Issues The FOOD Museum celebrates our global food heritage and issues everyday, but October 16 is the UN's official designation. Food fuels all that we do. As we contemplate how to feed all of us safely and nutritiously, while maintaining a clean environment, we encounter issues related to the growing, processing, preparing and eating of food. In this section we present definitions and overviews of selected food issues. We also include questions, sources for answers, and a taste of controversial arguments pro and con. We are not trying to push any agenda. This is an opportunity for you to get informed, and make up your own mind. If there are issues or aspects of issues you would like us to cover, please let us know. Please sign our Visitor Comment Book. Our latest issues: (updated June 2006) Fasting & Hunger Strikes (new) Asian Avian Flu Factory Farming Food Advertising & Children School Lunch Reform Obesity Crisis Hunger Issue updated Feast or Famine: one third of planet faces either over or under nourishment

Agriculture and Environment: Overview
(Last updated August 2005)

Robert Clark editor of Our Sustainable Table…Essays writes in the preface:

"Good farming means good food; anyone who cares about good food has a stake in good farming and in methods of food production, processing and distribution that accord with the long term health and sustainability of farmers, farming communities and the land upon which they-and we-depend.

But discussions of food and food policy in America have been dominated for most of this century, and certainly since WWII, by questions of quantity rather than quality: "How much and at what price?" has often seemed more important than "how good and at what cost?" Our criteria for evaluating the ways in which we farm, market, shop, cook and eat have largely been economic in nature, whereas how food relates to the land, our communities, and our public and private selves has been a question relegated to the margins of contemporary concerns. "The discipline proper to eating, of course, is not economics but agriculture." writes Wendell Berry. "The discipline proper to agriculture, which survives not just by production but by the return of wastes to the ground, is not economics but ecology."

Questions

How do we produce good, nourishing food for all, and protect the land at the same time?

Where in the world are examples of preserving the land, rural life, and producing affordable healthy food?

What is being done to preserve the oceans and fish stocks?

What are the success stories about good farming practices linked with good processing and cooking practices?

Sources

Clark, Robert, Editor. Our Sustainable Table…Essays. San Francisco: North Point Press. 1990.

Harris, Mark. "Organic Futures" Vegetarian Times. March 2001.
This article reports on the organic foods being discovered by corporate America. Pros and cons are analyzed. Many familiar organic food brands have been bought by big food processors. This means more organic items in mainstream supermarkets, but trouble for organic farmers.

Timberlake, Lloyd. Only One Earth: Living for the Future.
NY. Sterling, 1987.

Case studies of success stories around the world.

Rodale Institute http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/
The Rodale Institute works with people worldwide to achieve a regenerative food system that renews environmental and human health working with the philosophy that "Healthy Soil = Healthy Food = Healthy People

New Farm http://www.newfarm.org/
At NewFarm.org, the mission is to inform, encourage, equip and inspire farmers with the support they need to take the important transition steps toward regenerative agriculture. Newfarm.org is committed to working for the achievement of an important goal of The Rodale Institute: to assist and witness the emergence of 100,000 organic farmers in the United States and 1 million organic farmers worldwide, by the year 2013.

Henry A. Wallace Center for
Agricultural & Environmental Policy http://www.winrock.org/what/wallace_center.cfm
Winrock's Wallace Center uses sound policy analysis, research, and evaluation to further sustainable and equitable agriculture and food systems, promote natural resources management, strengthen rural communities, and shape U.S. agricultural and food policy agendas. Educational programs and policy reports foster debate and understanding.

Land Institute: www.landinstitute.org
The Land Institute has worked for over 20 years on the problem of agriculture. Our purpose is to develop an agricultural system with the ecological stability of the prairie and a grain yield comparable to that from annual crops. We have researched, published in refereed scientific journals, given hundreds of public presentations here and abroad, and hosted countless intellectuals and scientists. Our work is frequently cited, most recently in Science and Nature, the most prestigious scientific journals. We are now assembling a team of advisors which includes members of the National Academy of Sciences. These scientists understand our work and stand ready to endorse the feasibility of what we have come to call Natural Systems Agriculture.

Vegetarian Times http://www.vegetariantimes.com/

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Urban Agriculture
(updated August 2005)

Organizations like Seattle Tilth inspire and educate people to garden organically, conserve natural resources and support local food systems in order to cultivate a healthy urban environment and community.

Seattle Tilth: www.seattletilth.org
"Promoting the art of organic gardening in an urban setting":

Rio Grande Community Farms

This organization preserves what is some of America's  oldest continuously farmed land.  The farm is in Albuquerque's North Valley, one of the first farming communities in the Middle Rio Grande valley,  now  heavily developed. One of the projects of RGCF is to provide forage crops for the migrating flocks of endangered sandhill cranes that winter in New Mexico. The cranes increasingly find it hard to find places to rest and eat during their final flight days to their winter quarters in and around Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Preserve. For several years, the RGCF has grown a stand of corn that has a maze cut in it each year as a tourist draw and fund raiser. RGCF also is developing partnerships with area schools, etc.

Community Shared Agriculture

At their most fundamental level, CSA farms provide a weekly delivery of organically grown produce to consumers during the growing season (approximately June to October). Those consumers, in turn, pay a subscription fee. But CSA consumers don’t so much “buy” food from particular farms as become “members” of those farms. CSA operations provide more than just food; they offer ways for eaters to become involved in the ecological and human community that supports the farm.

