan area, the researchers say, should obtain most of its nutrition from its own “foodshed,” a term akin to “watershed” meaning the area that naturally supplies its kitchens … [T]hese local efforts should form a...

America’s self-anointed food police have a new punching bag in their obesity crusade: fruit juice. We’re not making this up. The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that a growing number of dietary do-gooders are now pointing their fingers at juice as a culprit for fattening waistlines:The inconvenient truth, many experts say, is that 100% fruit juice poses the same obesity-related health risks as Coke, Pepsi and other widely vilified beverages. … [I]t's time juice lost its wholesome image, these experts say."It's pretty much the same as sugar water," said Dr. Charles Billington, an appetite researcher at the University of Minnesota....

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a self-proclaimed consumer advocacy group, came out with a list of the “The Ten Riskiest Foods Regulated By the U.S. Food And Drug Administration,” and frankly, Caroline Smith DeWaal, who is the Director of Food Safety for the group and who serves on the Board of Advisors of the Center for Produce Safety and thus knows better, should be ashamed of herself.

The New York Times reports today that Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been caught “salt-handed.” Despite targeting sodium in his latest nanny-state crusade, the mayor privately enjoys pouring it on by the shaker-load: Under his watch, the city has declared sodium an enemy, asking restaurants and food manufacturers to voluntarily cut the salt in their dishes by 20 percent or more, and encouraging diners to “shake the habit” by asking waiters for food without added salt.But Mr. Bloomberg, 67, likes his popcorn so salty that it burns others’ lips. (At Gracie Mansion, the cooks deliver it to him with a salt...

On July 4, 1776, America’s founding fathers signed their names to the Declaration of Independence in an effort to affirm basic liberties. But they never dreamed that anyone would someday attempt to strip the American people of the fundamental liberty to control what we eat and drink. In the spirit of affirming this simple freedom, we offer our Declaration of Food Independence. Because, as we’re telling Arizona Daily Star readers today, the pursuit of happiness is a lot harder on an empty stomach.

"And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the Pepsi drinker!" There has to be a statement about soft drinks tucked somewhere in Leviticus. I have assurances, after all, that such beverages are wicked. Sin taxes normally are levied on so-called vices, such as drinking, smoking, and gambling. Now Congress is "studying" a proposal to legislate morality by taxing sugary beverages—which is to say, it is "studying" whether such a tax would be politically feasible. According to the executive director of the Center for "Science" in...

This was from a few months ago, there was a more recent article but I can't find it. It's funny, we now have 30 years of research supporting the artificial food dye-kid hyperactivity link, yet our FDA has done nothing. Once again, we have given all responsibility of something (our food) to politicians (FDA) who only have to pretend their doing something. Just as troubling is how secretive and unregulated the food ingredient and chemical businesses are. Here's out it works: They say its safe, and the politicians that they pay off agree. Note in the article below that American...