Author: Christine Almer (Page 1 of 2)

A recent study published in the Global Change Biology journal found that arthropods (insects, millipedes, and spiders) can act as tiny trash disposals in NYC’s public spaces. Littered food waste can have huge human health implications, and if rats, squirrels, raccoons, and pigeons pick up our littered food, we are basically feeding a population that can transmit diseases to humans. Arthropods, on the other hand, don’t make us sick, and are extremely effective at removing littered food waste. So think twice before stepping on the next insect you see on the streets!

Read more here: http://time.com/3611552/insects-eat-food-waste/

“Food Chains” is the most recent food documentary to be released (November 21, 2014), and I highly recommend it. It dives into the history of farm labor in the United States, which goes back to slavery, and shows how unfair labor conditions still are. It focuses on the CIW and how they are revolutionizing farm labor in the United States. Farmworkers live well below the poverty line, only making an average of $12,000 per year. Sexual harassment of female farmworkers is a huge issue and the documentary states that about 80% of these women experience sexual harassment in the fields. The CIW developed the Fair Food program, which asks large retailers like supermarkets and fast food restaurants to pay a penny more per pound of tomatoes and to refuse to buy tomatoes from farms with human rights violations. Even though this only represents a portion of farmworkers in the U.S., I think that this program, as well as documentaries like Food Chains that depict the problems associated with farm labor, can go far in educating Americans on the issues and solutions that exist in agriculture.

In Lexington, KY, you can now pay for parking tickets with food donations to a local food bank. The “Food for Fines” drive will run all throughout the holiday season. The city says people who have multiple meter citations, including those that are past due, can wipe the slate clean by bringing in 10 cans for each ticket. The Lexington Parking Authority suggests donations of at least 14-15 ounce cans of vegetables. I know the burden of parking tickets, and I think this is a really cool idea, especially for the upcoming holiday season. It’s also a good way to make the community aware of hunger issues, and maybe this small rule will encourage people to volunteer and become more educated about these issues.

On Tuesday, there was a variety of responses from voters in regards to measures and initiatives involving food and beverages. In Berkeley, California, voters favored the first soda tax on sugary drinks in the country. They approved the imposition of a penny tax for each oz in a container (12 cents a can). In San Francisco, this proposed tax was two cents, and it failed. In one county in Hawaii, voters approved a temporary prohibition on using genetically modified seeds to grow crops. These policies have the potential to change consumer behavior, so the food industry should definitely be scared. Check out the NY Times article (link below) to see more details about these passed/failed food laws.

Recently, an initiative has been growing to create healthy fast-food restaurant alternatives in California in an attempt to revolutionize the fast-food industry (read about it at the link below). These healthy meals are prepared just as quickly as something you could get at McDonalds, even though these new restaurants are currently few and far between. These restaurants have names like Veggie Grill and Lyfe Kitchen, but they shy away from using the word “healthy” while advertising so as not to scare off salad-skeptics and meat lovers.  Obviously, the prices at these health-centered chains are not quite as low as prices at McDonalds, Burger King, etc., but the idea is that a lot of people will pay a little bit more for finer ingredients and healthier food. I think that this is a really good start; hopefully, soon people will not be able to blame obesity issues on the convenience of fast-food restaurants like McDonalds, and instead choose these just as convenient healthier options.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-81841656/

Food industry giants such as Cargill and General Mills have recently made announcements addressing climate change and their environmental initiatives, which is surprising because these companies usually ignore these issues for obvious reasons. The change in weather associated with climate change poses huge risks for these businesses, so it makes sense for them to be worried. It’s ironic because Cargill supports Republicans, the group that leans towards outright climate change denial. There is an array of climate change predictions out there, but the science doesn’t lie- we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly. The chief sustainability officer of General Mills explains that they are simply a food company, not climate scientists, but mother nature has to do well in order for them to do well. Even though we are a far way from making climate change a key issue on the political side, it is a good sign that climate risk analysis is leading food companies to make important changes, and maybe this will draw the general public’s attention more towards climate science.

Food giants Cargill and General Mills believe in climate change. Will they defend themselves from it?