How did this get started?

Where is it operating and how is it going?

What other sources are there from which people can get freshly raised food?

Sources

Community Shared Agriculture Directory for MN and WI
This site has lots of information on CSA with extended links.


US Department of Agriculture's alternative agriculture pages: www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa

Biodynamic Farming & Gardening Association: www.biodynamics.com

Farmers' Market Hotline: 800 384 8704

USDA's Farmers' Market site: www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets

Land Stewardship Project: Food & Farm Connection

Local Harvest is all about finding sources of locally produced food.

Here's Local Harvest's directory of farmers markets.

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Biotechnology in Agriculture
(updated August 2005)

Genetically Modified Foods

Definitions

Genetically Modified Foods are animals or plants that have had genetic modification.

Genetic modification is the insertion of DNA from one organism to another, usually by molecular technologies.

Transgenic crops are food plants that have been genetically modified by insertion of a foreign gene or transgene, i.e. a gene from another species.

Agricultural biotechnology employs biological processes and living organisms to produce food.

Overview

Our ancestors first cultivated plants some ten thousand years ago. They domesticated animals later and then selectively bred both plants and animals to meet various requirements for human food. Humans discovered natural biological processes such as fermentation of fruits and grains to make wine and beer, and yeast for baking bread. Manipulation of foods is not a new story, therefore. The latest agricultural discovery uses genetic engineering technology to modify foods.

Conventional plant breeding involves shifting different forms of the same genes that already exist in the plant's gene pool. Genetic modification involves inserting desired genes from one organism into that of a food plant. This speeds up the results considerably. While there are potential benefits from this technology, many unpredictable effects have sounded alarms among academic, governmental and civic groups.

Many of us in the industrialized world have already consumed foods from transgenic crops. Soy and corn, some of the most common ingredients in processed foods, were some of the earliest plants to be modified. These early foods were not labeled and the public had no choice in the matter.

In the third world, GMF are a big issue as well. Transgenic crops are considered intellectual property and come under international patent law. Thus those who control the patents, control the flow of these modified seeds and information about them to poorer developing countries. This practice also restricts or even removes seed ownership from the farmers who for generations have preserved this genetic plant heritage.

Pros and Cons or who benefits and who loses?

Multinational Corporations benefit because GMF can be very profitable.

GMF have taken hold quickly because multinational corporations with the resources to make large financial investments in research and development, can profit directly. Multinational companies can spread out the benefit and profit to many branches of their businesses. Many such corporations combine the following: an agrochemical company, a seed company, a pharmaceutical company, a food processing company and sometimes businesses involved with veterinary products. Developments in one part of the corporation can be used to sell products in another branch. An example is the development of a seed resistant to herbicides or chemicals that kill weeds. This will help sell more of the company's herbicides. One of the license requirements for farmers wanting to buy and use this seed is that they must also buy and spray with the company's herbicide. The main profit from all this is the sale of seeds that produce high yield.

Farmers benefit in the short term because they can grow and sell more crops with fewer problems due to weeds, pests, fungi or frost. The genetically modified seed is designed to resist these traditional enemies.

Food processing companies benefit from a ready supply of raw food ingredients designed for specific processing needs. Genetically modified tomatoes and potatoes, for instance, have higher solid contents and yield more sauces and French fries. These foods take longer to ripen and rot. Thus less food is spoiled and more gets processed.

Supermarkets benefit for the same reasons. The fresh produce lasts longer on the shelves and is more profitable.

Consumers, to date, haven't benefited. GMF have been developed for the convenience of the producer and processor. Yet they cost more to produce and the costs get passed along to the consumer. Eventually there will be some kind of designer novelty foods for shoppers to try.

Who loses?

Consumers lose. Since WW II, food has been steadily decreasing in price, but not any longer. GMF are costly to develop and grow. The consumer is destined to pay more for no added quality. In addition, the risk to the environment and individual human health is unpredictable. People are concerned over GM hydrogenated oils such as canal being increasingly used in processed foods.

Supermarkets lose when they have to worry about labeling these new foods and scaring off their customers, who may be wary of such labels.

Food processors lose when they have to recall products that contained banned or controversial genetically modified ingredients. Processors then get caught up in expensive litigation and public relations operations.

Multinational corporations also lose when they have to withdraw genetically modified seed products that they have spent years and small fortunes developing and marketing. These corporations then spend more money on litigation and public relations campaigns as well.

What are the risks and why are they so controversial?

Biologist Stephen Nottingham in his book, Eat Your Genes: How Genetically Modified Food is Entering Our Diet, explains the risks.

"Experimental trials with transgenic organisms are usually conducted strict regulations to minimize the potential spread of genetic material…Even given these regulations, however, no field trial can be said to be 100 per cent secure. This was illustrated when flooding struck the American Midwest in July 1993 and an entire field of experimental insect-resistant maize was swept away in Iowa. …once released accidentally into the environment, plant material may prove difficult to recover.

Micro-organisms pose particular ecological risks because of their short generation time and high mutation rates and their ability to pass genetic information between themselves in a process called conjugation. Millions of offspring, containing copies of a transgene, could be produced within days or even within hours.

