Op-Eds
Diabetes epidemic costs $218 billion each year -- $1,900 per household - and contributes to deaths of 200,000-plus Americans, so risky behavior includes extra-large sodas. New York's proposed 18 percent tax on soft drinks could help make us healthier, just as cigarette tax has lowered lung cancer rates. Nutrition specialist says cola industry will spend vast sums fighting proposed tax. And: How food industry discredits critics (click 'See also').
By Nicholas D. Kristof
The New York Times 2008-12-18 (entry)
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Obama needs secretary of food, not USDA - to address health care, climate change, energy independence. 'Department of Food' would give primacy to America's 300 million eaters, cut influence of industrial farm lobby, which inflicts unhealthy food on children through school lunches and exacerbates crisis of obesity, diabetes. And: Petition lists terrific reformist candidates (click 'See also').
By Nicholas D. Kristof
The New York Times 2008-12-11 (entry)
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Adding 1 billion points to global IQ is as simple as adding iodine to salt, and Canada leads way with Micronutrient Initiative, which also advocates adding vitamin A, iron, zinc and folic acid to diets. Simple technology improves lives at low cost and in short time, says World Bank.
By Nicholas D. Kristof
The New York Times 2008-12-04 (entry)
American food supply is flawed but China's present is our past. Tainted milk scandal mirrors New York's in the mid 19th century, when up to 8,000 babies died each year. Large-scale adulteration requires fast-growing get-rich-quick economy coupled with regulatory vacuum. Scandals are symptomatic of a deep failure of politics.
By Bee Wilson
The New York Times 2008-09-30 (entry)
If Congress can conjure up vast sums for Wall Street bailout, why, when we speak urgently of a fraying social net, of charities reeling and empty food pantries, of tens of millions of Americans (the types who clean the likes of AIG and Freddie Mac at night) without food and shelter, is there not a penny available? Our nation's priorities are in the wrong place.
By Joel Berg
The Washington Post 2008-09-28 (entry)
California must work toward planned, efficient agricultural sector, long-term protections for land and water resources, and production of more high-valued crops grown with efficient irrigation systems. State must support farmers by implementing policies, incentives that support water conservation and efficiency.
By Heather Cooley and Juliet Christian-Smith
San Francisco Chronicle 2008-09-08 (entry)
To kick fast-food addiction and re-establish relationship with what's good for us and for planet, we must move beyond grief cycle (denial, anger, depression, bargaining, acceptance) and, through actions in our lives, understand that real food is a right. Next step is demanding action from political leaders. And: To comment on the Healthy Food and Agriculture Declaration, click 'See also.'
By Katrina Heron
San Francisco Chronicle 2008-08-17 (entry)
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Food crisis did not come without warning. It's unacceptable morally and unsustainable politically, economically. The U.S. must reinvest in agriculture development, organize institutions to address food challenge, re-examine food policies and consider global compact that eliminates food tariffs for poorest.
By Joe Biden
The Miami Herald; biden.senate.gov 2008-05-23 (entry)
To secure future of food, combine genetic engineering with organic farming to grow more with less harm to environment and to farm workers, says plant pathology professor, organic farmer's wife. Pesticides more harmful than genetic engineering, she says. And: Food prices, shortages pressure those who resist genetically engineered crops (click 'See also').
By Pamela Ronald
The Boston Globe 2008-03-16 (entry)
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Wine producers everywhere need to follow Italy's lead and deliver better wine in a box. With U.S. poised to become largest market, consumers need to demand the switch to lighter packaging. It's the environmental and affordable thing to do. Once open, a box preserves wine for about four weeks, compared to a day or two for a bottle.
By Tyler Colman
The New York Times 2008-08-17 (entry)
Latin America is major food producer, but sometimes must import to prevent shortages. Political left turn was tied to food problem - Brazil's 'Zero Hunger' plan, Argentina's price controls, Venezuela's land reform. Assuring food security must avoid protectionism and requires new international regime of free trade for agricultural commodities.
By Khatchik Der Ghougassian
Journal of Turkish Weekly 2008-08-18 (entry)
With irreversible climate change expected in 100 months, everything we do matters. Individuals alone can't re-engineer Britain's fossil-fuel-dependent food, transport and energy systems; government must lead. Between 1938 and 1944, economy was re-engineered and there were dramatic cuts in resource use and household consumption. How countdown was calculated (click 'See also').
By Andrew Simms
The Guardian (UK) 2008-08-01 (entry)
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Obesity is a public health disaster and is threatening our children. About half of Americans' food budget is spent at restaurants. If we can force oil companies to tell us octane level of fuel for our cars, surely we can demand that fast-food and restaurant chains tell us what we're putting into our bodies.
