NRA Captures Congressional Kisses

by: JayinPortland

Wed Mar 24, 2010 at 23:33:47 PM PDT

Buried deep in the health care legislation that President Obama signed on Tuesday is a new requirement that will affect any American who walks into a McDonald's, Starbucks or Burger King. Every big restaurant chain in the nation will now be required to put calorie information on their menus and drive-through signs.

Jill and I have written plenty on menu labeling over the past year-plus here, and for that matter we went through our own scuffle on this issue last year right here in Portland as the Oregon State Legislature passed a watered down, industry-backed menu labeling bill of their own directly in response to Multnomah County's earlier and stronger bill.

The National Restaurant Association has recently abandoned its long time opposition to menu labeling legislation, and has since chosen to support weak legislation to encode into law what we pretty much have already, with a stirrup bone or two tossed to public health advocates along the way.  So what kind of national menu labeling legislation did we get tucked into the health care bill?  Let's take a look below the fold...

More on Food Stamps for Fast Food

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Feb 19, 2010 at 13:42:58 PM PST

Restaurants in the program include Domino's Pizza, Papa John's, and other pizza places, Subway, El Pollo Loco, Jack in the Box, California Donuts, a number of burger joints, Popeye's Chicken, Church's Chicken, and other fried chicken restaurants, some BBQ restaurants, Denny's, Wendy's, some Chinese restaurants, and really not much else.  

Food Stamps Allowed for Fast Food. WTF??!

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Feb 18, 2010 at 19:17:00 PM PST

Why are they doing this? They told NPR that:

Our goal is to provide healthy meals for the homeless, disabled and elderly participants. Especially the homeless because they don't have space to store food or cook.

I understand the idea of allowing those groups to buy hot meals with food stamps. I know it's something that came up in a recent Congressional hearing on nutrition that specifically focused on food stamps in California. But Jack-in-the-Box? As a bleeding heart liberal, I am outraged for ethical reasons, but as a taxpayer, I am outraged as well. The same group that is eligible for food stamps is often eligible for Medicaid. So, great, go give them diabetes so that we can pay for treating it for the rest of their lives.

Sampler Platter 06.17.09

by: JayinPortland

Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 10:53:29 AM PDT

• At the Ethicurean, Janet takes us on a tour of Missouri's Heartland Harvest Garden, 12 acres of edible landscaping which officials claim is the biggest such garden in the country.

• A couple of years ago, New Jersey attempted to eliminate its State Department of Agriculture in a shortsighted cost-cutting move.  Terrible idea, and fortunately protests and public opposition ensured that it never happened.  Although New Jersey did eventually lose a great advocate in the process.  Now, California is considering eliminating their Department of Food and Agriculture.  Rose Hayden-Smith believes it's a bad idea.

• A federal prosecutor in Brazil is seeking to ban fast-food toy promotions in the country.

• Since taking office in 2006, Governor Jon Corzine's (D-NJ) Hunger Initiative has meant millions of dollars for state food banks, and fresh healthy local produce for New Jersey's poor.  The program requires food banks receiving funds to prioritize local growers and producers.  The governor was at the Food Bank of South Jersey yesterday, continuing to promote partnerships between food banks and local farmers.

• Despite being sued by two coal companies over municipal ordinances banning coal mining and requiring corporations to disclose their activities to local officials, a tiny Pennsylvania town is refusing to back down.  Its lawyer is predicting this case will eventually make it up to the US Supreme Court in a challenge to corporate "personhood".  In 2006 the town passed an ordinance that reads, in part: "This illegitimate bestowal of civil and political rights upon corporations prevents the administration of laws within Blaine Township and usurps basic human and constitutional rights guaranteed to the people of Blaine Township".  Go Blaine!  (h/t to Anonymous Bosch)

• Here's another great piece on the growing trend of bringing better food to hospitals.  The article goes on to mention that one hospital cafeteria in Burlington, Vermont, which focuses on local seasonal organic produce, has even become a destination for downtown lunch crowds!