Unique ecological risks have been associated with virus-resistant transgenic crop plants…leaving crops more vulnerable to virus attack and risking the spread of virus susceptibility to other plants.

Transgenic organisms might become more vigorous or invasive and themselves become weeds or pests. Many of the world's weed and pest problems arose from exotic introductions…organisms that were transferred from their native habitats to ones in which they were not normally found. These exotic introductions provide a model for assessing a worst-case scenario for the potential effects of a modified organism that changes to become more invasive.

However, a potentially more serious ecological threat than transgenic organisms themselves becoming weeds or pests is that transgenes will spread, through breeding with wild relatives, to produce offspring containing the introduced gene.

Genetically modified foods are unlikely to present direct risks to human health… There are two main areas of concern: a) the possibility of allergic reactions to genetically modified foods, and b) the possibility that bacteria living in the human gut may acquire resistance to antibiotics from marker genes present in transgenic plants."

Nottingham adds that there are many other concerns including ethical questions involving animal welfare, whether DNA is actual life, and intellectual property rights and genetic resources from the Third World.

The world's poorest nations account for around 95.7 per cent of the world's genetic resources. Traditional farming practices involve farmers retaining seeds, from the harvest of one year's crop, for planting in the following year. This practice saves money on buying seed and in itself represents a continuous selection for yield and resistance to pests and diseases. However, with genetically modified seed, royalties are payable to the companies holding the patent for the seed. Under world trade agreement rulings, farmers have to make substantial royalty payments to multinational companies if they keep seed for replanting, even if the crop happens to be native to their particular country.

Alan McHughen, author of Pandora's Picnic Basket: The Potential and Hazards of Genetically Modified Foods (2000, Oxford University Press, NY,) is a research scientist who has developed genetically modified plants and been involved in the regulatory processes of various countries. He attempts to expose the risks, benefits and myths surrounding GM technology. In his introduction he states:

"Make no mistake: I am in favor of an orderly and appropriately regulated introduction of some GMOs into the environment and marketplace, and I adamantly oppose others. There are good reasons to ban certain products of genetic technology, and good reasons to allow, with management, certain others; some may require no extraordinary regulation at all. If your opinion differs from mine after reading this book, I hope you will be able to justify, if only to yourself, why we disagree. My philosophy is to be skeptical, be critical, even cynical of claims by business interests, government agencies, and activist groups. But also keep an open mind and then decide for yourself."

McHughen lists numerous questions and answers in his book. A few of his questions are included here.

Are you concerned about fish genes in tomatoes?

Will Brazil nut genes in soybeans result in potentially lethal allergic reactions?

Will rapeseed plants resistant to herbicides become uncontrollable superweeds?

Will genetic engineering really eradicate starvation and malnutrition?

How does molecular genetics work?

How do they actually perform gene transfer?

What's the difference between conventional and GM foods?

How are new varieties regulated and approved for marketing?

Can we separate GM from non-GM grain?

Will banning GM foods eliminate food scares?

What else is in "pure" food?

Are you concerned with the process of GM or with GM products?

Why is the public attitude toward GM in America so different from that in the UK?

What is the role of science in regulation?

Doesn't anyone listen to the consumer?

Are all academics in the pocket of private industry?

What is the awful sounding "terminator technology"?

Do multinationals control all GMOs and GM technology?

Why are companies refusing to label their GM products?

Is it possible to avoid GM foods completely?

What is the fuss over intellectual property and GM technology?

What can I do to protect myself, my family, and my environment from these new technologies and products?

 Sources for more information/Links

Books

Mc Hughen, Alan. Pandora's Picnic Basket: The potential and hazards of genetically modified foods. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

This book, described above, also contains an excellent list of websites on all aspects of this subject. A few are listed below.

Nottingham, Stephen. Eat Your Genes: How genetically modified food is entering our diet. London: Zed Books Ltd., 1998.

This contains an excellent bibliography and glossary.

Raeburn, Paul. The Last Harvest: The Genetic Gamble that Threatens to Destroy American Agriculture. NY. Simon & Schuster. 1995.

Websites

EPA http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/biotech/

FDA http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/biotechm.html

Biotechnology Industry Organization http://www.bio.org/

Du Pont http://www.dupont.com/index.html

Monsanto http://www.monsanto.com

CNN http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/07/07/gm.qa/index.html

Union of Concerned Scientists http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/index.cfm

Organic Consumers Association http://organicconsumers.com/

Institute for Food & Development Policy http://www.foodfirst.org

Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth is the U.S. voice of an influential, international network of grassroots groups in 70 countries. Founded in San Francisco in 1969 by David Brower, Friends of the Earth has for decades been at the forefront of high-profile efforts to create a more healthy, just world. Our members were the founders of what is now the world's largest federation of democratically elected environmental groups, Friends of the Earth International.

Starlink Controversy

http://www.foe.org/safefood/overview.html

Canola Oil Controversy

Canola Council of Canada: http://www.canola-council.org/

Shirley's Wellness Café: Holistic Health Care:
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/canola.htm
This site has many reports and articles expressing concern about canola.

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Cooks, Restaurants and the Food Service Industry
(updated August 2005)

If we are what we eat, then the people who feed us surely bear scrutiny, as well as praise. Few sources until now have invited us to enter the world of the professional cook. Those of us who cook for our families, too, provide a service that goes well beyond simple slinging of hash.

Sources

Bourdain, Anthony. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. NY. Bloomsbury Press. 2000

Ruhlman, Michael. The Soul of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection. NY: Viking, 2000.

Spang, Rebecca L. The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris & Modern Gastronomic Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.

Symons, Michael. A History of Cooks and Cooking. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000.

 

Internet

Slow Food Movement: www.slowfood.com
Through its understanding of gastronomy with relation to politics, agriculture and the environment Slow Food has become an active player in agriculture and ecology. Slow Food links pleasure and food with awareness and responsibility. The association’s activities seek to defend biodiversity in our food supply, spread the education of taste, and link producers of excellent foods to consumers through events and initiatives.

Slow Food USA
Recognizing that the enjoyment of wholesome food is essential to the pursuit of happiness, Slow Food U.S.A. is an educational organization dedicated to stewardship of the land and ecologically sound food production; to the revival of the kitchen and the table as centers of pleasure, culture, and community; to the invigoration and proliferation of regional, seasonal culinary traditions; and to living a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life.

Professional Chefs site: www.starchefs.com

More links chefs links:   About food, restaurants etc: 

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Eating: Diets, Habits, Phobias, Disorders
(updated August 2005)

Overview

Every human body is different one from the other. Each person has a responsibility to figure out how to take care of his/her health. Everyone needs to be informed, listen to his/her body and develop sound, appropriate eating, breathing and exercise habits.

Humans want to look and feel right. We are susceptible to the influence of what others are doing and saying. We spend money on quick fix diets, exercise programs, products and advice.

In the case of nutritional diseases, eating disorders and obesity, there are numerous sources of information and help. Nutritional labeling of products is a step in the right direction, but can leave people bewildered and still uninformed.

Processed foods vs. whole foods is an important topic when considering diet and health. Processed/convenience foods are increasingly replacing meals cooked from scratch at home. Whole foods generally cost as much or more and frequently require more preparation time and skill.

There are many issues to explore here.

Questions:

What are the primary eating disorders and what are their causes?

How do cultural stereotypes and advertising influence people who develop eating disorders?

Did the Terri Shiavo story help inform the public about the issue of eating disorders?

What is the history of dieting fads and which ones are enduring and effective?

What are the main diet help organizations and which ones seem the most cost effective?

Where can I get the most commonsense answers about control?

Do body typing and blood typing explain the most appropriate food choices?

Is body typing or blood typing just the latest fad?

What is the history of nutritional labeling and where can I get it mostly explained?

Is it true our fast food diet leads to obesity, heart disease, diabetes and premature death for more and more Americans?

What are the issues surrounding processed vs. whole Foods?

 

 Sources

Arenson, Gloria. A Substance Called Food: How to Understand, Control and Recover from Addictive Eating. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Tab Books, Inc., 1989.

D'Adamo, Peter J. Eat Right 4 Your Type: The Individualized Diet Solution to Staying Healthy, Living Longer and Achieving Your Ideal Weight. New York, Putnam, 1996.

Mein, Carolyn L. Different Bodies Different Diets. San Diego: Vision Ware Press, 1997.

Powter, Susan. Stop the Insanity! Eat, Breathe and Move. Change the way you look and feel forever. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.

Robbins, John.
Diet for a New America. Walpole, NH. Stillpoint Publishing, 1987.
Reclaiming Our Health. Tiberon, CA. H. J. Kramer. 1996.

Weil, Andrew. 8 Weeks to Optimum Health. New York: Knopf, 1987.

 

Internet

National Eating Disorders Association
NEDA is dedicated to expanding public understanding of eating disorders and promoting access to quality treatment for those affected along with support for their families through education, advocacy and research.

Eating Disorders Coalition
We have identified the following federal policy goals:
Increase resources for research, education, prevention, and improved training. Promote federal support for improved access to care.
Promote the national awareness of eating disorders as a public health problem.
Promote initiatives that support the healthy development of children.

National Institutes of Health: www.nih.gov

American Medical Asso:www.ama-assn.org

Ask Dr. Weil: www.drweil.com

Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust: http://www.oldwayspt.org/pyramids/med/p_med.html
This site offers an alternative to the USDA's food pyramid" by publishing pyramids that focus on different diets: Mediterranean, Latin American, Asian and Vegetarian.

USDA's Food Pyramid

Why Terri Died. The Story Behind the News Story
Schiavo Had an Eating Disorder

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Farm and Farm Labor
(updated August 2005)

Issues covered in this section:

Agribusiness vs. Family Farms

Factory Farms vs. Communities

Shrinking Farmland

Farm Labor History

Agriculture Worker Safety

National Food Security and Transportation

International Case Studies---i.e. Zimbabwe: the clash of two different agricultural systems, white settlers vs. native African.

Gender: Women Farmers in the Third World

 

Overview

Americans are accustomed to paying far less for their food than citizens of most other nations. We may have to re-examine this if we want healthy food, and if we want to preserve a viable family farm tradition and protect the environment.

Low food prices in America are also a factor of the wage structure paid to farm laborers who are often recent immigrants who work more for less.

