This Saturday, May 19, will be the first-ever global Food Revolution Day. I can not tell you how proud I am that we have more than 500 cities in 57 countries around the world standing up for real food. And it couldn’t be a more important time for it.
According to the World Health Organization, global obesity has more than doubled since 1980 and more than tripled in children. Across the world more than 1.5 BILLION adults are overweight and of those 200 million men and 300 million women are obese. We are in big trouble.
Despite these grim statistics, and general shouting about the problem across the world, no one — not government, schools or doctors — have worked out a plan to give our children the tools to live longer, healthier, happier and more productive lives. Our kids are the first generation predicted to live shorter lives than their parents. As a father this is unacceptable to me — and should be unacceptable to you.
Food Revolution Day is an opportunity for everyone around the world to do something. The Food Revolution and Food Revolution Day is about empowering people through education or, frankly, just inspiring people to be more street-wise about food, where it comes from and how it affects their bodies. If you know how to cook you can save yourself money, feel better and live longer, and the chances are, your kids will follow suit. After all, we all kind of become our parents in the end.
I started learning about food at the age of five in the kitchen at my Dad’s pub. It was 1980, and about one in every 15 people in the UK was obese. Just 30 years later, and it’s almost one in every four people. It’s the same story throughout the world and, in some places, even worse. The truth is that our priorities have completely changed during that time. That’s okay — with progress they change every 50 years or so anyway — but we have lost touch with real food and the time has come to re-adjust.
Everyone paying taxes, whether they’re a parent yet or not, should feel confident that when they send their children to school they will be fed right, educated about food and taught the skills they need to set them up for life.
Many people in the last three generations weren’t taught to cook at home or at school, and that has certainly contributed to the crisis. For 10 years I’ve seen the positive impact that learning about food can have on our communities, our lives, our happiness, health and self-confidence, so why aren’t the governments or schools mandating food education?
It’s not that difficult. In Australia, I’m working closely with a big business that has donated millions to help communities — millions that have been match-funded by government and resulted in a whole raft of clever, strategic initiatives that will help to make good food and food education available to all.
On May 19, thousands of people around the world will come together — businesses, schools, sports stars and celebrities — to hold events, dinners and cooking classes, with the aim of putting good food back on the agenda. We want to change the way people eat by educating every child about food, giving families the skills to cook from scratch again, and motivating people to stand up for their right to better food.
Please go to http://foodrevolutionday.com and show your support.
Thank you.
Follow Jamie Oliver on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/JamieOliver
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When the inspirational Jamie Oliver set out to film his show Food Revolution, he launched the project with a bold, gutsy mission statement: to change not only the way people eat and cook, but also the way they think about food itself.
As Jamie put it: “This is not a sparkly, pretty show. It’s about finding local ambassadors for change.”
This is exactly the spirit that’s embodied in the world’s first-ever Food Revolution Day: the realization that real change begins on the ground, sparked by grassroots actions, and powered by the passion, energy and urgency of people like you.
Thought for Food (TFF) is thrilled to be a youth partner to Food Revolution Day. To commemorate this important event, we are calling upon the best and brightest young leaders of our time to join in and take action in their local communities.
TFF is mobilizing a new generation of changemakers to take action towards solving the biggest challenge facing our future: how to feed 9 billion people. In the span of two short months, exceptional teams from top universities around the world have created wildly innovative project ideas that address global food issues. This month, 10 finalist teams are working relentlessly to develop business plans to move their plans from ideas to impact.
Universities in countries as diverse as Canada, Korea, India, Nigeria, the UK, the USA and Taiwan are launching creative, bold initiatives to educate, inspire and empower people to improve their food habits and build a healthier, more sustainable planet.
From developing campus awareness campaigns and smart phone apps, to kick starting agriculture reality shows and educational urban gardens, TFF student teams not only grabbing the world’s attention, they are doing things that will change the world. You can find out more about their plans at www.facebook.com/tffchallenge.
We believe that it really is possible for the world to develop a new food system — for production and consumption — that makes more out of less, that uses precious resources efficiently, that resists weather and climate and crop disease. Not all these ideas have been developed yet. Not all the technologies we need have been developed yet. It’s going to take collaboration across disciplines, across national boundaries, across sectors and across cultures.The food revolution is growing in communities around the world… sparked by grassroots campaigns… powered by the passion and energy and urgency of young people.