By Harold Goldstein and Eric Schlosser
Los Angeles Times 2008-08-05 (entry)
Collapse of trade talks indicates revolution in way we see economics of agriculture, and it should be reflected in freer trade. It's time for U.S. to let markets and need determine what farmers grow and how they farm - and lead by example. And: Doha failed after U.S., India and China couldn't agree on farmer protections in developing countries (click 'See also').
By Victor Davis Hanson
The New York Times 2008-08-01 (entry)
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Proposition 2, which would ban factory farms in California from using small pens or cages, brings to mind childhood on Oregon farm. Of animals raised for food, two provided pause: Pigs, with their characters and obvious intelligence; and geese, many of which could overcome panic at slaughter time to step away from flock and comfort a doomed mate.
By Nicholas D. Kristof
The New York Times 2008-07-31 (entry)
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Considering rising cost of food, the carbon footprint, the food shortage, the moral queasiness about biofuels, food safety issues and the Midwest floods, activist wants to see next president think global, eat local - from the 18-acre yard of the White House.
By Ellen Goodman
International Herald Tribune 2008-07-04 (entry)
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From our efficient, automated food stamp program, we have learned that current benefits run out the third week of every month. Price tag of hunger to American society is about $90 billion a year; ending hunger in U.S. would cost $10-12 billion a year. What added moral hazard could a full month of eating create?
By Michael Gerson
The Washington Post 2008-07-09 (entry)
Mother Nature may send us gully washers, but we have added to the devastation by draining wetlands, plowing up waterways and planting only corn and soybeans. Sustainable agriculture, with its ethic of conservation and stewardship, can help prevent future catastrophes.
By Denise O'Brien and Larry Harris
The Des Moines Register 2008-06-22 (entry)
Virulent banana fungus threatens single variety shipped around the world, but big banana companies have been slow to seek cure or diversify crop by preserving little-known varieties that grow in Africa and Asia. That means bananas could become, to our pocketbooks, the exotic luxuries that they are.
By Dan Koeppel
The New York Times 2008-06-18 (entry)
Feeding the hungry with subsidized American corn shipped in American ships may not be best answer. Despite woes, world has never come close to outpacing its ability to produce food. But success depends on portion control, since most grain grown is eaten by livestock, which in turn is eaten by the affluent and also is craved by growing middle class in China and India.
By Donald G. McNeil Jr.
The New York Times 2008-06-15 (entry)
Childhood obesity may be caused from overeating, but more often it signals malnutrition and/or inadequate availability of fresh food in their neighborhoods, or unsafe play spaces, dysfunctional relationships at home, lack of health care, or parents who are uneducated about nutrition principles or time/meal planning.
By Laura Scott
The Kansas City Star 2008-05-30 (entry)
Wild salmon collapse sends message: Don't eat it. Farm-raised is no better: Offshore net-cages dot long stretches of the west coast of the Americas. In Chile, overcrowding in those feedlots led to epidemic salmon anemia, fatal to millions of fish; in Canada, which supplies U.S. with 40 percent of its farmed salmon, sea-lice - a type of parasite - breed on farmed fish and then infect wild pink salmon.
By Taras Grescoe
The New York Times 2008-06-09 (entry)
Despite crisis, there is little attention to underpinning of all of our food systems - biodiversity and services provided by ecosystems, such as soil, water and resilience to disasters. We must change food systems from existing manufactured model to more environmentally-friendly inputs. Other complications: inequitable trade rules, agricultural subsidies and marginalization of small producers.
By Gonzalo Oviedo
BBC News 2008-06-02 (entry)
As world grows hungrier, the Conservation Reserve Program, the ethanol mandate and the ban on drilling in the Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge increasingly are out of step. Arable land is an economic and humanitarian resource. President Bush should tell USDA to set aside the "set asides" and let America's farmers make hay while the sun is shining.
By Ashby M. Foote III
The Clarion-Ledger (MS) 2008-05-25 (entry)
Obesity, beyond health risks including diabetes, joint pain, congestive heart failure, strokes, back pain, sleep apnea and depression, is also about root causes and society's denial. As a physician, let me 'not fail to see what is visible.' If obesity is not going to be confronted honestly in a medical setting, where will that difficult conversation take place?
By Jeremy Brown
The Washington Post 2008-05-25 (entry)
We may be a busy nation, but the same American who has just 30 minutes for the kitchen is somehow finding 240 minutes each day to watch TV. If we're serious about reclaiming control of our food from industrial companies and giving food the priority it deserves, the kitchen is where we have to start.
