Food in the News/ by Shelley Lance, Blog Editor
Marion Nestle, on her terrific blog, Food Politics, which is located under “Blog Buddies” to your right, reports on Michelle Obama’s speech to the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), telling them to “stop fattening our children.” Nestle gives Mrs. Obama high marks for a speech which “gets the issues loud and clear.” For a brief example, Michelle said: “We need you not just to tweak around the edges, but to entirely rethink the products that you’re offering, the information that you provide about these products, and how you market those products to our children.”
Unfortunately, as Nestle says, ” the GMA is a tough audience for messages about childhood obesity.” Though GMA members applauded Mrs. Obama’s speech, the GMA claims that “its members are already doing what she asked.” Nestle details the not very impressive steps GMA members are planning.
Last Friday’s New York Times business section had a good article called “A Growing Discontent: Rapid Rise in Seed Prices Draws Government Scrutiny,” by William Neuman. Apparently, price increases for seeds “the most important purchase a farmer makes each year- are part of an unprecedented climb that began more than a decade ago, stemming from the advent of genetically engineered crops and the rapid concentration in the seed industry that accompanied it.” Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department began an antitrust investigation last year “with an apparant focus on Monsanto, which controls much of the market for the expensive bioengineered traits that make crops resistant to insect pests and insecticides.” To give you an idea of the jump in prices: “Agriculture Department figures show that corn seed prices have risen 135% since 2001. Soy bean prices went up 108%. By contrast, the Consumer Price Index rose only 20% in that period.”
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