You are invited to join us too. Thought for Food has created a special flyer just for Food Revolution Day called the “Food Revelations for a Food Revolution” which calls on you to sit down for a meal with your colleagues, family or friends and have a discussion about food! With today’s hectic lifestyles, we often feel pressed for time and our eating habits suffer. Just taking a moment to sit down, enjoy good food, and appreciate how it got to your plate is a good first step in the right direction.
“Impossible” doesn’t have to be the final word. We are calling on young people to reach out to your networks, inspire your friends, colleagues and families to wake up and get involved in solving these issues.
Remember, Food Revolution Day is just the beginning. Every day is a chance to get involved, to think big and take action to find the solutions that remake our world.
Find out more at: the TFF Challenge website, Facebook page and @tffchallenge.
Follow Christine Gould on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/tffchallenge
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Recently, HuffPost blogger Lisa Turner offered five religiously inspired rules for eating:
1. Eat mindfully, being aware of the food and your body.
2. Eat for the purpose of nourishing your body; treat your body as a temple.
3. Eat only fresh, clean, light foods, avoiding foods that are processed or canned.
4. Eat only what you need, without overeating or binging on food.
5. Eat for the purpose of bettering yourself spiritually.As a set of rules for eating — and living — it’s hard to do better.
I disagree. I think we can do a lot better.
I have sort of a love-hate relationship with lists and rules. Part of me loves to believe that everything — even things as complicated as food and eating and living! — can be simplified down into three or five or seven rules. And part of me knows that rules, even good rules, don’t really help that much. Who, by now, hasn’t heard No. 4 (don’t overeat) or No. 3 (avoid processed foods)?
It may surprise you to learn that the Bible itself isn’t all that keen on rules, given that so many of the people who claim to love the Bible tend to focus on, well, rules. But even St. Paul admitted that though he knew all the good rules, he couldn’t follow them. Jesus broke one rule after another to prove the point that following God was about loving other people, not getting the rules right, an ethic that’s not new to him but is in fact a theme in the Hebrew Bible.
Take the little book of Ruth for example. Ruth’s a Moabite — the descendants of a group that refused to give hospitality in the form of bread and water to the Israelites as they left Egypt. This insult led to a prohibition against the Moabites in Deuteronomy 23:3:
“No … Moabite shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Even to the 10th generation [Hebrew-Bible-speak for, 'seriously, not ever!'] none of their descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.”
But when Ruth turns up, hungry and destitute, in the field of the well-off Israelite, Boaz, he doesn’t say, “Oh, hey, I’m sorry for your bad situation, Ruth, but your ancestors insulted mine, and this biblical rule means I have to do the same to you.”
No: he breaks a law to fulfill the Greater Law, you know, the one that goes “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” — the one that appears in virtually every world religion.
Breaking bread to share trumps breaking a law.
Which brings me to the thing that’s most disturbing about Turner’s list: it’s entirely self-focused, as if eating is exclusively (or at least primarily) a self-improvement exercise. There’s no mention of what is, by my lights, one of the most important aspects of food: the fact that it brings people together.
Dr. Stephen Bratman, author of “Health Food Junkies,” once lived in a commune that attracted “food idealists” — diverse people who all aimed for a kind of spiritual and physical enlightenment through a perfect diet. He writes:
“The act of eating pure food begins to carry pseudo-spiritual connotations. As orthorexia progresses, a day filled with sprouts, umeboshi plums and amaranth biscuits comes to feel as holy as one spent serving the poor and homeless. … The need to obtain [perfect food] put nearly all social forms of eating out of reach.”
Then one day, Dr. Bratman tells the story of being offered a piece of processed cheese by an elderly gentleman, Mr. Davis, who he’d been caring for. To Bratman at that time, this food was total poison. But Mr. Davis would have been insulted by his refusal. Bratman writes: “I chewed the dread processed product. To my great surprise, it seemed to have a healing effect. My cold symptoms disappeared within an hour. It was as if my acceptance of his gratitude healed me.”
