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January 25, 2011 - 12:02pm

Food-Industry 'Clarity in Labeling': Better, But Not Clear Enough

By Marion Nestle in Food News Blog

I listened in on the conference call at which the Grocery Manufacturers of America and the Food Marketing Institute announced their new Nutrition Keys design for front-of-package labels. [Editor's note: Read our other coverage of the announcement here and here.] My favorite comment: We are all "singing kumbaya" here. Nutrition Keys, they said...

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January 18, 2011 - 4:01pm

Fixing Food Safety: What the Government Should Change

By Marion Nestle in Food News Blog

Bill Marler, the food safety lawyer in Seattle, is asking for responses to the question, "If you had a magic wand, how would you fix the food safety system?"

I've been mulling over his question in light of the recent enactment of the food safety bill, as yet unfunded. Magic wand in hand, here's what I'd do:

Create a single food safety agency: the new law is designed to fix the FDA. It does nothing to fix the USDA's food safety functions. These remain divided between the two agencies, with USDA responsible for the safety of meat and poultry, and FDA responsible...

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January 18, 2011 - 9:35am

USDA Starts Working on New School Food Standards

By Marion Nestle in Food News Blog

The USDA announced last week that it is starting the interminable rulemaking process for new nutrition standards for school breakfasts and lunches. The new standards are designed to add more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat-free and low-fat milk to school meals.

These are food-based standards. The lengthy Federal Register notice (...

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January 11, 2011 - 2:33pm

Breakthrough on Modified Crops: USDA Understands the Threat

By Marion Nestle in Food News Blog

The USDA seems to be paving the way for approval of genetically modified (GM) alfalfa with pleas for coexistence and cooperation. These will be needed. Organic alfalfa is the mainstay of organic animal feed. Organic standards exclude GM. But pollen from GM alfalfa transmits GM genes to organic alfalfa.

In releasing the Environmental Impact Statement on GM alfalfa, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack used Cold War rhetoric:

...

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January 11, 2011 - 2:32pm

U.S. Diplomats Promote Genetically Modified Crops Abroad

By Marion Nestle in Food News Blog

I'm still catching up on what happened during the weeks I was out of Internet contact, so I've only just heard about the Wikileaked diplomatic cable about U.S. food biotechnology policies.

In December 2007, the U.S. Ambassador to France, Craig Robert Stapleton, wrote the White House to demand retaliation against European Union countries that refused to allow...

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