Food Reports
All Food Reports archived here...
The Jungle
This report was originally produced by the Food campaign of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. In November 2005, this campaign moved to Food & Water Watch, which is reproducing this report with Public Citizen’s permission.
Tabled Labels: Consumers Eat Blind
This report reveals how the agribusiness lobby influences Congress to squash mandatory country-of-origin-labeling (COOL).
Food Irradiation: A Gross Failure
This report details the impact of irradiation on food's smell, taste, color and texture.
Foul Fowl: Salmonella in Chickens
The bacteria Salmonella is the leading cause of food-borne illness in the United States with nearly a million cases of salmonellosis attributed annually to meat and poultry consumption Food & Water Watch obtained the Salmonella testing results through the Freedom of Information Act. We report here on: the performance trends in the broiler chicken industry; the relative performance of the largest seven broiler chicken companies, and; plants that failed to meet USDA’s Salmonella standards between 1998 and 2005.
Broken Record
This report details how the FDA legalized - and continues to legalize - food irradiation without testing for its safety.
USDA, Inc.: How Industry Captured the U.S. Department of Agriculture
This report demonstrates how agribusiness has hijacked regulatory policy at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Dirty Deal
This report shows how free trade, the U.S. and transnational corporations caused Mexico's agriculture crisis.
BSE Non-compliance Record Analysis
This report details mad cow disease regulation violations in the United States.
What's Cooking?
Trade representatives at the World Trade Organization are demonstrating once again that they value the ease at which exporters make profits over the public good. The government has a responsibility to protect our food supply, not to sell off consumer health in the name of “free trade.”
What’s in the Beef?
Scientists question the safety of irradiated ground beef. Food & Water Watch is reproducing this report with Public Citizen’s permission.
Questioning Food Irradiation
A history of research into the safety of irradiated foods. Food & Water Watch is reproducing this report with Public Citizen’s permission.
Bad Taste
The disturbing truth about the World Health Organization's endorsement of food irradiation. Food & Water Watch is reproducing this report with Public Citizen’s permission.
Hidden Harm
How the FDA is ignoring the potential dangers of unique chemicals found in irradiated food. Food & Water Watch is reproducing this report with Public Citizen’s permission.
Irradiation in the Production, Processing, and Handling of Food
Public Citizen's letter to the FDA Re: Docket No. 2003F-0088. Food & Water Watch is reproducing this letter with Public Citizen’s permission.
Health Problems of Irradiated Foods
The health problems in humans of irradiated foods: what the research shows. Food & Water Watch is reproducing this fact sheet with Public Citizen’s permission.
The Trouble With Smithfield: A Corporate Profile
Four corporations control 66 percent of the U.S. hog market, as of 2007. At the top of this list is Smithfield Foods, which slaughters 27 million hogs every year, making it the biggest hog producer and processor in the United States and world–wide. For Smithfield, this means sales of $11 billion a year, but for farmers, consumers, workers, and the environment, this concentration in agriculture has been anything but a success story.
USDA, Inc.: How Industry Captured the U.S. Department of Agriculture
This report documents the extent of agribusiness' influence over the USDA, on issues ranging from mad cow disease to genetically modified foods. - 599 KB
The Farm Bill
Whether you buy food at a grocery store, a farmers market or a cafeteria, the next farm bill will affect what you eat. Congress is debating the policies that shape thequality and sustainability of our food, who grows and processes it, and how. The 2007/2008 farm legislation also will determine who can afford to buy food and where. "The Farm Bill: Food Policy in an Era of Corporate Power" discusses food policy in an era of corporate power.
The Rush to Ethanol - Report Summary
Rising oil prices, energy security considerations, and concerns over global warming are all contributing to the current hype surrounding biofuels. This report summarizes the fact that biofuels are being promoted as the way to curb greenhouse gas emissions and develop homegrown energy sources that reduce our dependency on foreign oil. (Report Summary)
The Rush to Ethanol
Not all BioFuels are Equal - Rising oil prices, energy security, and global warming concerns have all contributed to the current hype over biofuels. This report reviews the most up to date scientific evidence and concludes that corn-based ethanol is not the silver bullet everyone is seeking. (Full Report)
Turning Farms into Factories
Industrial animal production, the practice of confining thousands of cows, hogs, chickens or other animals in tightly packed facilities has become the dominant method of meat production in the United States. This report, which accompanies Food & Water Watch’s online map of factory farm animal production, explains the forces that have driven the growth of factory farms, as well as the environmental, public health, and economic consequences of the rise of this type of animal production.
Retail Realities: Corn Prices Do Not Drive Grocery Inflation
Retail prices for meat and milk are disconnected from increases in the price that farmers receive for corn, according to a Food & Water Watch analysis of food and corn prices over the past three decades. Retail consumer food prices have generally risen steadily with inflation or even faster irregardless of the price farmers receive for corn used to feed livestock.
More Foul Fowl
The bacteria Salmonella is the leading cause of food-borne illness in the United States with nearly a million cases of salmonellosis attributed annually to meat and poultry consumption. Of these, more than 14,000 of the victims are hospitalized and more than 400 die.
Carbon Monoxide
In today’s world, seeing is not believing –– at least not when it comes to meat. Because of an ill–thought decision by our Food and Drug Administration, the meat industry was allowed to inject the toxic gas carbon monoxide into your ground beef’s packaging. The gas kept the meat red and fresh looking long after it had already spoiled, and when you ate it (past its sell–by date; you looked at that, didn’t you?) you also consumed the bacterial condoplex that had sprung up in the interim.