I’m not telling you to go eat processed cheese, or that all food rules are bad and doomed to become pathological and isolating. It’s just that there’s more to food than just its ability to confer health, or even spiritual enlightenment. It can be the vehicle of love — of the love of God, for those who believe, and, for all of us, the love and caring and nourishment that comes whenever one person offers food (however imperfect) with love and another accepts it with gratitude.
And if there’s anything we can say about love, it’s this: it has no room for fear, and it interferes with all rules.
Rachel Marie Stone lives in Greenport, N.Y. She blogs on food and faith at EatWithJoy and has written for Christianity Today, Books and Culture, Sojourners and Relevant. Her book, “Eat With Joy: Redeeming God’s Gift of Food,” is forthcoming from InterVarsity Press in 2013.
Follow Rachel Marie Stone on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/rachel_m_stone
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As a company that promotes the consumption of clean, safe seafood as part of a healthy diet, it’s our belief that consumers have the right to know what’s in the food they’re eating — this belief represents one of the core values of Safe Harbor and one of the overarching principles that drives our business. Recently food safety and transparency in the food supply chain have been topics of much discussion, and for good reason. As it becomes more and more apparent that the FDA seems ill-equipped to assume a leadership role in ensuring food safety, are food manufacturers missing an opportunity? Might it be that embracing, implementing and advertising increased food safety measures and transparency can be a powerful marketing tool, one that provides differentiation in a packed and overcrowded marketplace?
While the federal government may be reluctant to embrace increased oversight over the food supply chain, the opinion of the American public on the subject is as unanimous and straightforward as ever. Take for example the federal issue of mandatory food labeling for genetically engineered foods — a partisan-busting 91 percent of voters favor an FDA requirement that “foods which have been genetically engineered or containing genetically engineered ingredients be labeled to indicate that.” A mere 5 percent oppose labeling, while another 5 percent have no opinion. As the strategic polling, survey and opinion research firm The Mellman Group so eloquently opines:
Underlying support for labeling is a clear vision of consumer rights, as well as a deep-seated concern. Voters believe they have a right to know what they are putting in their mouths and into the bodies of their children. If you don’t believe Americans see that as a fundamental right, try convincing someone they don’t have that right to know. Moreover, voters believe they have a related right to decide for themselves what they ingest and recognize that, absent labeling, the right to decide is rendered hollow.
This value of the right to know is catching fire as evidenced by the California Right to Know 2012 Ballot Initiative. California has officially become the first state to gather enough signatures (971,126) to put the labeling of genetically engineered foods on its statewide ballot this fall. While the Right to Know initiative is a major step in the right direction, unfortunately it is a California-only proposal and only covers GMO foods. Food labeling and transparency should be a fundamental, mandated practice employed across every food category, even those with the most complex supply chains.
Like seafood, for example.
Unbeknownst to many, fish is the most traded food commodity in the world (UN FAO State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, 2010) and the seafood supply and distribution chain might be the most complex of any food commodity internationally traded today. Approximately 85% of the seafood Americans eat is now imported, with less than 2% being inspected by the FDA, the federal agency charged with oversight of seafood. Unfortunately for American consumers, offshore seafood producers simply do not face the same oversight and regulation as domestic producers, which leaves the door wide open for corner-cutting, the use of potentially hazardous additives and chemicals and other abuses. David Love, the lead author of a recent Johns Hopkins study, (linked above and again here) sums up the situation quite succinctly stating, “Imported seafood may carry risks in terms of food safety because the FDA does not have the resources to proactively and regularly inspect foreign facilities, and it relies on product testing as a last resort.”
Especially as it applies to seafood (and according to Gary Hirshberg, Chairman of Stonyfield Farm, and a Partner in the Just Label It Campaign) it would seem that our food system has been adept at “keeping the lights out or at least dimmed.” However, viral media, the Internet and the instantaneous, abundant free flow of information is changing this … quickly. Information is now available at one’s fingertips, accessed quickly with a simple key stroke. Having the information we need to make an informed choice is no longer simply expected. It’s required. In the words of Mr. Hirshberg:
As the chairman of a $370 million national yogurt company, I’ve watched the consumer demand for more information about our food explode over the past decade. Whether it’s the source of the ingredients, increases in agri-chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, plastics additives or potential allergens, the public is clearly far more engaged in making informed choices than ever before.