Internationally, farm and farm labor issues often center more on issues of equality of land distribution, food shortages, inadequate technology transfer, and women doing much of the work.

 

Questions

Corporate vs. Family Farming

Is it inevitable that big replaces small and more efficient operations take over?

What is there about family farms that warrants our concern?

What is the size of agribusiness vs. family farm in terms of US food production?

How do we determine a fair balance between large corporate food production and family farming?

How has the federal government's role since WWII contributed to the troubles of farmers?

What is being done to preserve viable family farm operations?

What is the future of food production in the USA?

Who protects our soil, water and air better? Corporate or family farmers?

 

Sources

Goldberg, Jake. The Disappearing American Farm. New York: Franklin Watts, 1994.

Ulrich, Hugh. Losing Ground: Agricultural Policy and the Decline of the American Farm   Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1989.

 

Shrinking Farmland

Whether corporate or family….are we losing farmland?

What are the factors contributing to shrinking farmland?

What are the implications to our national welfare to have valuable farmland lost to development?

What do we have to show our children about our agricultural heritage?

 

Sources

American Farmland Heritage Trust: www.farmland.org/

Land Stewardship Project
The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) is a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1982 to foster an ethic of stewardship for farmland, to promote sustainable agriculture and to develop sustainable communities.

 

National security issues with major production in the west

What are the facts concerning where the majority of our food comes from?

How did this happen, that a concentration of food production is far from some of our largest metro areas?

What happens when fuel crises threaten transport of foods across the country?

 

Farm Workers/Immigration

What is the history of farm workers in this country? For a long time, we had farm families, slaves or indentured workers doing the work. Now we have hired labor, many of them legal or illegal immigrants from Latin America.

What are the numbers? Who is doing the work?

What is the history of the Farm Labor Movement?

What is being done to help the people who grow our food?

If we enforce our immigration rules strictly, who will do the hard farm work?

What new immigration ideas are developing?

What are the issues concerning ag chemicals and the safety of farm workers?

 

Sources

Atkin, Beth S. Voices from the Fields: Children of Migrant Farmworkers Tell Their Stories. Boston: Little Brown & Co, 1993.

Collins, David. Farmworker's Friend: The Story of Cesar Chavez. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda, 1996.

 

Factory Farms vs. local community environmental quality

What occurs when large poultry or hog farms are established near residential communities?

Isn't it a predictable consequence of trying to fit food production nearer the consumer base?

What are some of the more celebrated case histories that have made the news in recent years?

What is being done to balance the food producers' needs and the local community's environmental quality?

 

International Case Studies

The media recently covered the embattled nation of Zimbabwe in which poor African farmers were depicted as victims of an unequal land distribution system that was a holdover of the colonial era.

Is there more to this story and what are both points of view?

What are the solutions and lessons to be learned from examining this conflict?

Gender: the role of women farmers in the developing world

What is the situation in much of the world in which the primary food producers are female?

What is being done to improve their lot? Access to information, financing and other assistance has been traditionally withheld from women farmers, particularly in Africa.

 

Sources

Creevey, Lucy. Women Farmers in Africa. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1986.

Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. Gender: Key to Sustainability and Food Security. Rome. 1995.

United Nations World Food Program: www.wfp.org/newsroom/

News releases, fact sheets, reports on helping women end hunger and poverty.

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Fast Food
(updated August 2005)

For a definition and brief overview of this issue we quote from Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.

"To a degree both engrossing and alarming, the story of fast food is the story of postwar America. Though created by a handful of mavericks, the fast food industry has triggered the homogenization of our society. Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widening the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled the juggernaut of American cultural imperialism abroad. (From the dust jacket.)

Over the last three decades, fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society. An industry that began with a handful of modest hot dog and hamburger stands in southern California has spread to every corner of the nation, selling a broad range of foods wherever paying customers may be found. Fast food is now served at restaurants and drive-throughs, at stadiums, airports, zoos, high schools, elementary schools, and universities, on cruise ships, trains and airplanes, at K-Marts, Wal-Marts, gas stations, and even at hospital cafeterias. In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food; in 2000, they spent more than $110 billion. Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars. They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music-combined. (From the introduction, page 3.)"

Questions

What are the implications for the economy/minimum wage?

What do employment statistics showing age, educational background and income averages of fast food workers reveal?

What are the fast food health implications in the USA and in nations such as Japan where they are substituting a naturally low fat food tradition with one heavily fat and dairy laden?

What is the status of environmental issues, such as the practice of cutting down rainforests for cattle production for the fast food industry?

What are the implications for multinational corporations developing genetically modified crops such as potatoes for the fast food industry in the US and elsewhere?

What have been the benefits, if any, of fast foods?

What is the impact on our landscapes and lifestyles that we as a society might want to reconsider?

What trends in fast food might be taking us in new, possibly healthier, directions?

Source

 

Spurlock, Morgan. Don't Eat This Book! Fast Food and the Supersizing of America, New York, G.P. Putnam's, 2005

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001. This book contains 60 pages of densely packed notes documenting every section of the book as well as six pages of bibliography.

Gladwell, Malcolm. "The Trouble with Fries: Fast Food is Killing Us. Can it be Fixed?" The New Yorker Magazine. March 5, 2001.

