Search

"Locavore" is a term that was coined in 2005 by a group of four women in San Francisco, who proposed that local residents should try to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius. "Locavore" has become such a buzz word, that the New Oxford American Dictionary (the trendy alternative to the traditional Oxford English Dictionary) recently jumped on the "loca"-motive, announcing that it would be the 2007 word of the year.

So what does being a locavore entail? The movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers' markets or even grow or pick their own food, and to avoid supermarkets, since shipping food over long distances often requires more fuel for transportation. Eating locally is not just about taste or nutritional content; it is ultimately about trying to make...

Metro International reports: "[New York City's] law banishing trans fat took effect in July 2008 and touched everyone with Health Department food licenses including emergency food providers."

The article tells the story of a charitable food organization that is forced to discard donations of nutritious foods that contain even traces of trans fats: "When a small church comes to the Bowery Mission bearing fried chicken with trans fat, unwittingly breaking the law, they're told 'thank you.' Then workers quietly chuck the food, mission director Tom Bastile said. 'It's always hard for us to do,' Basile said. 'We know we have to do it.'"

"This is an awful story," says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. "This is what it has come to: throwing out wholesome food when a hungry...

A February 1, 2007 piece by Heartland Institute's Sandra Fabry notes the reaction of ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan to measures such as "fat taxes":

While acknowledging there is a measurable major increase in Americans being overweight, Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, president of the American Council on Science and Health, thinks taxing certain food groups is the wrong answer to the obesity problem.

"Taxing certain foods is one of the strategies the big government advocates are looking at," Whelan said. "From a scientific point of view, I cannot possibly see how that's going to do anything except to add a burden on people at the lowest economic level, who spend such a disproportionate amount of their income...

Sally Squires' Washington Post article "The Cost of Compliance" (February 22) dished a healthy dose of reality to those who suggest that the obesity crisis in this country is the fault of big business trying to dump cheap, unhealthy foods on an all-too-susceptible public.

Obesity is a real problem and requires a reasonable and scientifically sound approach we can all take seriously. Lawsuits against fast food companies, efforts to restrict food advertising, and demonization of soda (even diet soda) are all one big red herring.

Super Size Me viewers, or readers of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, Marion Nestle's Food Politics, or Greg...

Everyone wants transparency about their food, at least on surveys, but few people actually read the labels. When surveys don't have unprompted responses (like "What do you want to read on a label?" versus "Do you want GMO foods listed on a label?") only 7 percent of Americans want to know about GMO foods, far less than even care about fat-free or gluten. So efforts by anti-science groups such as Environmental Working Group, Union of Concerned Scientists, Greenpeace and Natural Resources Defense Council to put warning labels on foods containing any...

Screen Shot 2013-12-19 at 1.23.54 PMAs one of only a few states that have passed laws requiring the labeling of genetically engineered (GMO) foods or ingredients, Vermont is feeling its way carefully. Although the state originally set a deadline of January 29 for receipt of written public comments, it has now extended that deadline to February 12. In addition, there will be a public hearing on February 4.

The labeling law is due to take effect July 1, 2016, if suits by some trade associations...

New York, NY -- September 10, 2009. In late July, a study commissioned by the United Kingdom s Food Standards Authority found that there was no nutritional difference between organic and conventional food. This is consistent with prior studies, but the organic food industry has convinced many people that their products are more nutritious because they contain a little more vitamin C (about 10% on average), a lot less nitrate, and varying percentages of higher antioxidant concentrations. Two not for profit organizations have been in the forefront of attempts to convince the public that food produced by organic methods will protect against cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer s, diabetes, obesity, and any human illness that has the public s attention at the moment.

...

It may be hard to believe, but apparently there really are officials in both the UK and France who are not afraid of the use of biotechnology to improve and expand the food supply.

In the UK, a bastion of pro-organic and anti-biotechnolgy sentiment, Prime Minister Brown called for the use of genetically modified crops. In a letter to the G-8 leaders, he encouraged taking "the initiative to further develop higher-yielding and climate-resilient varieties" of food crops.

Similarly, at least some French lawmakers are starting to see the light about bioengineered foods. By a slim margin, the lower house of the French parliament passed a law that...

In the category of facts that "everyone knows" is the assumption that organic foods (mostly produce) are better for people's health than the same items produced by conventional means. According to a recent article from CNN, a number of schools are now providing children with salad bars consisting of organic foods and are patting themselves on the back about giving the kids more healthful foods.

We certainly applaud making salad bars...

“The Good Science Project’s funding, Buck said, comes almost entirely from Patrick Collison, a tech billionaire best known for founding Stripe, a payment-processing company.

He’s dabbled for years, however, in science and research policy, most notably by co-founding Fast Grants, a project launched in April 2020. The organization’s aim was explicitly to break down bureaucratic barriers for researchers scrambling to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic: Within a year, the organization said, it had awarded roughly 250 grants of up to $500,000, making all funding decisions within an astonishing two-week timetable. (NIH takes months to award most research grants.)

...