So where should the onus of food safety and transparency lie? Unfortunately our federal government is under-manned and under-funded and simply can’t be relied upon to be the protectors of public health. Many forward-thinking food manufacturers (seafood and otherwise) feel that it is up to the industry (NOT the government) to increase the transparency of the supply chain and safeguard the very consumers eating their products; subsequently, as consumers become more educated (as can be seen domestically with the rapid rise of the organic and local food movements) and continue to demand labeling, transparency and increased food safeguards, advertising and strategically utilizing these “characteristics” of one’s business will become major marketing “weapons,” differentiators that will prove that implementing and accepting these consumer-backed “trends” are actually good for business. As Mr. Hirshberg above so deftly put it, “Instead of fighting transparency, it’s time to embrace it.” We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves.
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It seems like some sort of cruel joke that the warm-weather season’s tastiest drinks — thick and creamy milkshakes, rich blended frappes, and the like — can be some of the biggest threats to your swimsuit figure (Photo Credit: BrandEating.com).
Click here to see Diet-Busting Fast-Food Iced Coffees
In the coffee category, at least, one has the sensible choice of a simple iced coffee to satisfy the craving for a cool quencher. According to a story on EatingWell.com, “A straight-up iced coffee (with skim milk, which you might have to specify) is, of course, the skinniest sip — most of the 16-ounce varieties deliver less than 100 calories.”
Click here to see 8 Drinks to Boost Your Metabolism
But before you get all excited and go ordering iced coffees off every menu you come across, remember that not all of them are good low-calorie options — typical iced coffee add-ins and toppings like flavored syrups, whole milk, and whipped cream can make your drink’s calorie count skyrocket in no time at all.
Click here to see 9 Restaurants Where it’s Expensive to BYOB
Not surprisingly, some of the biggest iced coffee calorie bombs can be found at your local fast-food joint or chain coffee shop. Some of the selections on this list, for example, are the calorie equivalents of a couple of doughnuts or a medium-sized order of french fries. Read on to find out which indulgent fast-food iced coffees you might want to avoid.
- Maryse Chevriere, The Daily Meal
More from The Daily Meal:
15 Great Bars for Drinking Outdoors
12 host Ridiculous Beer Names
7 Outrageous Drink Gadgets
25 Beers with Great Label Art
America’s 30 Most Powerful People in Drink
Follow The Daily Meal on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/thedailymeal
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May 15, 2012 – I’d be curious to know if Dustin Poirier was walking into his UFC on FUEL 3 main event matchup with Chan Sung Jung with just a hint of doubt about what to expect. Jung, after all, has said he is in the midst of a major stylistic overhaul. Out is the wild, brawling madman that gained fame as “The Korean Zombie,” and in is a more technical and refined fighter.
At least that’s according to him. While this change is over one year in the making, we haven’t really seen enough of Jung since then to make any real determinations on if he’ll revert to old habits when aggressively pressed.
During that time, he’s fought just twice. The first was a rematch of his epic April 2010 matchup with Leonard Garcia. In that one, he did show an interest in defense, as Garcia connected on only 16 of 88 strikes — just 18 percent. Then again, Garcia isn’t exactly known as an accurate striker, landing just 26 percent in 14 fights tracked by FightMetric.
In his next fight, Jung knocked out Mark Hominick in just seven seconds, an impressive performance but not one with any real value for analysis purposes.
Faced with little information, Poirier (12-1) can expect the fight to go in any number of ways.
Both men at their cores are power strikers, at least when it comes to style. A southpaw, Poirier will have a nominal one-inch reach advantage. A confident striker, he will often take the center of the cage and establish himself as the leader of the fight’s pace.
Poirier is a remarkably balanced fighter altogether. Among his wins, he has five knockouts and five submissions. He has decent wrestling, with a 54 percent takedown success rate, and a 77 percent rate of stopping opponent’s takedown tries. He appears equally comfortable in all facets of the game.
