By Sara Novak
Sat Apr 16, 2011 08:00

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Throughout elementary school my mom wouldn’t ever let me buy lunch at school. It’s not that it was too expensive, because at just over $1.00 per lunch, it was downright cheap. But rather, my mom felt the meals were unhealthy and who could blame her from wanting to control my intake of chicken fingers, microwave pizzas, and chocolate milk?Considering my childhood, it seemed a bit counterintuitive that one Chicago school banned the brown bag lunch altogether.

According to a story in the Chicago Tribune, Little Village Academy on Chicago’s West Side, banned packed lunches from home. Unless students have a medical excuse, they must eat the food served in the cafeteria.

Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to avoid the unhealthy lunches that students may bring.

Read More: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/chicago-school-bans-the-brown-bag-lunch.html

Leo Galland, M.D.

Practicing physician, author and leader in integrated medicine.

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Posted: 04/26/11 08:30 AM ET

Could a traditional food have pain- and inflammation-reducing effects similar to over the counter pain medicine like ibuprofen?

Scientists from Italy, Spain, the U.S. and Australia have discovered that extra virgin olive oil can provide significant health benefits, including the ability to help reduce pain and inflammation.

This robust, flavorful oil is an example of the food as medicine concept, that foods can have a powerful impact on health.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-galland-md/olive-oil-painkiller-natural-painki_b_850299.html

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DES MOINES, Iowa — An organics watchdog group’s criticism of a cereal company that describes its products as “all natural” is the latest in the debate about whether the term is being used to confuse consumers or simply give them more information.

The Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute recently filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against Hearthside Food Solutions, makers of Peace Cereal. It claims the Eugene, Ore.-based company promotes its cereals as being made with pesticide-free ingredients when they’re not.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/07/organic-advocates-fight-all-natural-labels_n_832308.html

What was the purpose of Earth Day? How did it start? These are the questions I am most frequently asked.

Actually, the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For several years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. Finally, in November 1962, an idea occurred to me that was, I thought, a virtual cinch to put the environment into the political “limelight” once and for all. The idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour. I flew to Washington to discuss the proposal with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who liked the idea. So did the President. The President began his five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963. For many reasons the tour did not succeed in putting the issue onto the national political agenda. However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day.

I continued to speak on environmental issues to a variety of audiences in some twenty-five states. All across the country, evidence of environmental degradation was appearing everywhere, and everyone noticed except the political establishment. The environmental issue simply was not to be found on the nation’s political agenda. The people were concerned, but the politicians were not.

After President Kennedy’s tour, I still hoped for some idea that would thrust the environment into the political mainstream. Six years would pass before the idea that became Earth Day occurred to me while on a conservation speaking tour out West in the summer of 1969. At the time, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, called “teach-ins,” had spread to college campuses all across the nation. Suddenly, the idea occurred to me – why not organize a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment?

I was satisfied that if we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda. It was a big gamble, but worth a try.

At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, I announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air – and they did so with spectacular exuberance. For the next four months, two members of my Senate staff, Linda Billings and John Heritage, managed Earth Day affairs out of my Senate office.

Five months before Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the astonishing proliferation of environmental events:

“Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation’s campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam…a national day of observance of environmental problems…is being planned for next spring…when a nationwide environmental ‘teach-in’…coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned….”

It was obvious that we were headed for a spectacular success on Earth Day. It was also obvious that grassroots activities had ballooned beyond the capacity of my U.S. Senate office staff to keep up with the telephone calls, paper work, inquiries, etc. In mid-January, three months before Earth Day, John Gardner, Founder of Common Cause, provided temporary space for a Washington, D.C. headquarters. I staffed the office with college students and selected Denis Hayes as coordinator of activities.

Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.

First Posted: 04/14/11 09:00 AM ET Updated: 04/14/11 02:24 PM ET

Illinois could become only the second state in the country to ban an unhealthy type of fats, if a bill passed by the State House becomes law.

Trans fats are found in high amounts in artificial substances like partially hydrogenated oils, and have been linked with higher levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol and coronary heart disease. They are currently banned in New York City, Montgomery County, Maryland, and a few other local governments around the country. If House Bill 1600 goes through the Illinois legislature, the state will join California, whose ban has been effective since January 2010.

La Shawn Ford, a Democratic state representative from Chicago who sponsored the ban, was thrilled at its passage. “I feel like this is a great step in the right direction,” she said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “Health problems cost our state so much money and if we can use prevention to keep people out of emergency rooms and keep them healthy this is a step in that direction.”