By Paul Roberts
Los Angeles Times 2008-05-21 (entry)
Farm/food bill will protect sugar industry from free trade. Bill also will require government to buy sugar at inflated rates and sell it cheaply for ethanol production. Sugar policy estimated to cost taxpayers $1.9 billion a year in high prices, plus another $1 billion-plus in the next decade for other programs used to prop up prices.
By Jay Hancock
The Baltimore Sun 2008-05-16 (entry)
When we buy Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Coca-Cola, or Oscar Mayer hot dogs, all of which are typical defense department contractors, we are supporting growing civilian-oriented military economy and growing militarized civilian economy. More companies are going to war, and, by the flow of our dollars, ever more of us are going to war with them.
By Nick Turse
Los Angeles Times 2008-05-09 (entry)
Great cooking requires good farming and a healthy environment, because care required for sustainable agriculture yields good flavor and nutrition. To increase demand for good food, we must consider cost per nutrient value, not cost per quantity. Small farms are not a nostalgic notion; the high cost of oil requires a graceful move into a post-industrial agriculture economy.
By Dan Barber
The New York Times 2008-05-11 (entry)
As Burger King spying case shows, we need a Bill of Rights that defends us against irresponsible corporate power. The fast-food chain says it obtained information about a college group to prevent violence. But it is a pacifist nonprofit inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., and supported by Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation, Presbyterian Church and a Catholic peace movement.
By Eric Schlosser
The New York Times 2008-05-07 (entry)
Feeding hungry children, always a priority in poor countries, is urgently needed now. Why is Congress reducing program funding by 90 percent while increasing overall farm/food bill spending by billions? School lunch program increases attendance rates and student productivity; girls marry later and birthrates are reduced.
By George McGovern and Bob Dole
The Washington Post 2008-05-06 (entry)
Food again is vital to our national security. We don't want a repeat of food riots that occurred during the Civil War, the Panic of 1893, and the Great Depression. As it did in World War I, government should allocate funds to promote national school, home and community gardening. Back then, Uncle Sam said, "Garden!" and millions of Americans picked up their hoes.
By Daniel J. Desmond and Rose Hayden-Smith
Ventura County Star 2008-05-04 (entry)
U.S. must invest appropriately in farmers at home and in agricultural development in the developing world, and open world markets to more liberalized food trade to create stable and affordable food supply and stable income for farmers around the world. Congress must replenish wheat stocks, OK crisis food aid and 'buy local' pilot plan, and strive for greener biofuels.
By Jake Caldwell
The Washington Post 2008-04-30 (entry)
As food prices rise, wheat rust spores blow in the wind and threaten a crop that provides 20 percent of the food calories for the world's people. We all lose if U.S. ends support for international agricultural research centers that study this and other problems. It is tantamount to the United States abandoning its pledge to help halve world hunger by 2015.
By Norman E. Borlaug
The New York Times 2008-04-26 (entry)
Waffles and sausage, Philly cheese steak and pancakes: Barack Obama keeps carbo-loading to connect to the common folk, but it's clear he is yearning to get back to his organic scrambled egg whites. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is a woman who drinks shots of Crown Royal, a luxury brand that at least one pundit thinks is another name for Old Prole Rotgut Rye (click 'See also').
By Maureen Dowd
The New York Times 2008-04-23 (entry)
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Tell everyone in Congress that they should vote on the farm/food bill as if the nation's health, future and security is at stake - it is. If proposed bill becomes law, agribusiness gets the most subsidies despite its damage to our health and the environment. Consider payments of $450,000 for construction of lined "lagoons" to hold factory farms' animal sewage; $4 billion for 'disasters' for those who plant corn, wheat in drought- and erosion-prone land.
By Daniel Imhoff
Los Angeles Times 2008-04-10 (entry)
Food, energy prices affecting our most vulnerable children; increase seen in anemic and underweight babies in cities, indicating later limits on their educational achievement and impaired ability to work. Food stamps won't pay for a healthy diet. Policies that help low-income children succeed belong on all candidates' agendas.
By Mariana Chilton and John Cook
The Inquirer (PA) 2008-04-01 (entry)
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Feeding the hungry is priority in food crisis, but cheap food may be gone. Problem was caused by long-term trends, bad luck and bad policy. Iraq war has reduced oil supplies. China is hungry for meat, which requires more grain. Australian drought is likely linked to climate change inaction. Biofuels craze is speeding deforestation and taking food acreage.