Of the two featherweight contenders, Poirier is much more likely to take the fight to the mat. He’s shown his evolution as a fighter in this regard. In his first three fights under the Zuffa banner, he didn’t try a single takedown. Since then, he’s tried 11 attempts in four fights, landing six. By comparison, in Jung’s four fights under the Zuffa banner, he’s only tried two takedowns.
One clue that Jung (12-3) has indeed made a key adjustment did come in his rematch with Garcia. At one point towards the end of the first round, Garcia tried to turn the match into a brawl, coming forward with a barrage of punches. Instead of standing and trading as he’s done in the past, Jung went for and delivered a takedown, dominating the ground battle for the rest of the round.
It will be interesting to see how this translates into a fight with Poirier. He is not a swarmer like Garcia, but rather looks for combinations that emphasize his accuracy (he lands at a 51 percent clip).
That means Jung may be content countering him from the outside, or he might attempt to mix things up with a takedown. Poirier, though, is very difficult to put down. Even wrestler Danny Castillo struggled with him, successful on just three of 11 tries back in their August 2010 match.
Even if you get Poirier on the mat, he’s no slouch there, and he probably has the edge over Jung despite the Korean being the first and only man in UFC history to pull off a twister submission.
Poirier is also physically stronger than most 145-pounders, and I would venture to guess that holds true against Jung. In 50/50 positions like the clinch, expect Poirier to outwork him. On the ground, he should also find success as a result.
Poirier’s balanced approach and physical advantage offers him an edge in this fight. In exchanges, he’s probably the heavier puncher and he’s statistically the more accurate one. He also gets hit less. Those numbers mean something.
Truthfully, it’s hard to envision a clear route to victory for Jung. Unless Poirier sits back and lets Jung dictate the pace — and that’s never been his style — he should be the one scoring more frequently. He also has never shown signs that he can be broken, so if the fight does find an insane pace, he should still be OK. His accurate strikes should find a home early and often, wearing Jung down over the first two rounds before finishing it in the third, taking it via TKO.
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We are just days away from the first ever Food Revolution Day with hundreds of local food events and dinner parties taking place in cities, communities and homes around the world as people stand up for real food and better food education on May 19th.
Kicking off the activities on Friday will be schools and companies, two key places where real food is vital and a fuel for success.
When we think of food and changing what we eat and the way we eat, we often tend to think of making changes at home or in schools and forget about the workplace — even though on average we’re spending 260 days a year at work and consuming at least one meal there every day.
During work hours we can often feel pressed for time and eating habits suffer. The workplace is actually a great place to start thinking about real food, and really it should be company policy to encourage employees to eat fresh, healthy food at work, whether from the work cafeteria or brought from home. Making better food choices can improve performance in both the short and long term for a more successful workforce. After all, we all work better when we are fuelled up on fresh, wholesome, nutritious foods!
Some companies have already started making wellness a priority. Others are still a long way off. Food Revolution Day is an opportunity for workplaces and employees to think about real food. By getting your company involved and encouraging employees to make simple changes, you’ll be part of a global movement and making a commitment to the health and happiness of your workforce.
Companies who are standing up for real food and joining Food Revolution Day through a commitment to better food in the workplace:
Virgin Management Ltd and Virgin Unite, the non-profit foundation of the Virgin Group, already offer their staff a free salad bar, vegetarian option and healthy food option every day as part of their lunch service, plus free fruit is available all day. In aid of Food Revolution Day they are running three real food initiatives: a healthy recipes competition for employees to share their real food recipes, food amnesty competition showcasing the worst types of processed foods they’ve ever heard of to raise awareness about making better food choices and their event, ‘Feast on Fruit Friday’ this Friday. Check out Richard Branson’s video and Food Revolution Day dinner party page.
In Spring 2011 we piloted a Cooking & Company initiative with help from IDEO and the TED Prize team to engage IDEO employees and affiliates in cooking classes to inspire people to cook and come away with better skills and knowledge to then apply to themselves, their families and colleagues. Since then IDEO, the global design and innovation firm, helps to run cooking classes with Microsoft, GAP and Method in California. It’s a great way for a team to get together, cook and eat together, and come away with new skills. IDEO run these classes throughout the year and are holding events throughout May in support of Food Revolution Day.
