Looking back at year of progress for food system
When I look back on what's happened since, say, 1980, I see enormous improvement in the foods available in supermarkets and in schools, the availability of organic and locally grown food, and public interest in everything about food, from taste to politics.
Once final, these rules will go a long way toward requiring food producers to take measures to ensure safety, and giving the FDA the authority to make sure they do.
The next steps will be to bring the U.S. Department of Agriculture's authority in line with the FDA's, and to develop a single food safety agency that combines the functions of both.
The FDA has called on drug companies to voluntarily agree to stop using medically important antibiotics to promote growth in farm animals and to require a veterinarian's prescription when using these drugs to treat, prevent or control animal disease.
[...] the FDA has taken the first step toward banning antibiotics for anything but therapeutic purposes, an impressive achievement given current political realities.
Despite intense and well-organized opposition by its soda, sugar and small-business industries, the Mexican government passed a 1-peso-per-liter tax on soft drinks and an 8 percent tax on junk foods.
By agricultural coexistence, the USDA means peaceful relations between quite different farming systems - industrial and GMO versus organic and sustainable.
Peaceful coexistence would be a lot easier if GMO pollen didn't drift onto organic crops, if Congress supported sustainable agriculture in proportion to its size, and if the ag-biotech industry didn't dismiss cooperation out of hand.
About 85 food and nutrition advocacy groups put their differences aside to jointly question mayoral candidates on their views about food problems facing city residents.
University of California Press released the 10th anniversary edition of Food Politics, and Rodale Books issued Eat, Drink, Vote: