“Just Label It”, an anti-gmo organization funded by the organic industry and founded by the chairman of an organic yogurt company, has put out a cute video demonstrating how difficult it would be for mothers to use their smart phones to identify products with GMOs in them using a QR code. [node:read-more:link]
A program to put food grown by Pennsylvania farmers into the charitable food system that was established six years ago — but never funded — will finally get off the ground thanks to first-ever funding through the 2015-16 state budget. Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding announced April 12 the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank as the winning bidder to implement the program, known as the Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System. The commonwealth’s final budget makes $1 million available to implement the program statewide. [node:read-more:link]
Consumer demand is helping many start-ups pull off a successful launch, even in an industry notoriously difficult to crack because of competition from large retailers. Take Thrive Market, a Los Angeles start-up that sells specialty organic food and beauty products. The online grocer garnered $10 million in sales after just 17 months from its launch - a stunning rate of growth - that has surprised its founders and investors, as well as execs across the food industry. [node:read-more:link]
Companies like Whole Foods are betting customers will pay more for unhurried maturing of birds.The U.S. chicken industry has spent decades figuring out how to grow its birds fast. Now, some of its customers are looking for producers willing to slow things down.A typical commercial chicken has been bred to grow to twice the size of birds from 50 years ago, in around half the time. The faster pace has meant big savings and fatter profits for the meatpackers that raise them. But companies such as Whole Foods Market Inc. and Starbucks Corp. [node:read-more:link]
An investigation has been set in motion by the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) into Dole Food Co. over a Listeria outbreak linked to packaged salads. The outbreak sickened 33 in the U.S. and Canada, and four people died. [node:read-more:link]
The legal case focuses on chemicals used in the farming process.
PepsiCo’s Quaker Oats is facing a potential class-action lawsuit that alleges the food brand’s claims it is “100% Natural” are deceptive. [node:read-more:link]
Patrons at soup kitchens and food pantries probably don’t realize it, but depending on the day, they may be dining on some of the region’s most expensively produced fare—meat and vegetables from Dan Colen, a Hudson Valley farmer who donates his entire output to several local food banks.
Mr. Colen, a New York artist better known for his big-ticket paintings and sculptures, spent $215,000 last year operating his spread, putting out 10,000 pounds of meat, chicken and eggs, along with 14,500 pounds of fruit and vegetables. [node:read-more:link]
The levels of multidrug resistant strains of salmonella in raw chicken and turkey products that consumers purchase at the grocery store have declined since 2011, the FDA said Thursday in a report based on samples taken from January 2014 to June 2015. Twenty percent of the chicken the agency tested contained salmonella resistant to more than one antibiotic, compared to 45 percent in 2011, while the rate of antibiotic resistant bacteria in turkey has fallen from 50 percent to 36 percent during the same time frame. [node:read-more:link]
A federal judge in California has dismissed, with prejudice, a lawsuit filed against Whole Foods by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, alleging that the high-end “natural” and organic food retailer is deceiving consumers with its claims of “humane” treatment of the animals from which Whole Foods derives its meat products. [node:read-more:link]
Advocates of mandatory GMO labeling claim they are simply fighting for consumers’ right to decide for themselves. This is misleading. Consumers who really care can already “decide for themselves.” Simple instructions on avoiding GMOs are available from many sources, such as Whole Food’s website. And there are at least 10 apps designed to inform consumers on which foods contain GMOs and which do not. [node:read-more:link]