This article from Grist (see link below) is a good follow-up to our seafood consumption and fisheries decline discussion in class today. Port Orford, OR is located right on the Pacific Ocean, which would lead us to the faulty assumption that they have an endless supply of delicious, fresh fish. But, this place is ironically a food desert for fish because none of the fish caught in this area is retained in their community- it is processed, packaged, and sold elsewhere. The director of Port Orford Sustainable Seafood started a community-supported fishery program to combat this issue. The POSS now buys fish from a third of the fishing boats and then distributes it to customers within the region. I think that this is a very effective way in making the consumer more connected to the fish. Most fish we eat is from farms overseas while we export our domestically caught wild fish, breaking our connection and making us always wonder what kind of fish we are actually eating. The article also includes a interview with members of the POSS where they talk about how fishermen view climate change. There are a large number of fishermen who view climate change as an elaborate hoax, which is surprising because you would think that they would be the most concerned about it due to sea level rise, ocean acidification, etc. The interviewees then discuss some strategies that may change the fisher’s behavior to make fishing a more sustainable process.

http://grist.org/food/how-one-oregon-town-got-its-fish-back/

The most recent episode of South Park is titled “Gluten Free Ebola” and even though it is funny, its themes have roots about the food problems our culture has. In this episode, they do a spoof on gluten-free and anyone that eats gluten will die. Tom Vilsack appears on the episode and during the gluten crisis he says “We are the USDA. Without us, people would be eating dirt and chairs.” The entire episode basically centers around the new ridiculous gluten-free craze and relates it to the equally ridiculous Ebola panic. The entire episode can be found below, and I think it’s worth watching for a good laugh about  how crazy some diet fads in the U.S. are.

http://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s18e02-gluten-free-ebola

In the Science section of the New York Times, I found an interesting article, “Testing Future Conditions for the Food Chain”(http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/science/testing-future-conditions-for-the-food-chain.html). Scientists have been looking more closely at corn plants, and it’s clear that they have suffered some damage. This comes in the form of streaked, yellowing leaves, which represents not only current possible crop failures, but long-term issues relating to food supply during global warming. Researchers have begun mimicking expected growing conditions in the upcoming decades, using pipes to release pollutants & lamps to mimic droughts/heat waves. They have come up with the alarming conclusion that due to these changed conditions, the crops will be seriously nutrient-deficient. How is it possible to make crops more resilient? Yes, there will be regions of the world that benefit from global warming (in terms of growing crops), but we have failed to consider the effects of the increase in carbon dioxide. In general, it must be realized that the negative effects of climate change will completely outweigh the positive effects. There is no way around that.  Researchers are now focusing more on ozone because they believe it will be easier to control. But it’s impossible to completely predict damage to agriculture on a warming planet. The ultimate goal now is to figure out how to make these crops stand up to the changing climate, and that is clearly not an easy task.

I recently watched the documentary “Fed Up” which is popularly described as “the film the food industry doesn’t want you to see”. This documentary contains interviews of multiple children directly affected by obesity as well as food regulation supporters such as Michael Pollan that provide scientific facts on the issue. The film starts out by describing the trends Americans have gone through to get healthy. “Eat less, exercise more” has been the common sense answer to obesity for more than a century. “Fed Up” argues that lack exercise is not and lack of willpower is NOT the root of the obesity epidemic in the United States, and it sets out to prove how the food industry has tricked us and why they deserve the majority of the blame.

A nutritionist that was interviewed in this film explains that it is impossible to exercise our way out of the obesity problem. It is really ironic because soft drink companies like Coca-Cola fund a lot of research on obesity. If this research is funded by the food industry, they can pretty much come up with whatever they want to keep them in business & keep a lot of people blind to this irony. The obesity epidemic cannot be completely caused by genetics; it is not, and has never been, normal for 10 year olds to die of heart attacks. Most experts say that the obesity epidemic has taken place in the last 30 years or so. When people began to catch wind of the dangers of fat-based food, the food industry responded by replacing fat with sugar. Between 1977 and 2000, Americans doubled their daily sugar intake. Processed foods are so easy to modify, and these tiny modifications become marketing claims for food companies. “Reduced fat” oreos, for example, have 10 less calories than regular ones & have the same sugar content. Poor food choices are overwhelming in school cafeterias. School lunches are super unhealthy and most are driven by soda companies. Children have no idea how bad this food is & that instills poor values in their food choices. The problem is, there are no commercials for fruits and vegetables, only junk food. This shapes the whole way kids think about food and what they think that food is. This documentary is very informative, however I do think that there’s a lot about the food industry (like farming) that this film doesn’t really go into that much. Also, I think that the people that should be viewing this documentary probably won’t. Overall, I highly recommend this documentary because it is interesting, informative, and provides some plausible long-term solutions to the obesity epidemic that our society really needs to consider.

A summary/review of “Fed Up” can be found here: http://hamptonroads.com/2014/09/fed-–-what-food-industry-doesn’t-want-us-know