Cargill: A Threat to Food and Farming
This report, Cargill: A Threat to Food and Farming, will show that Cargill’s vast influence on global agricultural trade threatens the health of consumers, family farmers, the environment, and even entire economies and governments.
What’s Behind the Global Food Crisis?
The 2008 global food crisis is compromising the survival of 860 million undernourished people and threatens to push a hundred million people into extreme poverty, erasing all of the gains made in eradicating poverty in the last decade. Record high prices have put food out of reach for the poorest people in the developing world, many of whom already spend more than half their income on food. Growing food insecurity is undermining tenuous civil stability in at least 33 countries, about one sixth of United Nations member countries.
Dairy 101
Over the last 20 years, the dairy industry has been transformed at all levels, from the cows that produce its raw materials to the cooperatives that secure its prices and the processors that turn milk into finished products for consumers. Massive mega-dairies, whose herds may receive antibiotics and growth hormones to boost production, ship milk across the country to be mechanically separated and resold as everything from ice cream to industrial protein concentrates. Consumers no longer know where their milk comes from — or what is actually in many of the dairy products they consume.
Cargill: A Threat to Food and Farming
Full Report - This report, Cargill: A Threat to Food and Farming, will show that Cargill’s vast influence on global agricultural trade threatens the health of consumers, family farmers, the environment, and even entire economies and governments.
The Poisoned Fruit of American Trade Policy
Food & Water Watch Report - Poison Fruit of American Trade Policy – Americans are consuming more imported fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen and canned produce, and fruit juice than ever before. An examination of U.S. consumption of produce that is commonly eaten as well as grown in America found that over the past 15 years Americans’ consumption of imported fresh fruits and vegetables doubled, but border inspection has not kept pace with rising imports, and less than one percent of the imported produce is inspected by the federal government. Food & Water Watch studied fifty common fruit and vegetable products like fresh apples, frozen broccoli, fresh tomatoes, orange juice and frozen potatoes.
Where's the Local Beef?
Local beef. Sustainable sausage. They’re what a growing number of people want for dinner. Across the country, demand is increasing for meat from cattle, sheep and other animals raised on the pastures of local and regional farms and ranches. But satisfying this burgeoning demand is no easy task. Decades of agribusiness and economic trends tilted toward centralizing animal agriculture in industrial factory settings have hollowed out the infrastructure needed to produce and market meat close to population centers. The long, slow demise of local small slaughter and processing operations is now preventing farmers and ranchers from fully satisfying rising consumer demand for meat from sustainably raised livestock.
rBGH: How Artificial Hormones Damage the Dairy Industry and Endanger Public Health
Recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), also called recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST), is a drug that is injected into cows to increase their milk production. Developed by the agricultural company Monsanto and approved for commercial use in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1993, by 2000 it had become the largest selling pharmaceutical product in the history of the dairy industry. RBGH has never been approved for commercial use in Canada or the European Union due to concerns about the drug’s impact on animal health. The artificial hormone’s known side effects include increased udder infections and reproductive problems in cows. Notably, a growing body of scientific research also suggests a link between drinking rBGH-treated milk and certain types of cancer in humans.
Bridging the GAPs
Although the vast majority of produce-related food-borne illnesses in the United States are traced back to food processors and not to farms, several recent outbreaks associated with fresh or fresh-cut produce have brought the farm squarely into the food safety picture. A 2006 outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 in bagged, ready-to-eat spinach and iceberg lettuce sent consumers running from leafy greens; a 2008 Salmonella outbreak, linked first to tomatoes and then to chili peppers, had a similar chilling effect. As a result, both government and industry have developed guidelines or strict protocols intended to improve produce safety on the farm.
Unseen Hazards: from Nanotechnology to Nanotoxicity
Nanotechnology—engineering extremely small particles at the molecular level to create materials with new behaviors and chemical properties—is a powerful new scientific pursuit, one with the potential to produce the next electricity or combustion engine—the next thing to change everything. Unfortunately, the enormous potential of nanotechnology to quell the world’s problems may be offset by its potential to cause harm. There is legitimate concern that the nano-sized particles employed in this new technology will have seriously damaging effects on the health of humans and the environment. Dozens of studies from the emerging field of nanotoxicity have already demonstrated hazards associated with nanoparticles.
Casino of Hunger: How Wall Street Speculators Fueled the Global Food Crisis
During 2008, rising food prices — accelerated by an unprecedented run-up of prices on the commodities futures markets — created a food crisis that increased global hunger, sparked civil unrest and hurt farmers in America and worldwide. The global food crisis is an overlooked symptom of the broader global economic crisis. The food crisis shares many characteristics of the financial meltdown — it was exacerbated by the deregulation of the commodity markets (including agriculture) that encouraged a tidal wave of Wall Street speculation — leading to further increases in already rising food and energy prices.
Fact Sheets
- Casino of Hunger: How Wall Street Speculators Contributed to the Global Food Crisis
- Dairy Crisis 101
- The Bad Seeds: The Broken Promises of Agricultural Biotechnology
- The Bottom Line of Tracking Livestock: The Money Behind the National Animal Identification System
- Animal Identification Does Not Equal Food Safety
Reports
- Casino of Hunger: How Wall Street Speculators Fueled the Global Food Crisis — During 2008, rising food prices — accelerated by ...
- Unseen Hazards: from Nanotechnology to Nanotoxicity — Nanotechnology—engineering extremely small parti ...
- Bridging the GAPs — Although the vast majority of produce-related food ...
- rBGH: How Artificial Hormones Damage the Dairy Industry and Endanger Public Health — Recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), also cal ...
- Where's the Local Beef? — Local beef. Sustainable sausage. They’re what a ...