Archive for November, 2011

Don’t like the message? Shoot the messenger

As a writer who’s been exposing food industry deception and other underhanded tactics for many years, I’ve had my fair share of hate mail and other personal attacks. But on Monday, when I published my article, Dairy Industry Making a Killing, by Killing Cows? at Food Safety News, the comments threw me for a loop.

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Dairy Industry Making a Killing, by Killing Cows?

If you think you’re paying too much for a gallon of milk these days, it could be the result of an elaborate price-fixing scheme, according to a recent class action that charges the dairy industry with federal antitrust violations, among other claims. The case was instigated by the animal advocacy organization Compassion Over Killing whose research revealed that, between 2003 and 2010, more than 500,000 young cows were slaughtered under a “dairy herd retirement” program, in an effort to reduce the supply of milk and inflate prices. The group also alleges that the program “bought out smaller farmers and instructed them to kill their entire dairy herds, unfairly increasing the profits of agribusiness giants.” Read rest at Food Safety News…

School food politics: What’s missing from the pizza-as-vegetable reporting

Over the last couple of days, news outlets have been having a field day with a proposal from Congress that pizza sauce be considered a vegetable to qualify for the National School Lunch program. Headlines like this one were typical: “Is Pizza Sauce a Vegetable? Congress says Yes.” (The blogs were a tad more childish; for example LA Weekly: Congress to USDA: Pizza is So a Vegetable, Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah.)

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November Speaking Events and Media Appearances

On Friday November 4, I am giving a keynote address at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California. The day-long symposium is called: Food Fight! The Legal Debate Over The Obesity Epidemic, Food Labeling, And The Government’s Involvement In What You Eat and will be webcast live.

On Monday, November 7, I am giving two talks at the 15th annual conference of the Community Food Security Coalition, in Oakland, California. I will participate in a panel on “Walmart and Corporate Social Responsibility: An Inherent Contradiction?” But even if you’re not attending the conference, you can come to a free workshop I am leading with Paula Arnquist of Corporate Accountability International on “Fighting back: Corporate Lobbying and Interference in Food Policy.” And who knows, maybe we will take the workshop over to Occupy Oakland.

On Thursday, November 10, I am giving a guest lecture at University of California, Berkeley on the politics of food. Also, on November 10 at 9pm I will appear in a documentary on CNBC called, “Pepsi’s Challenge.” You can watch a preview clip of my interview here.

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