You're reading Smorgasbord from Food & Water Watch.
If you'd like to send us a note about a blog entry or anything else, please use this contact form. To get involved, sign up to volunteer or follow the take action link above.
September 16 is a big day in the effort to stop the FDA from approving GE salmon. Food & Water Watch is holding a National Day of Action to oppose the approval of genetically engineered salmon by the FDA. We implore consumers to make sure we have a say in this fight against an experimental food mutation that is currently making its way through the FDA.
If you are concerned because GE salmon has not been proven safe for human consumption, and that the FDA has been secretive throughout much of the approval process, you can take action to stop the process so we can ask critical questions about GE salmon.
Today, September 16, consumers are taking time out of their busy workday to make their voices heard. We are asking people around the country to contact the Obama administration to tell the President to stop the FDA from approving GE salmon.
Consumers concerned about GE salmon because it has not been proven safe for human consumption should contact the Obama administration and tell the President to stop the FDA from approving GE salmon.
If you live in the Washington, D.C. area, you can participate with us in our rally and press conference today, September 16, at 3:15pm. Following the event, Ben & Jerry’s — who are supporting us in this effort — will be giving away free Phish Food ice cream and we’ll be generating phone calls to the White House to oppose GE salmon.
We encourage all consumers to be informed about this issue as much as possible. We have devoted an entire section of our website to providing information about GE salmon. It is clear that we have to move quickly and stop that fish before it reaches the food system.
The FDA is uncomfortably close to approving AquaBounty’s AquAdvantage® GE salmon for our kitchen tables, and they are trying to move the process along rather quickly. While the agency is downplaying the potential dangers of bringing GE salmon to market, there are legitimate concerns that every consumer should consider. Proponents of genetically modified food might attempt to distract consumers by making false claims and empty reassurances. Here are ten reasons why the FDA should stop the application process to approve GE salmon for human consumption.
The FDA is close to approving genetically engineered salmon for our plates, but here are ten reasons to stop them.
The race is over. The fight is on. FDA announced last week that they will hold public hearings on the approval of genetically engineered (GE) salmon for consumers’ tables. If they approve GE salmon, it would be the first transgenic animal approved for human consumption in the U.S. The hearings will take place September 19, 20 and 21, which doesn’t leave much time to pose critical questions. Even though many consumers express concern over health and environmental risks that might be associated with GE salmon, FDA is trying to quickly approve it. In response to this important consumer issue, Food & Water Watch will host a series of blogs dedicated to this topic, and we will break down each concern we have with every posting. The following post is the first in this series. Read more…
Occasionally, someone makes a PR gaffe so blatantly off-target that it would be downright funny—if it weren’t such an important consumer right-to- know issue.
AquaBounty Technologies—a name that conjures up images of fresh, wholesome seafood swimming straight to your plate—is the company behind AquaAdvantage genetically engineered (GE) salmon, coming soon to an FDA approval process near you. We call them FrankenFish or Arnold Schwarzensalmon. Included in their very own website is a statement that breaks one of the most important rules of sensible business practice: make the customer feel important. Read more…
CNN's Brian Todd interviews our own Patty Lovera, food director, about how food contamination—like the Wright Egg salmonella outbreak—can spread so quickly. None of the eggs in the background were affected by the recall.
The Wright County Egg recall has continued to raise interesting questions about food safety issues across our industrial food system. Various news stations have been contacting our offices for the past week to ask how food contamination can spread so quickly across the country. CNN’s Brian Todd asked our food director, Patty Lovera, to meet him at a grocery store just outside of downtown Washington, D.C., to discuss the recall (we’ll provide the link as soon as the story airs), so I tagged along. Read more…
Food companies relentlessly target children—and their parents—with faux nutrition labels and shiny plastic toys.
Kellogg’s, Kraft Foods, ConAgra Foods, Unilever, General Mills, PepsiCo and Tyson Foods all have a great understanding of nutrition—if they do say so, themselves. They have a select group of “healthy” products that they promote through the front-of-the-package Smart Choices labeling program. Under the program, healthy food for kids includes Fruit Loops, which Smart Choices Board President Eileen T. Kennedy tells us is healthier than a donut.
Do we want food companies teaching our kids about nutrition? Read more…
If you’re worried about the quality of domestic seafood due to the Gulf oil spill, think twice before you turn to imported seafood as a safer alternative. While many people, such as Change.org’s Sarah Parsons, have been questioning the safety of Gulf seafood, (with food safety officials now employing sniff tests to assess the acceptability of seafood from oil-contaminated areas), few have asked what safety regulations are in place for imported seafood. No matter what your thoughts on the sniff-test method, you should know that imported seafood, which has a lengthy record of safety issues, is barely put to any testing at all. Read more…
One month ago, most of us had never heard of hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or HVP. HVP is a food additive that rarely shows up on labels in those words. It’s more often listed as seasonings or natural flavorings. It fulfills many of the same functions as MSG without forcing companies to put the dreaded word on their labels.
But in the last month, we’ve had cause to learn what HVP is. From potato chips to seasoning mixes to dips, it seems much of our food is suddenly subject to a recall because of possible salmonella contamination of HVP produced by a Las Vegas company, Basic Food Flavors. The full list of recalled foods is over 150 items, but reports indicate that it could reach over 1,000 items before this is over.