By Paul Krugman
The New York Times 2008-04-07 (entry)
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Belt-tightening may lead to weight gain, since willpower is depleted when people control themselves, when they modify behavior, or when their blood sugar drops. In one study, those who ate radishes before attempting an impossible puzzle quit earlier than those who ate chocolate chip cookies. Foods that maintain blood sugar levels (those containing protein or complex carbohydrates) might enhance willpower for longer periods.
By Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang
The New York Times 2008-04-02 (entry)
In rush to consolidate beef packing industry, there's the danger of scale. Cautionary tales: First, Tyson, with overseas poultry production, causing a consortium of smaller producers to lobby for Country of Origin Labeling. Second, glyphosate weed killer production in China that drove all but Monsanto's Roundup out of business. Third, Monsanto now has monopoly on the weed killer, as well as genetically modified seeds.
By Eric Nelson
The Prairie Star (MT) 2008-03-27 (entry)
Marie Read/Cornell Lab of Orthinology
Bobolink populations have dropped by half in 40 years; pesticides are suspected.
Our appetite for year-'round vegetables and grains is killing our songbirds with pesticides. In Latin America, pesticide use, much of it banned in U.S., is up fivefold since the '80s; one application can kill seven to 25 songbirds per acre. Fruits, vegetables from Latin America are three times as likely to violate EPA standards for pesticide residues as the same foods grown in U.S. Best bird-safe buys? Organic coffee, bananas, and nothing imported from Latin America that's not organic.
By Bridget Stutchbury
The New York Times 2008-03-30 (entry)
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The grinding work of fighting climate change is expensive and a distraction from needs of today, and children usually get stiffed (they are poorer than the elderly). But it is insurance against the chance of an unfathomable future of environmental disruption, species extinction and hunger.
By Eduardo Porter
The New York Times 2008-03-14 (entry)
Problems with meat don't stem from one slaughterhouse, but beef recall is chance to re-think school lunch. The USDA buys millions of pounds of surplus beef, pork, chicken and other high-fat meat products to distribute to schools, and not enough fruits, vegetables and other plant-based foods. Report predicts that by 2010, nearly half our children will be overweight or obese. As diet-related disease takes hold, they run risk of being the first generation to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.
By Roberta S. Gray, M.D.
The Sun (CA) 2008-02-26 (entry)
Kansas Senate committee considers anti-labeling bill for dairy products, led by agribusiness and biotech giant Monsanto, which manufactures the genetically engineered growth hormone rbST. Critics say that shoppers are looking for more information, not less, about their food, down to which farm provided which pound of hamburger.
By Mike Hendricks
The Kansas City Star 2008-02-28 (entry)
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Despite demand for local foods, government punishes farmers who usually grow subsidized corn, soybeans, rice, wheat and cotton if they plant fruits and vegetables instead. Those farmers must forfeit their subsidy, are fined the market value of the illicit crop and run the risk that those acres will be permanently ineligible for subsidies. Local and regional fruit and vegetable production will languish anywhere this program has influence.
By Jack Hedin
The New York Times 2008-03-01 (entry)
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It's time to put the health and well-being of America's eaters, animals and food industry workers first. The $70-billion-a-year meat business is largely controlled by four corporations with political clout that shows in: blocking universal testing for mad cow disease; coaxing regulators to speed up processing lines, and reducing the role and number of inspectors in plants.
By Christopher D. Cook
Los Angeles Times 2008-02-24 (entry)
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As Mississippi legislators consider a bill that bans obese customers from eating in restaurants, restaurateur and writer predicts he and other fat people will scout out the non-weighing restaurants (likely all-you-can-eat buffets), which would give those spots an unfair competitive advantage. But he does want a quota on green-bean casseroles for covered-dish suppers.
By Robert St. John
The Meridian Star 2008-02-06 (entry)
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Our failure to face GMO technology on level beyond rhetorical passion comes with failure to bring its benefits to those who might benefit most, professor writes. Cloning, too, could produce products that are safer, healthier and tastier -- bacon that has heart-protective Omega 3's, say, or milk from stronger cows that need fewer antibiotics.
By James E. McWilliams
The New York Times 2008-02-05 (entry)
Literature of localism omits hunters, the original locavores, who manage and harvest a sustainable, healthful food supply from the lands we love. Maintaining the ability to cull semi-rural and suburban deer herds, which annually injure 29,000 people in deer-vehicle collisions, and infect 13,000 Americans with Lyme disease, is just one of our challenges.