• As the old saying goes, denial ain't just a river in Egypt.  Hard to deny these days, though, the drastic changes occurring in the Pacific, much sooner than researchers had expected.

Update: Check this out - seed industry structure charts and graphics

Fast Food Makes You Stupid (Yet We Serve It In Our Schools)

by: Jill Richardson

Wed May 27, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT

They found just over half of pupils had eaten at fast food restaurants such as McDonald's up to three times in the last week. One in 10 had eaten fast food between four and six times and two per cent visited restaurants four or more times daily.

In total, children scored between 58 and 181 points in the reading tests, gaining an average score of 141.5. But after taking other factors into account, pupils who ate fast food between four and six times a week scored almost seven points below average. Children snacking once a day fell 16 points, while pupils indulging three times a day dropped by 19 points.

Similar trends were noted in maths. In total, children scored between 47 and 151 points in the test, with average results of 115. But those pupils eating fast food dropped by between 6.5 and 18.5 points.

Given this jaw-dropping news, why would ANY educator in their right mind serve fast food as school lunch?

What's In Fast Food?

by: Jill Richardson

Mon May 11, 2009 at 07:00:00 AM PDT

As it turns out, though, lard would probably be one of the more wholesome ingredients in the fast food that so many Americans eat. JayinPortland found this website that exposes their top ingredients. More below...

Friday Sampler Platter

by: JayinPortland

Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 15:15:00 PM PDT

• A nice piece from Civil Eats keeps us up on what's going on in Montana's local food movement.

• PETA has called on Newark, NJ mayor Cory Booker to ban construction of new fast-food restaurants in the city.  A 2007 study shows that 34 percent of Newarkers are obese, as opposed to the NJ statewide average of 22 percent.  I'd like to see more projects like this around the city, myself.

• Willamette Valley Vineyards has just launched what they claim is the world's first cork recycling program.

• This map allows you to follow the movements of 11 tagged grizzly bears throughout the City of Anchorage, Alaska.

• This week's edition of Eugene Weekly has a few cool pieces as part of this year's Earth Day edition.

• Blue whales are returning to the British Columbia coast for the first time in decades; but it's more likely due to a regular pattern of following food as ocean temperature cycles change, rather than an increase in the whale population.

• A piece from Seattlest covers an ongoing conflict caused by bycatch in the Alaskan pollock industry.

• If you happen to find yourself at the new Yankee Stadium hopefully to root heartily against the home team this year, the (Newark, NJ) Star-Ledger's Munchmobile covered the new food options at the stadium at yesterday's home opener.  Props to Peter Genovese for mentioning zeppole, which I haven't had (or even found!) since Summer '06 down the Jersey Shore.  My heart and arteries probably thank me for living 3,000 miles away from Jersey Shore food now, though.  Heh...

Wednesday Night Sampler Platter

by: JayinPortland

Wed Apr 15, 2009 at 17:00:00 PM PDT

• Two pieces from the LA Times: one on the connection between fast food and happiness in children (as the commenter says: of course there's a connection!  The stuff acts like a drug...); and another on the increasing sexualization of fast food advertising.

• Connecticut is now one step closer to banning the sale of plastic baby bottles, food containers and cups containing the dangerous industrial chemical bisphenol a.  The measure, which would also require warning labels on all food products sold in packaging containing BPA, unanimously passed a state legislative committee on Tuesday.  Connecticut would be the first state to pass such a ban.  Oregon, California, Hawaii and a handful of other states are also currently considering such legislation.

• A piece about a different BPA:  from High Country News, an investigation into the Bonneville Power Administration's influence on salmon research in the Columbia Basin.

• The volunteer work of a pair of law students working out of a Lewis & Clark Law School-based environmental nonprofit helped lead to this week's criminal sentencing of a Washington fish processing plant for spewing "chemically rendered chicken goo" into the Columbia River in violation of the Clean Water Act.

• A nice piece on a Washington family's mission-oriented worm raising business.

• Some good wildlife news from Alaska: the populations of two caribou herds in the state have recently jumped significantly.  The downside is that two other nearby herds are decreasing in numbers.

