Hello everyone,
You may have noticed I’ve taken a blogging hiatus while the new store website was being designed. I used that time to receive input on how to improve the blog. Thanks to many of you who shared your ideas with me.
The FOOD ADVOCATE blog is back up. As always, please email me whenever you have blog topics, thoughts and suggestions. Also, please be sure to sign up to get email notices when a new blog is posted. Thanks for your support. Let’s get back to blogging!
Michelle Obama and the GMO Hoax: Some of you may have seen the faux announcement last week that First Lady Michelle Obama had endorsed a public campaign to promote genetically modified foods as being healthy for children. There was quite an outcry in social media and in natural food related blogs. It turns out it was a hoax that caused many well respected sites and bloggers to issue apologies to the First Lady. Although President Obama campaigned that he would push for labeling for foods containing GMO, he has not done so and many claim he has helped GMO food manufacturers, like Monsanto, in various ways. So the groundwork was set for this hoax. I admit when I read it, I thought it was plausible. Here is the full explanation and an apology from Natural News (one of many in the blogsphere).
New Federal Rules For Poultry Inspection: For those of you who eat chicken and turkey, please take note. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced new rules last week, based on its proposed regulation from January 2012 and subsequent public comments. The official USDA press release is here. Consumer groups view the new rules as industry deregulation, to allow faster line speeds which are claimed to be unsafe to workers and for inspection purposes. The rules also shift the responsibility to plant employees for inspection, as the USDA has phased out a large number of its own inspectors. For two varying perspectives on these new rules see The Hill and The Wall Street Journal.
Organic Food is Healthier: Back in 2012, researchers at Stanford University made the claim that organic food is not healthier than conventional food. See this article on the Huffington Post. However, last month the British Journal of Nutrition published a research article that reviewed 343 studies on this topic and (as you may have guessed) concluded that organic food is healthier than conventional food. According to the research article, organic food has higher concentrations of antioxidants and conventional food has higher level of toxins. For a summary of this article see the recent LA Times article here.
Kirk Schroder / Food Advocate / foodadvocate@ellwoodthompsons.com