The recent New York Times editorial, which argues against labeling genetically modified foods (GMOs), is shocking in its shortsightedness. The thrust of the argument is that GMOs pose no risk to consumers; the editorial reads, "there is no reliable evidence that genetically modified foods now on the market...

If there is one topic that Americans are generally confused about it's nutrition. Although the word simply means the materials necessary in the form of food to support life, our cultural understanding of it has shifted dramatically -- with various industries co-opting the word...

Jane Brody, a longtime health columnist for The New York Times, has undoubtedly written great columns over the years, but her most recent one, published on Dec. 31, 2012, was not one of them. In fact, this column, which claims to debunk health myths, is one of the...

There was good news this week with several cities reporting declining rates of childhood obesity. While modest, any decline in this alarming trend is promising: New York City reports a five and a half percent decrease; Philadelphia, five percent; and Los...

On Tuesday, Californians voted on Proposition 37, which if passed, would have required the mandatory labeling of genetically-modified foods (GMOs). Ultimately, the proposition failed by a relatively narrow margin: 46.9 percent to 53.1 percent. This indicates that close to half of all California voters (or more than four...

If we knew that there was epidemic among our children that would cause them to die at increasingly younger ages and if we also knew that this disease was entirely preventable, wouldn't we do everything in our power to eradicate it?

In fact, we do have an epidemic and it's...

"All natural." "Farm-fresh." "Cage-free." Thanks to phrases such as these, consumer confusion is common when it comes to understanding and buying food. The battle raging in California over the labeling of genetically modified foods illustrates just how much labels do indeed matter -- to consumers as well as...

Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a ban on the use of bisphenol A, or BPA, in baby bottles and children's cups. BPA is an estrogen-mimicking chemical that has been used in hard plastics, the linings of cans, food packaging, dental fillings and even receipts for years....

Last week I wrote that it may not be long before the food industry will be proven wrong about their two favorite messages: All calories are created equal, and it's all about personal responsibility. Well, it appears that science may be one step closer to proving at least...

There was a time when corpulence was a sign of wealth and luxury. But in modern-day Western countries, quite the opposite is true. In fact, a recent study found that fully one third of homeless people living in Boston are obese. "This study suggests that obesity may be the new...

The controversy surrounding New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's recent plan to ban sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces ranges from praise for taking on "America's expanding waistline" to deriding him as a "nanny" for infringing on our personal choices and freedoms. But what's largely missing from the...

Rush Limbaugh has done it again. He's lashing out at yet another "overeducated and single" woman, but this time it's Tracie McMillan, an author (he calls her an "authorette") who recently published, The American Way of Eating. In her book, McMillan goes undercover for a year at Walmart,...

Paula Deen's public admission that she has Type 2 diabetes and her follow-up announcement that she is also a paid spokesperson for the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, and its diabetes drug, Victoza, has sparked an interesting debate about the deeper issues surrounding our food system--especially the...

If there were any lingering doubts as to whom our elected representatives really work for, they were put to rest Tuesday when Congress announced that frozen pizza was a vegetable. The United States Congress voted to rebuke new USDA guidelines for school lunches that would have increased the amount of...

How much do you know about your Thanksgiving turkey? If you buy your turkey from a typical grocery store -- and most Americans do -- you might not realize that the approximately 46 million turkeys consumed every year come from a factory farm.

But if Thanksgiving is truly about offering...

How much do our personal consumer choices affect change? Within the food movement, personal choice and the food products we spend our money on have been emphasized as the way to create change. But is this a fallacy? Have we all be led astray thinking that we can truly create...

Joel Salatin was in Union Square Wednesday talking about his new book, appropriately titled, Folks, This Ain't Normal and passionately spoke about the state of industrial agriculture and its effects on our soil, our health, and our culture.

When I asked him what...

Food luminaries Marion Nestle and Anna Lappe will be on hand to Occupy Against Big Food in the midst of Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park this Saturday. Nestle, Lappe and others will discuss just how the food movement and the occupy movement are aligned. "The...

If you are paying attention to Occupy Wall Street--and by now most people are--the anti-corporate message is coming through loud and clear. Most participants at the events now spreading across the country say they are no longer willing to let powerful corporate interests determine the course of their lives. These...

Food corporations enjoy carte blanche on what they can say about their foods, how and to whom they advertise, and even (to a large degree) the ingredients they choose to put in their foods. But when the Obama administration recently proposed voluntary guidelines for the types of food...