Michele Simon

It's hard not to get depressed over the politics of food these days, given the massive power of the food industry to influence everything from the farm bill to childhood obesity.

So a new report, Slowing Down Fast Food: A policy guide for healthier kids and families,...

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...

The national hysteria over obesity has reached a crescendo this week, as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hosts the conference, "Weight of the Nation," in Washington, D.C. If you couldn't make it, no worries, more fear-mongering is on the way in a four-part mini-series on...

In a long-awaited decision, last week the Food and Drug Administration disappointed health advocates once again by allowing Bisphenol A or BPA, a known endocrine disrupter, to remain approved as a chemical additive in food containers such as plastic bottles and metal cans. While the agency says it's still studying...

The debate over the use of so-called pink slime in ground beef -- what the industry refers to as lean finely textured beef -- is heating up. During the weekend, the meat industry hosted a massive picnic in Iowa (with what else, free burgers) to show its support for...

In a surreal press conference yesterday, Beef Products Inc. took its best shot at making up for its silence during weeks of public lashing over what has been dubbed "pink slime," an additive in ground beef made through a high-tech process that BPI invented. (See my previous posts

Co-authored by Kelle Louaillier

To call McDonald's latest advertising campaign aimed at children cynical doesn't give enough credit to the fast food giant and its ad agency, Leo Burnett. The company says the new series of ads starting this month is part of McDonald's "commitment to promote nutrition and/or...

Yesterday, I wrote about how the New York Times' contest for meat eaters is great PR for the meat industry. Upon sending that missive to the Times, I had an email exchange with Ariel Kaminer, the paper's Ethicist columnist, about various aspects of the contest. When I asked...

The New York Times is holding a silly contest for meat-eaters to have their say. Here is my entry.

Was this really a burning problem that needed solving, the lack of justifications to eat meat? What do you suppose has caused America's love affair with meat in the first...

This past week, the media woke up to the shocking reality that our meat supply is in fact industrialized. Long gone are the days of your friendly local butcher grinding meat for your kids' hamburgers. Taking its place is a corporate behemoth you probably never heard of called Beef...

You've probably never heard of the Microbiological Data Program (MDP) but if you eat fresh produce, you should, because it's currently on President Obama's budgetary chopping block. The MDP is a small ($5 million annually) pathogen monitoring program tucked away in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It tests fruits and...

As Enrollment Increases, USDA Should Require Purchase Data from Food Stamp Retailers to Better Evaluate Nutrition Intake

This week Congress begins hearings on the 2012 farm bill, the massive piece of legislation that gets updated about every five years and undergirds America's entire food supply, but that few mortals can...

Last month, the Federal Trade Commission took public comments on a proposed settlement with the alcohol company Phusion Projects, which makes a beverage line called Four Loko. You might recall in 2010 how that product gained much notoriety for sending scores of college students to the emergency...

Having saturated the rural landscape, shuttering local stores in small town America along the way, now, in the wake of stagnant sales and increased competition, Walmart desperately needs to expand into urban markets.

And what better urban market than one full of eight million people? While the...

It doesn't take much for a food industry freak-out over potential government action, but this latest corporate outcry is especially galling and self-serving.

After more than 20 years of "assessment" the Environmental Protection Agency is finally expected later this month to release limits for safe exposure to dioxins,...

In August, I reported on a lawsuit against ConAgra for deceptive labeling of its Wesson brand of cooking oils as "natural." The case alleges that the products contain genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), which are not by any stretch of the imagination "natural." A similar case was recently filed in...

Instead of a potentially depressing year-in-review post, I decided to look ahead. (But do see Andy Bellatti's amusing compilation of 2011 food news.) Given all the defeats and set-backs this year due to powerful food industry lobbying, the good food movement should by now be collectively shouting: I am...

Last month, when Congress declared pizza a vegetable, it was hard to believe things could get much worse. But never underestimate politicians' ability to put corporate interests ahead of children's health. In the massive budget bill just passed, Congress stuck in language to require the Federal...