Gladwell describes how in 1990, reacting to the public's concern about the health risks of cholesterol in animal-based cooking oil, McDonald's and other fast food companies switched to frying with hydrogenated vegetable oils that produce a new substance called trans-unsaturated fat. These fats interfere with the body's ability to control cholesterol. In essence, according to some, they replaced a bad cooking oil with a worse one. According to one recent study that involved some 80,000 women, for every 5% increase in the amount of saturated fats that a woman consumes, her risk of heart disease increases by 17%. But only a 2% increase in trans fats that a woman consumes will increase her heart disease risk by 93%. This might be the cause of some 30,000 premature deaths in the US per year, according to the Harvard epidemiologist, Walter Willett, who helped design the study.

McDonalds Corporation: www.mcdonalds.com

Fast Food & Restaurant Knowledge:
The Final Link to Diet Freedom: www.dietriot.com

Links to all the fast food chain restaurants. Includes: Applebee's, Burger King, Chili's, Jack-in -the Box, KFC, Souper Salad, Subway, TacoBell and Wendy's.

The links each include: ingredient list, nutritional counts, and low-fat menus.

Fast Food Facts from Office of Minnesota Attorney General: 

This includes the Food Finder, an interactive entity that matches restaurant items with nutritional values. Also links to books on nutrition and guides for families on how to cook fast food chain items at home, etc.

Center for Science in the Public Interest

One of the original advocacy and research groups focused on  food issues and United States Food & Drug Administration.  It has extensive information and educational programs.

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Food Safety
(updated August 2005)

Overview

Food is fuel for human beings and animals. To keep us healthy and productive, our fuel must be safe, reliable and free from toxins.

Questions

What is the history of food poisoning? There were serious epidemics in all eras.

What are the causes and origins of the food poisonings that have been in the news?

What is the role of government and private food inspection programs?

Are federal meat and other food inspection services getting the funding they need to protect us?

What are some of the most recent cases and what was learned from them?

What is the issue behind irradiation of our foods?

What are the issues involving the safety of food workers?

What is the truth about Mad Cow Disease and its transfer to humans?

What is being done to protect us from this and other food transferred illnesses?

How do Genetically Modified foods fit into all this?

Sources

Fox, Nicholas. Spoiled: The Dangerous Truth about a Food Chain Gone Haywire. NY: HarperCollins, 1997.

Latta, Sara. Food Poisoning and Foodborne Diseases. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 1999.

Matossian, Mary Kilbourne. Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics, and History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.

McCoy, J.J. How Safe is our Food Supply? NY: Franklin Watts, 1990.

Millichap, J. Gordon. Environmental Poisons in our Food. Chicago: PNM Publishers, 1993.

Paladino, Catherine. One Good Apple: Growing Our Food for the Sake of the Earth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

Rhodes, Richard. Deadly Feasts: Tracking the Secrets of a Terrifying New Plague. NY: Simon Schuster, 1997.

Salter, Charles A. Food Risks and Controversies. Brookfield: Millbrook Press, 1993.

Satin, Morton. Food Alert!: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Food Safety. NY: Facts for Life Book, 1999.

Stauber, John. Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?

Websites

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention

Center for Science in Public Interest

Mad Cow Disease sites:

American Meat Industry:www.meatami.com
AMI is the national trade association representing companies that process 70 percent of U.S. meat and poultry and their suppliers throughout America. Headquartered in metropolitan Washington, DC, AMI keeps its fingers on the pulse of legislation, regulation and media activity that impacts the meat and poultry industry and provides rapid updates and analyses to its members to help them stay informed. In addition, AMI conducts scientific research through its Foundation designed to help meat and poultry companies improve their plants and their products. The Institute's many meetings and educational seminars also provide excellent networking and information-sharing opportunities for members of the industry.

Organic Consumers Association: Mad Cow Report
Join tens of thousands of citizens and sign the Mad Cow USA-Stop the Madness petition, demanding that the US Government adopt and enforce the same strict standards required by the European Union and Japan:

Mandatory testing for all cattle brought to slaughter, before they enter the food chain.

Ban the feeding of blood, manure, and slaughterhouse waste to animals.
Stop harassing farmers and food processors who are interested in independently testing their own beef.

www.mad-cow.org
7,651+ articles on mad cow and new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, prions,
bovine spongiform encephalopathy, scrapie, BSE, CJD, CWD, TME, and TSE.
Last Updated: 17 Apr 01 . . a project of the Sperling Biomedical Foundation .

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Globalization
(updated August 2005)

Overview

Shrimp farming is just the latest in a long list of luxury foods produced by poor people in poor nations for export to wealthy nations. Coffee and bananas are two more crops that poor people grow for wealthy people, instead of using their land for food crops of their own. Global companies that produce these crops sometimes pay low wages and seldom spend enough of their profits in the producing communities.

Shrimp farming has become a profitable global enterprise. In the past shrimp was a common item eaten in communities near shrimp fleets. Consumers away from these areas paid premium prices for fresh or frozen shrimp that they ate at special events.

Questions:

Do consumers need to have these items available everywhere all the time?

What are the hidden costs we all face for this convenience?

What are the responsibilities of producers to invest in the communities where they operate?