Spotify Like many companies out there with limiting cooking facilities the small kitchen in the Spotify London office makes preparing real food a challenge, but the team are never the less committed to fresh food and better food education proving that simple changes and efforts can go a long way to improving food in the workplace. A local greengrocer makes a daily delivery of a variety of fresh fruits, and smoothies are free for everyone. Inspired by Food Revolution Day, the whole Spotify office will be sitting down together to enjoy a ‘real food’ lunch of salads and wraps this Friday. Jamie has created a Spotify playlist to be enjoyed whilst cooking to or dining with friends, listen to Jamie’s playlist here!
JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery specializes in making Bordeaux-style blends that reflect the unique soils and the micro-climate of the west side of Paso Robles in California. The Restaurant at JUSTIN is equally passionate for real food so they are hosting a Guest Chef dinner on Friday benefitting Jamie’s foundation. The six course prepared menu by Top Chef All Star’s Chef Marcel Vigneron and JUSTIN’s Chef Will Torres will take place in JUSTIN’s Barrel Caves and will highlight local and seasonal ingredients to celebrate Food Revolution Day.
Planning your own Food Revolution Day dinner party? JUSTIN’s sommelier Jim Gerakaris matched wines to 30 of Jamie’s Food Revolution Day recipes so check them out for some ideas for your Food Revolution Day menus.
Sports giants have also stepped up in the U.S. to support Food Revolution Day including NFL, NBA and NHL.
“The NBA, through its comprehensive health and wellness program NBA FIT and through our commitment to Share our Strength’s No Kid Hungry Campaign, is committed to encouraging physical activity and healthy living for children and families,” said NBA Senior Vice President, Community Relations Todd Jacobson. “Diet is so important to performing at a high level and food education and access to healthy meals is so critical for kids of all ages. We are proud to support Jamie Oliver in standing up for Food Revolution Day on May 19.”
If you’re feeling inspired, it’s not too late to get your company involved. Here are a few easy ways to learn more and take part on Food Revolution Day. Add your voice and stand up for real food!
3 Easy Ways For Companies To Support Food Revolution Day
- Download the Workplaces eBook for 30 ways to start a Food Revolution in your workplace With the help of the Google chefs we’ve compiled a great list of ideas to inspire you.
- Get Your Company Involved This Friday spread the word about Food Revolution Day, support through Facebook and Twitter, plus anyone can host a real food dinner!
- Pledge Your Support on our company’s page to add your name and company to the growing ranks of people who believe in better food and food education in the workplace.
Follow Janey Gourlay on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/sjlgourlay
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Institute of Medicine Gives Big Food Another Deadline — or Else!
This week, the nation’s top public health experts gathered at a much-trumpeted obesity conference hosted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called Weight of the Nation. (A quick glance at the agenda reveals nothing that would even begin to challenge the food industry.)
Released at this bland event was an equally uninspired report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM, an advisory arm of Congress) called, Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention: Solving the Weight of the Nation. The irony of the report’s title gets lost among the 478 pages that aim to solve “this complex, stubborn problem” with “a comprehensive set of solutions.”
One of the recommendations intended to speed things up is for the food industry to “take broad, common, and urgent voluntary action to make substantial improvements” to marketing aimed at kids. This is certainly important, as advocates have for years been sounding the alarm about the intractable problem of junk food marketing to children and its connection to poor health. But another part of the IOM dictate sounded vaguely familiar:
If such marketing standards have not been adopted within two years by a substantial majority of food, beverage, restaurant, and media companies that market foods and beverages to children and adolescents, policy makers at the local, state, and federal levels should consider setting mandatory nutritional standards for marketing to this age group to ensure that such standards are implemented.
Two years? Where have I heard that deadline before? Oh yes, it was another IOM report, this one focused entirely on food marketing to children, from 2005, which reviewed the science showing a clear connection between junk food marketing and children’s dietary habits. That report said if voluntary efforts by industry to clean up its act were unsuccessful, “Congress should enact legislation mandating” a shift in advertising. Also, that “[w]ithin two years the secretary [of health] should report to Congress on the progress and on additional actions necessary to accelerate progress.”