• Two pieces from Civil Eats: the Berkeley (CA) Farmers' Market has become the first market in the nation to eliminate all plastic bags AND plastic packaging; and Part 2 of a great interview with Gary Nabhan.

Childhood Kidney Stones makes Network News.

by: Eddie C

Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 17:53:21 PM PDT

"What we've really seen is an increase in the salt load in children's diet," said Dr. Bruce L. Slaughenhoupt, co-director of pediatric urology and of the pediatric kidney stone clinic at the University of Wisconsin. He and other experts mentioned not just salty chips and French fries, but also processed foods like sandwich meats; canned soups; packaged meals; and even sports drinks like Gatorade, which are so popular among schoolchildren they are now sold in child-friendly juice boxes.

The video from tonight's NBC Nightly News offers more of the same. Because of what we take in these days more and more kids are showing up at hospitals with what was once a very painful problem for some people later in life.

Junk Food: Addictive?

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 01:54:19 AM PST

Some scientists are starting to believe that bingeing on foods that are excessively high in fat and sugar can cause changes to your brain and body that make it hard to say no. A few even believe that the foods can trigger changes that are similar to full-blown addiction. The research is still at a very early stage...

Did Your Burger Eat Its Own Poop?

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 01:51:54 AM PST

In an interview, Jahren, who is a geobiologist and professor at the University of Hawaii, even suggested that the nitrogen isotopic signatures found in meat products were so high that they were consistent with environments where animals had consumed their own waste.

Did you get that? Eric Schlosser declared long ago that "there's shit in the meat" but this analysis also suggests that your meat ate some shit.

Heckuva Job, Treasure Valley Health Officials...

by: JayinPortland

Fri Oct 10, 2008 at 01:30:40 AM PDT

McDonald's, home of the Quarter Pounder with Cheese and the Big Mac, is teaming up with Treasure Valley public-health officials to offer 13 balanced meals with no more than 700 calories each.

They have the backing of Kristin Armstrong, gold medal-winning bicyclist from Boise. She was at a McDonald's this week as a symbol of just how healthy the meals are. The Olympian says her favorite recovery drink after a ride is chocolate milk.

The Central District Health Department helped develop Good Fit Meals so consumers could quickly identify balanced meal choices.

Well, I have a suggestion of my own to help consumers people (You know, like human beings?  FWIW, every time we allow corporations to continue to refer to us as 'consumers', the Flying Spaghetti Monster eats 3 kittens...)  "quickly identify balanced meal choices" - if you see it on a McDonald's menu, it ain't a "balanced meal choice".

The health department is working to reduce the number of overweight children because they may face a future of chronic diseases that include high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and sleep apnea.

Then why is the health department "teaming up" with, and promoting McDonald's?

More below the fold...

Menu Labeling Update: This Is How They'll Undermine Us

by: JayinPortland

Thu Oct 02, 2008 at 04:27:42 AM PDT

Yum Brands Inc. said Wednesday that its company-owned Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver's and A&W All-American Food locations in the United States will begin placing calorie information on menu boards.

Calorie information will be based on individual serving sizes and will be phased onto menu boards beginning this year and completed by Jan. 1, 2011, the Louisville, Ky.-based company (NYSE: YUM) said in a news release.

Remember as a kid...those activity book pictures with some seemingly normal scene, but there were always one or two things we were tasked with picking out that when we looked closer were so obviously wrong and ridiculous?  I remember being assigned many of them in my early years of public school, and I believe they actually contributed to my cynicism as an adult...and I really wonder whether public schools still use those things these days.  (Do they?  Does anybody know?)  After all, it's pretty obvious that developing critical thinking skills in individuals from an early age only makes it that much harder to ultimately create a society of mindless 'consumers'.  

Ah, but anyways...two things instantly struck me as I read those first two (quoted) sentences of the above-linked article, and it also confirmed for me that the fast food "industry" is taking the exact tack I thought they would in eventually co-opting and undermining menu labeling laws.  Many thoughts below the fold...

