With legislation in 2008, Congress for the first time asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to collect and report to the public the overall sales of antibiotics used in food animals. February 6 marked the release of a third year's worth of data.

Penicillins and...

A week ago, with most of us still digesting election results -- and our turkey -- a critical deadline passed in the struggle to convince the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to pull back the veil of ignorance around how antibiotics are being fed or given to pigs, chickens, turkeys...

A Harvard study just published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine journal, associates a mother's low level exposure to mercury while pregnant with greater risk of her child later developing ADHD-related behavior.

The research coincides with another study earlier this year that correlated...

Mammals fed a diet of genetically engineered (GE) Roundup Ready corn for two years died earlier and developed more tumors and liver and kidney damage, according to a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Food and Chemical Toxicology.

The findings reinforce recent

Duking it out this spring to be crowned "scourge of the 21st century": the dual public health epidemics of obesity and antibiotic resistance.

Obesity, the reigning champion, costs the nation more than $190 billion per year in direct treatment costs alone -- a figure more than $40 billion...

With public approval of Congress at a nadir, Americans' frustration with our democracy is no secret. Perhaps nowhere is there more of a disconnect than between parents' concern about food safety, and the lack of reform in how meat is produced and processed.

Released this week, a...

Here's an issue you don't hear very much about: Antibiotic use in ethanol production.

You heard me right. Some producers fermenting corn into ethanol add human antibiotics to their fermentation tanks. Why? To control bacteria in the tanks, which can reduce their yields if they get out of...

The world's largest public health group, the American Public Health Association (APHA), has just announced new policy calling for greater government action to protect the public from hormone-disrupting chemicals in the food supply.

Congress and government regulators should pay attention. APHA's policy statement follows official positions released...

Wednesday was the one year anniversary of First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" initiative to blunt the epidemic of obesity in children. It marks an important fight against a wave of future chronic disease that threatens our national security, our economic growth and the solvency of our...

At a 2010 Congressional briefing sponsored by Rep. Louise Slaughter, I warned the continued and routine overuse of antibiotics in U.S. meat production could be shooting the global competitiveness of that industry in the foot.

Data finally released last month by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)...

Last month, to great fanfare, First Lady Michelle Obama announced her Let's Move initiative to combat childhood obesity.

Tuesday's signing of the historic health reform bill assures that more children, once obese, will actually be able to get treatment for it. The bad news is how ineffective and expensive most...