So it’s been five years since that earlier deadline has passed and now the food industry has two more years to show how much it really cares about kids? Did anyone at IOM bother to check its earlier reports before writing this one? But it’s hardly IOM’s fault. If anyone is to blame for lack of action on this issue, it’s Congress and the White House, as two recent reports make painfully clear.
An in-depth investigation by Reuters describes the dirty details of the onslaught of Big Food lobbying in the wake of an effort by the federal government to improve voluntary guidelines on food marketing to kids. Reuters found that food and beverage lobbyists spent more than $175 million lobbying since President Obama took office in 2009, more than double that spent in the previous three years, during the Bush Administration. “In contrast, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, widely regarded as the lead lobbying force for healthier food, spent about $70,000 lobbying last year — roughly what those opposing the stricter guidelines spent every 13 hours.”
Reuters also examined lobbying visits to the White House, finding that a “who’s who of food company chief executives and lobbyists visited the White House” including:
CEOs of Nestle USA, Kellogg, General Mills, and top executives at Walt Disney, Time Warner, and Viacom, owner of the Nickelodeon children’s channel — companies with some of the biggest financial stakes in marketing to children. Those companies have a combined market value of more than $350 billion.
Another damning report emerged this month from the Sunlight Foundation found similar influence from Big Food. The strategy was for industry lobbyists to give money to members of Congress in exchange for their sending letters objecting to federal agency efforts. Here is how Sunlight describes one such transaction:
Days after receiving several campaign checks from the food lobby last May, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who is up for re-election this year, sent a letter raising concerns about the Federal Trade Commission’s efforts to develop voluntary guidelines aimed at toning down the marketing of junk food to kids.
Seems Klobuchar wasn’t the only Democrat on the dole. Sunlight found that while most letter-writers were Republicans, lobbyist campaign donations held particular sway with Senate Democrats. Those who wrote letters of objection “collected on average, more than twice as much campaign money from food lobbying interests since 2008 as those who did not write letters.” A similar pattern also held in the House, where 38 Democrats wrote letters of protest.
As Jeff McIntyre, policy director for the advocacy group Children Now told Reuters: “We just got beat. Money wins.” That’s why it’s irrelevant how many more recommendations or deadlines come from the Institute of Medicine or any other panel of experts on how to “accelerate” progress. The only thing getting accelerated is lobbying dollars into politicians’ pockets. And kids’ poor health.
Originally posted at Center for Food Safety.
Follow Michele Simon on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/Appetite4Profit
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FOODSTOCK, Wesleyan University’s food writing conference, celebrated cooks, books, food, and food writing during a one-day extravaganza of panels, lectures, and book signings. Held on Saturday, May 5th, FOODSTOCK was curated by Amy Bloom, the New York Times best-selling author and University Writer-in-Residence. Over 325 participants took part in the conference, which sold out in the first week.
Ruth Reichl, the former executive editor of Gourmet magazine and current editorial adviser to Gilt Taste and editor-at-large at Random House, began the day in conversation with WNPR’s Faith Middleton. Reichl and Middleton discussed the importance of knowing the history of what one eats–where the food comes from and the legacy of the recipe. Reichl praised cooking at home and the dinner party, not as a luxury but as a necessity: “We are losing something so important when all we do is eat out. Bringing people into your home, saying this is who I am, cooking food for people, we need to return to that and start cooking again. The dinner party is more about what happens around the table than what’s on the plate.” The morning continued with Middleton and Eric Asimov, the chief wine critic of the New York Times and the original author of the “$25 and Under” restaurant reviews, speaking about wine as more than mechanical: “Wine is a living, breathing work of art. It is magic in a bottle and should be respected the way a painting would.”
Lunch featured an array of Connecticut food truck cuisine, including Lucky Taco’s Dr. Pepper braised chorizo and adobo marinated shrimp tacos, Munchie’s Lebanese fish fry wrap, Naples Pizza Truck’s margarita pizza cooked in the truck’s portable wood burning brick oven and Lalibela Ethiopian’s siga wat dressed with ginger, onions, and berbere spice. Items for sale included books from R.J. Julia, trail mix from Sticky Nuts, cooking utensils from The Kitchen Store Guilford, and cupcakes from NoRA Cupcakes.
