Testing recipe writers

No, you’re not a slow cook

May 15, 2012

You’re just being lied to. »

Coupon economics

But no food politics

May 14, 2012

Sure, you can save thousands at the store, but what about in the long run? »

Calling out endocrine disruptors

Nicholas Kristof takes up the cause

May 11, 2012

Once upon a time, the Food and Drug Administration declared that bisphenol A, a chemical used in plastics, was perfectly safe. By 2010, the FDA had decided that perhaps BPA was worrisome.

Now here we are in 2012, with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof chastising the FDA for refusing to ban not just BPA but its entire chemical class, known as endocrine disruptors. As Kristof pointed out, even if the feds are refusing to follow the science, the scientists themselves aren’t:

Scientists who know endocrine disruptors best overwhelmingly are already taking steps to protect their families. John Peterson Myers, chief scientist at Environmental Health Sciences . . . said that his family had stopped buying canned food. “We don’t microwave in plastic,” he added. “We don’t use pesticides in our house. I refuse receipts whenever I can. My default request at the A.T.M., known to my bank, is ‘no receipt.’ I never ask for a receipt from a gas station.”

The pro-meaters

The winners are in

May 9, 2012

Most surprising? Ingrid Newkirk embraces meat. »

The new GMO corn opposition

On farming as well as health grounds

May 8, 2012

Food activists have been challenging Dow’s 2,4-D corn — the latest iteration of GM corn — for several months now on various grounds: the belief that GM foods should be labeled as such, or the evidence that the corn could cause health problems.

Now farmers are joining the protest movement, on the basis that the new corn, which is engineered to be resistant to the herbicide 2,4-D, will naturally lead to an increase in the use of the herbicide and cause non-resistant crops to suffer. As Andrew Pollack noted in the New York Times,

The Save Our Crops Coalition, as it calls itself, says it is not opposed to biotechnology. But it fears that fruits and vegetables, which will not be immune to 2,4-D, will become unintended casualties of herbicide drift as the chemical is sprayed on tens of millions of acres of corn.

Mad cow disease in the news

Is the latest case of the disease cause for alarm?

May 7, 2012

That depends on whom you ask. »

Snacktastic

Kellogg’s expands into snacks

May 4, 2012

And takes aim globally. »

The mercury mess

Is it really related to developmental disorders?

May 3, 2012

Our ongoing autism fears. »

Freedom milk

All about the raw-milk battle

May 2, 2012

Dana Goodyear’s reporting, plus Dan Barber’s take. »