What is the role of banks, investors, US government, foreign governments, UN, non-profit humanitarian agencies, trade organizations?

Should coastal mangrove areas be protected?

How can local people maintain their traditional access to areas that become privatized production areas?

What role should the producers have in giving back to the communities where they operate?

Sources

Bhagwati, Jagdish. The Wind of the Hundred Days: How Washington Mismanaged Globalization. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000.

Chomsky, Noam. Latin America from Colonialization to Globalization.

Giddens, Anthony. Runaway World. How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives. NY: Routledge, 2000.

Schlosser, Eric. "Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good." The Atlantic Monthly. January 2001.
    A look inside the corporate flavors industry.

Internet

International Forum on Globalization:www.ifg.org/

Starbucks Corporation

Fair Trade Coffee movement: www.purefood.org/Starbucks/starbucks.html

World Trade Organization

International Monetary Fund

World Bank

National Public Radio report on shrimp farming in Ecuador
    Check archives for series on globalization, Feb. 2001, which included this report on shrimp farming

NPR's Morning Edition "Hidden Kitchen" series with reports on the effects of globalization on local foodways.

Confederation Paysanne www.confederationpaysanne.fr/
    This French progressive farmers' union was responsible for vandalizing a McDonald's restaurant in Millau, France as a protest over globalization of food. Jose Bove, one of its members, has become an international spokesman on this issue.

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Healing & Food (Food as Medicine)

Overview

Traditionally Western trained physicians have not been conversant with the role of food's effect on the body. However, it has a long history in other medical traditions. Increasingly our medical schools are providing more courses focused on the connections between food choices and health. This has led to a movement that strives to integrate Western and Eastern healing approaches.

Healing the Whole Person: A Guide to Alternative Medicine by Almut Zieher describes this growing interest.  We quote extensively from this source.

"These days, many people are turning to a variety of holistic health care options to complement or supplement their primary care physicians. More and more, however, holistic health care is gaining credibility within the medical profession. The National Institutes of Health, for example, has a division that exclusively studies alternative practitioners and healers. Medical researchers at institutions like the Mayo Clinic and the medical center at UCLA have also studied alternative medical practices such as the laying on of hands, homeopathics and energy medicine. You will find, too, that some medical doctors and licensed chiropractors who have grown dissatisfied for various reasons with standard medical practices, now offer alternative therapies that diverge from what they were taught in school. Holistic health care at its most effective addresses all of the body systems (including the mental, emotional, physical and energetic aspects), whereas Western medicine usually addresses the body, one part or one symptom at a time."

"Most practitioners of holistic health care hold the basic belief that the body naturally tries to maintain or regain health. The main role of the holistic practitioner, then, is to assist nature in that healing process. With this perspective treatment generally does not consist of fighting or killing diseases. Instead, holistic health care involves supporting, nourishing and balancing the body, and its systems, so the body becomes less susceptible to disease so that most illnesses pass quickly and with minimal impact."

"The theory is that if the body is strong, healthy and well nourished, it will have the energy to fight off many diseases and heal efficiently. For example, a client may be advised to follow a very specific diet to maintain health. In holistic health much more emphasis is placed on the responsibility we each have for our own health. The practitioner's job is to educate and support us in taking care of our own health needs. Because our mindset, our diet and our general lifestyle play a major role in our health, it is critical that we each actively participate in our own health care."

"The following are brief descriptions of the three modalities often considered to be complete health care systems. They feature diet in addressing a complete spectrum of chronic and acute health issues, and can be effectively used as preventative health care. These traditions are: Ayurveda and Oriental or Chinese Medicine."

    These descriptions are from the same source as above.

"Ayurveda is an ancient system that was developed and still extensively used in India. This medicinal art basically proposes that each of us begins life with a unique, yet balanced, constitution, which is altered over time due to our environment and lifestyle. Often our bodies are unable to function as efficiently as could be possible. The practitioner of Ayurveda determines your current constitution and your original, balanced constitution by using several techniques. These can include feeling your pulse, looking at your tongue and eyes, making a physical examination, taking a urine analysis, observing your complexion and physical structure, and asking questions about moods, personality traits, and physical qualities. Once the practitioner determines what your original and current constitutions are, he or she will create an individualized care routine. The practitioner will probably discuss how different foods, spices and life style practices affect your constitution and will make dietary and lifestyle recommendations."

"According to Oriental Medicine there is a basic energy that flows through and fuels the body called ki. (pronounced "chee") It runs through energy pathways within the body. When the energy is not able to flow properly through these pathways, or when it is excessive or insufficient in certain areas, then ill health or pain occurs. A Doctor of Oriental Medicine (DOM) will treat you using acupuncture and Chinese herbs. A DOM observes the traits of each client. He or she looks at your tongue and eyes, feels your pulse and asks questions about your complaints and history in order to understand how your body's energy is moving through the pathways."

"The role of food as therapy is described in a chapter in Chinese Medicine: The complete guide to acupressure, acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, food cures and Qi Gong by Dr. Duo Gao."