The ban would not be complete, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch explains. For instance, the rule wouldn’t apply immediately to bakeries in the state, which are heavy users of trans fats. And school cafeterias are also exempt, as legislators worried that budget cuts would make it hard for schools to conform quickly to the new law.

All other vendors, though — restaurants, movie theaters, vending machines — would be forced to comply with the rule by January 1, 2013, if the Senate passes the bill and Governor Pat Quinn signs it.

The bill also exempts naturally-occurring trans fats in foods like pomegranates, cabbage, peas, and milk, where they occur in very small amounts.

With little fanfare, it passed the House by a vote of 73-43. It now heads to the Senate for debate.

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Apr 18th 2011 @ 11:00AM

MICHAEL J. CRUMB 04/ 4/11 03:34 AM ET  

DES MOINES, Iowa — Farmers and ethanol producers have braced for what they expect could be widespread criticism as corn prices are rising rapidly and other food costs are following.

A similar increase five years ago generated a storm of criticism, with many in the food industry blaming the ethanol industry for buying up corn that could be used for food and faulting farmers for capitalizing on the higher prices. Many farmers and ethanol producers worried then the complaints would force a change in agriculture and energy policies and fewer subsidies for their industries, but prices came down and that didn’t happen.

Now, they’re concerned again as corn prices rose even higher last week following an announcement that U.S. farmers are planting the second largest corn crop since 1944, but it won’t be enough to meet growing worldwide demand. Corn has traded at more than $7 a bushel this month, more than double last summer’s $3.50, and many traders say it could pass the record $7.65 set in 2008.

But experts say those prices have little to do with what shoppers pay at the grocery store, and farmers and ethanol producers aren’t responsible for recent increases in the cost of groceries.

“It’s a whole slew of things that have influenced that price,” said Chad Hart, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University. He ticked off some of them: “When you look at the cost of our food, it is related to the cost of corn, soybeans and wheat and cattle but also the cost of oil, gas, diesel and unrest in other parts of the world.”

All of those factors mean consumers may have more to complain about for a while. Corinne Alexander, an agriculture economist from Purdue University, predicted food inflation will average between 4 percent and 4 1/2 percent this year. Normal food inflation is about 2 1/2 percent, she said.

“We are going to enter that world again where folks are getting squeezed and they want an explanation for it,” she said.

Rick Tolman, chief executive of the National Corn Growers Association, said his group has already begun to hear complaints aimed at farmers that are similar to those expressed in 2006 and 2007, when congressional hearings on commodity prices and market speculation were held. He said the criticism is unfounded.

“(Corn) prices went up in 2006-07 and food prices followed and corn prices came down and we see didn’t see food companies lower their prices,” he said.

Scott Faber, a spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, disputed that, saying food prices declined last year as a result of commodity prices falling the year before.

“Some products are much more sensitive to increases in corn prices, including meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products,” he said. “For some products, you see it fairly quickly and see an equally quick decrease and for other products the lag time is longer.”

Tolman said one problem is that there’s more speculation in the corn market – in which people base investments on what they think the market will do in the future – than there should be. But, he said, that’s not farmers’ fault.

Alexander agreed, saying poor weather last year led to a smaller harvest than expected and, with demand high and reserves at their lowest level in 15 years, commodity prices rose. But farmers don’t control that, she said.

“No individual farmer can control the price he receives for his crop,” she said. “That’s determined by global supply and demand factors.”

Ethanol producers acknowledge they’ve increased demand for corn but say it’s not enough to affect food prices.

Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association, said the ethanol industry only uses about 25 percent of the nation’s corn supply. He said he believes much of the criticism he has heard is because most people don’t understand what goes into the prices of groceries.

“Ethanol has increased demand for corn, but the lion’s share of the responsibility for rising food prices has to do with volatile energy prices,” Hartwig said. “It is the price of energy, oil, gas, diesel, that makes what you buy at the store more expensive.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture report released last month that broke down where each dollar spent on groceries goes. Farmers received an average of 11.6 cents per dollar in 2008, the latest year data was available. That was down from 13 1/2 cents 10 years ago and from 14 1/2 cents in 1993, the USDA report showed.

The rest of the money goes to processing, packaging, transportation, retail trade and food service, which includes any place that prepares meals, snacks and beverages for immediate consumption including deli counters and in-store salad bars. The share going to each category has declined some, except for food service which now gets 33.7 cents of every dollar spent, the USDA reported.

“While the commodity and food prices have been going up, the share going back to the farmer has been going down,” Hart said.