By Steven Rinella
The New York Times 2007-12-14 (entry)
Burger King, lauded for its animal welfare position on chickens and hogs, refuses to go along with penny a pound pay increase for migrant tomato pickers in South Florida, and suggests that if they want better pay, they should apply to work at restaurants.
By Eric Schlosser
The New York Times 2007-11-29 (entry)
Regarding the government's report on food insecurity, know that it's not the same as true hunger, that most occurrences are episodic, and that many people reporting food insecurity are obese, not because they can't afford beans or milk, but because they eat too much sugary, fatty food and exercise too little.
By Robert Rector
National Review 2007-11-21 (entry)
Bucking consumer demand and aligning himself with big dairy farmers and the chemical manufacturer, Monsanto, Pennsylvania agriculture secretary announces crackdown on "absence labeling" on milk. He bans labeling of dairy products not containing rBST, the artificial growth hormone. Ohio considers similar measure.
By Andrew Martin
The New York Times 2007-11-11 (entry)
China and India, with burgeoning populations, face changing climate, water shortages and diminishing farmlands, and must boldly address pollution problems and infrastructure needs or they will be big customers on the world commodities market in 30 years.
By Hari Sud
United Press International 2007-11-06 (entry)
To combat "food deserts," where low-income residents have no full-service grocery store within a half-mile of home, apply the same policies some cities use to create affordable housing - as part of any development or expansion, a company must build in underserved areas or pay into a fund to subsidize retailers that will.
By Amanda Shaffer and Robert Gottlieb
Los Angeles Times 2007-11-05 (entry)
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Existing farm/food bill fosters obesity and diabetes by subsidizing cheap junk food and fast food and encourages land, water and meat pollution by rewarding feedlot production of livestock and fence-row to fence-row cultivation of only a few crops. Then, its authors comfort critics with extra funds for nutrition programs and environmental cleanup.
By Michael Pollan
The New York Times 2007-11-04 (entry)
Food aid, a key provision of the farm/food bill, saves lives in natural disasters and emergencies, but it also addresses chronic hunger and fosters long-term development overseas and needs half the funds reserved for those projects, say Catholic archbishop and bishop.
By Wilton D. Gregory and J. Kevin Boland
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 2007-11-02 (entry)
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This federal relic of a farm bill should be disavowed by Republicans because it's against free markets, self-reliance and small government, and shunned by Democrats because bit payouts are going to the rich. But agribusiness lobbyists fund politicians' campaigns, so politicians promise dollars.
By Victor Davis Hanson
Chicago Tribune; Tribune News Services 2007-11-02 (entry)
A report that encourages pregnant women to increase fish consumption was a "classic example of industry-driven marketing under the cloak of scientific research," according to aquaculture advocate, who argues that the research mistakenly downplayed risk of exposing a fetus to mercury.
By Andrea Kavanagh
Los Angeles Times 2007-10-31 (entry)
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To ensure success of bloated and antiquated bill that fills coffers of richest farmers, simply link it to the bill that helps 25 mostly urban and suburban million people with emergency food aid annually and the 4 million who rely on food pantries and soup kitchens every week, author says.
2007-10-22 (entry)
Bill requiring labels for cloned meats and milk is a small step in the right direction; FDA's movement toward no-label approval based on part, from biotech company data, is a slippery slope toward other questionable biotech products including human genes.
By Osagie K. Obasogie and Pete Shanks
San Francisco Chronicle 2007-10-05 (entry)
Scrutinizing food ingredients is crucial, but because the water we drink is the same as the water in our toilets, we tolerate the presence of chemicals that would be banned as food additives; it's time to filter drinking water for all.
By Robert D. Morris
The New York Times 2007-10-03 (entry)
Current agricultural policies distort food costs, waste billions of taxpayer dollars, and subsidize a handful of large farming operations that raise a few selected crops - and subvert subsistence farmers across the globe by dumping cheap surplus goods at below-market prices.
By Senator Richard Lugar and Representative Ron Kind
The Modesto Bee (CA) 2007-07-15 (entry)
Diet rich in high-fat, low-nutrient junk food and meals made outside the home, plus parents' extra hours of work are combining to shorten and widen our children in comparison to others in developed countries around the world, study suggests.
By Paul Krugman
The New York Times (may require subscription) (entry)
In food/farm bill dilemma, cash-free approach for farmers' markets offers vast benefits for those requiring public assistance, but it puts small growers in a bind -- card readers and infrastructure are prohibitively expensive to buy and maintain.
By Corby Kummer
The New York Times 2007-05-10 (entry)