"Throughout history of Oriental or Chinese Medicine, doctors have recommended different kinds of foods as treatments for their patient's ills. In every dynasty, food preparations have been noted as one of the essential therapies. In the case of asthma, for instance, the doctor determines whether the asthma is cold type, hot type or phlegm-damp type. If the asthma is a cold type, then the doctor might recommend warm or hot types of food, such as fresh ginger and green onion, especially if the weather is cold outside. If the asthma is a hot type, perhaps occurring during the summer, the patient might need a cold type of food, such as watermelon, to help eliminate the heat. A prescribed diet can be used not only for treating diseases, but can also maintain a person's good health."

"Chinese medicine divides foods into three categories: Yin, Yang and neutral."

"Foods that are cool or cold in nature are Yin foods, such as cucumber, pear, watermelon, mung bean, chrysanthemum flower or water chestnut. These foods clear away heat from the blood and remove poison."

"Foods that are hot or warm in nature are yang foods, such as pepper, onion, Chinese green onion, fresh ginger, mutton, and walnut kernels. This type of food has the function of warming the interior as well as dispelling cold to treat the symptoms linked with excess Yin."

"The third kind of food is neutral in nature. Since neutral foods, such as strawberry and lemon, do not influence any hot or cold syndromes in the body, they are useful when it is unclear whether one's condition is primarily cold or warm.'

"The flavor of a food influences both the type of action it has in the body and which organ or organs it acts upon."

Questions:

Are we what we eat?

How do different medical traditions heal with food and diets?

I've heard of integrated medicine. What is it?

What are the facts concerning the controversy over treatment of certain cancers through diet?

How is it that medical insurance pays for treatment after we are sick, but doesn't if we use alternative holistic treatments that help us stay healthy in the first place?

Sources

Carper, Jean. Food-Your Miracle Medicine: How Food Can Prevent and Cure over 100 Symptoms and Problems. NY: HarperCollins, 1993.

Colbin, Annemarie. Food and Healing: How What You Eat Determines Your Health, Your Well Being and the Quality of Your Life. NY: Ballantine Books, 1996.

Gao, Duo. Chinese Medicine: The Complete Guide. NY: Thunders Mouth Press, 1997.

Specter, Michael. "The Outlaw Doctor: Should Cancer Researchers Take Him Seriously?" The New Yorker Magazine, February 5, 2001.  
    (This is an article about Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez' success treating cancer patients with a controversial combination of diets, purges and massive doses of supplements. His treatments developed out of the work of William Donald Kelley.)

Weil, Andrew, M.D. Eight Weeks to Optimum Health. NY Knopf. 1997.

 

Internet

www.ayurveda.com

National Institutes of Health

Ask Dr. Weil

Alternative healing links

Whole Person Healing

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Hunger, Famine, Population and Biodiversity

Overview

"The greatest challenge we face is how are we going to feed a growing population and maintain a healthy environment?" Dr. John Niederhauser, winner of the 1992 World Food Prize.

This section deals with the historical record of failure of the food supply or the politics of food distribution to feed masses of people resulting in famine and migration.

It also focuses on the politics of hunger, which appear to be based on income level and station in life rather than availability of food stocks.

The issues in this section include:

Famine

Hunger and Population

The role nutrition plays in evolution

Biodiversity

Forgotten crops and their role in feeding the world

Public food assistance/food banks, etc.

Famine

Famines and near famines have occurred on all continents and throughout history. Some of the worst in modern times include:

--The famines of NE Africa in the 1980's

--Biafra in the '60's

--Cambodia in the '70's

--Many Chinese famines including the one after The Great Leap Forward between 1958 and 1962,

--The Stalin era famine in the Soviet Union, esp. in Ukraine,

--The Seige of Leningrad during WWII.

Questions

What are the lessons we can learn from historic famines?

Are there any similarities in the origins of famines in recent history?

What is being done to avoid future famines?

Sources

Becker, Jasper. Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine: the first full account of the tragedy that claimed over 30 million victims. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
    (This book contains a chapter devoted to the anatomy of hunger or starving to death and describes what exactly happens to famine victims.)

Dolot, Miron. Execution by Hunger: Survivors of Ukraine Famine in 1932.

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Hunger & Population Growth

Overview

Most people would agree with George McGovern that hunger is "a political condition." So as with anything political, there is a near endless amount of controversy regarding this issue.

McGovern has been the US ambassador to the UN Agencies on Food and Agriculture for the Clinton administration. His book The Third Freedom: Ending Hunger in Our Time is the latest call for action on this subject. Here are some excerpts from his introduction:

Hunger is a political condition. The earth has enough knowledge and resources to eradicate this ancient scourge. Hunger has plagued the world for thousands of years. But ending it is a greater moral imperative now than ever before, because for the first time humanity has the instruments in hand to defeat this cruel enemy at a very reasonable cost. We have the ability to provide food for all within the next three decades. When I ran for the presidency in 1972, 35 percent of the world's people were hungry. By 1996, while the global population had expanded, only 17 percent of the earth's people were hungry---half the percentage of three decades ago.

Here are the basic points of his plan to end world hunger:
(Taken from the book's dust jacket.)

• The US should take the lead within the UN in working toward a universal school lunch program.
• The American supplemental nutrition program for low-income women, infants and children should go worldwide.
• The UN must establish food reserves around the globe.
• Developing countries must be assisted in improving their own farm production, food processing and food distribution.
• High yielding, scientific agriculture, including genetically modified crops, must be further encouraged and developed.