Towards Fast Food Menu Labeling Laws

by: JayinPortland

Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 01:02:57 AM PDT

"The Oregonian" just published an op-ed Friday mostly in support of a fast food menu labeling proposal that will be voted on this Thursday, July 31, by the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners.  The new rule would require fast food and coffee shop chains (yeah, you too Starbucks...) with more than 15 locations nationwide to post the caloric content next to each item on the main menu display board in restaurants they operate within Multnomah County, Oregon.  Multnomah County is the most populous county in the state of Oregon and consists of roughly 99.5% of the City of Portland (a few residential blocks on far ends of the city poke into Clackamas and Washington Counties); the cities of Gresham, Fairview, Troutdale, Maywood Park, Wood Village, a small portion of Lake Oswego and also a handful of unincorporated areas and communities stretching out along the Columbia River Gorge and towards Mount Hood.  

The menu labeling proposal in question is a very basic one that comes up short in many ways, but it's definitely a good place to start.  For one, it only applies to 'regular items' - so a chain that decides to offer a 'limited time only' Triple Bacon Cheeseburger slathered in some monstrous sauce with extra grease would not be required to disclose the information on that particular item, and that apparently also applies to any item as long as they can manage to keep them off the main menu board.  But we have to start somewhere, I guess.  Let's not just rest after passing this.  We've got quite a bit of work ahead of us.  Some quotes from the above-linked "Oregonian" op-ed -

It will still be a free country, where people can swallow and swill at will. But restaurant chains, defined as places with 15 or more establishments nationwide, would have to include calorie counts alongside regular menu items, with the number as prominently displayed as the item's price. They'd also have to provide more detailed nutritional information upon request.

and...

The research shows that even nutritionists fumble when they try to guess which restaurant items are better for them, and which worse. And if they're in the dark, the rest of us are in serious trouble. No wonder so many Americans support nutritional labeling in restaurants. We spend roughly half of our food dollar eating out, and consume about a third of our calories in restaurants; it might help to know a little more about what we're doing.

There's also a front-page article on the Multnomah County menu labeling proposal in Sunday's print edition of "The Oregonian" -

"It's not telling people what they should eat, it's not preventing them from eating things that are unhealthy," said County Commissioner Jeff Cogen. "It's giving people the information so they can make decisions for themselves."

Cogen is sponsoring the menu rule after more than a year of study by local health experts, but he is still working to line up support among his colleagues for a vote Thursday on the plan. The Board of Commissioners serves as the county's public health agency.

Below the fold, a quick look at the requirements along these lines already in place in Seattle, San Francisco, and NYC; and some more information on what's currently going on here in Multnomah County...

July 24 Random News: Unintentionally Canadian-Centric Edition; Also Featuring LA, Ohio and Europe

by: JayinPortland

Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 05:02:25 AM PDT

A Los Angeles City Council Planning Committee unanimously approved the current proposal to ban the opening of new fast 'food' restaurants for one year in a 32-square mile area of lower-income communities in the city -

The measure, the latest in efforts by U.S. cities to promote healthier eating, will go to the full council for a vote next month.

If passed, it would affect about half a million Angelenos living in an area that supporters say already has about 400 fast-food eateries and few grocery stores.

Of course, the Professional Whiners at the California Restaurant Association are throwing things, shaking their fists and pitching a fit -

The restaurant industry has lobbied against the measure, saying it places too much blame for obesity at its door.

"Even fast food establishments have healthy choices now. They all offer salads and smaller portions," said Andrew Casana, a spokesman for the California Restaurant Association.

Ooh, salads!  Which come with packets of HFCS-packed 'dressings' that contain just as much crap as their burgers and fries do; but of course, that won't really matter if the chemical and disease-laden industrial veggies in their 'salads' manage to kill you first...

And 'smaller portions'?  12 ounces of nasty crap is still 12 ounces of nasty crap.  It's probably marginally better than 16 ounces of nasty crap, but in the end it's nowhere near comparable to actually eating real food instead.

More items below the fold...