“We wanted to cover a wide range, to have a sociological take — nothing too rarified,” said Amy Bloom. “We wanted a wide range of people who loved to eat, cook and write about it. Our focus was not just on the fancy and the famous.”
The afternoon hosted cooking personalities of all kinds. Panels included From Lokshen to Lo Mein: The Jewish Love Affair with Chinese Food, Beautiful Blogs, Food as a Topic of Academic Pursuit, The Business Of Food, and Sustainable Cuisine, which featured sustainable sushi from Miya’s Sushi. Individual lectures were given by Dorie Greenspan on authoring a cookbook, Molly O’Neill on Writing So They Can Taste It, the future of Italian cuisine by Paolo Villoresi and kimchi by Chi-Hoon Kim, Raymond Sokolov on restaurant criticism, and Chef Bobo on teaching kids to enjoy eating.
FOODSTOCK brought together food friends old and new at the free conference and raised $1,200 for Middletown, Connecticut’s Amazing Grace Food Pantry through raffle donations and T-shirt sales.
Visit FOODSTOCK for podcast recordings of each session, which will be available soon.
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“Hahhh!” We were literally and figuratively blown away. In the middle of a qigong demonstration, Master Wu pushed his palms out with a loud shout. The energy that radiated from his palms was so forceful that even at a distance of ten feet, we barely managed to stop ourselves from rearing back.
It is the year 2009 and we are in Hai Nan Island in South China. Hai Nan is a former penal colony mid-way between China and Vietnam that boasts of shimmering white sandy beaches and a deep blue sea. In the last 30 years, it has been transformed by the firm hands of China’s economic revolution into a Hawaii-esque playground brimming with six-star resorts for the rich and famous. It has also been the chosen venue for the yearly Miss Universe pageant.
It is doubtful whether Master Wu pays much attention to Miss Universe. He is a Shao Lin Kung Fu master of the highest order and spends most of his days honing his prized Kung Fu skills, from smashing bricks with his bare fist to doing a hundred push ups on three fingers. His boyish, unassuming good looks belie his seriousness towards his art.
We flew from Hong Kong to Hai Nan to meet Master Wu. He started by giving a two-hour recital of the Heart Sutra in his beautiful voice, and proceeded to give us a demonstration of various qigong moves. We waited patiently for him to finish, then at the end of the session we approached to ask the one question that we have been waiting for. “What is the most ideal food for a human?” He fell silent and looked pensive. Then, his face brightened, his eyes sparkled, and with a slow smile, he said: “A steamed vegetable dumpling, made by your mother.”
This was unexpected. At the time, we were strict raw vegans, and saw and judged everything with a raw vegan mindset. We were waiting for him to give us the answers that we wanted to hear. Would he say raw sprouts? Green juices? Chlorella? Tou Fu?
Embedded within this simple statement is a high wisdom of health and happiness. Master Wu went on to expound that the essence of Traditional Chinese Medicine is the balance of the elements — wood, wind, fire, metal, and water, plus a sixth element — love, whose beneficial vibration is transmitted through water, the most impressionable of all the elements, to the food.
This simple and important truth spawned a new realization of a lifestyle diet that included raw, as well as lightly steamed and boiled food that is heated to below 100 degrees celsius (212°F). 100°C is the upper limit beyond which water dissociates into steam; the upper temperature limit that still enables the quantum information in the food to be retained and transmitted to the body.
For those of you who would like to look better, feel better and last a long time, we have an easy new way to do it. Just try this for one day: eat/drink what you like, but take nothing past boiling point. Make your best effort to eat organic and add no condiments/sauces that include processed foods, which are usually heated to very high temperatures in production at the factory. Use Himalayan salt or raw sea salt instead.
This 100°C Vegan lifestyle breaks the unrealistic bonds of all-raw, while maintaining the parameters of perfect health and life-long sustainability.
“It changed my life. It did. Because I was definitely on my way out.” — Bill Edward, V.P. SJLuxury, HK, Ltd.
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