Food Labeling News: Whole Foods says it will label GM food

In Week 3, we covered GMOs, and so we know that U.S. regulatory bodies treat genetically modified food as "substantially equivalent" to non-GM food.  Therefore, unlike Europe, there is no requirement in the U.S. for GM labels.

According to Nation of Change,

Whole Foods Market (WFM) is being praised in the media for announcing that it will become the first U.S. grocery chain to require that genetically engineered (GE) foods in its stores be labeled, by 2018.

The whole story from Nation of Change is here.  And you should read it yourself and decide if the story has any biases to it.  Spoiler alert:  They think Whole Foods should adopt thiss policy soon than 2018.  You can also read Whole Foods' announcement direction from their web site here.

Another good reason to read it:  Next week -- Week 10, we will be talking about food labeling in class!

Week 7: The Role of Agribusiness in Food Systems

Agribusiness

Agribusiness is a field that integrates the business and economic sectors with food systems, food processing and farming. This overarching term encapsulates the corporations or businesses that impact the farming, machinery used in farming, agrichemicals, food processing, seed distribution ect. 

The practice of acquiring processed food products and distributing them is a large undertaking and involves interactions between many organizations. The United States government regulates large and small Agribusinesses and they are subject to EPA, OSHA, FDA and USDA regulations. These Agribusinesses also work hand in hand with farmers and larger distributors to transport and supply food all across the United States. 

                                      AGRIBUSINESS

http://www.secomsf.org/subpage.php?page=45

Corporations

Large agribusinesses impact the food systems in the U.S. greatly and provide the U.S. with many food staples. A large issue that some people have with large agribusinesses is that they dominate the market and control too much of the U.S. Ag sector. This is often an issue for these companies and result in court cases between farmers and the large corporation. These large corporations are often competing with smaller ones or small family run farmers who cannot keep up. 

Are small family farms and home gown products something of the past?

http://www.vintaga.com/Posters/World-War-I-United-States/19800947_NgfDBW/1556184700_VkzPsV2#!i=1556184700&k=VkzPsV2&lb=1&s=A

Dow AgroSciences
This corporation produce insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, fumigants, nitrogen stabilizers, seeds, traits and oils. Pest management on an individual farm basis is important in order to ensure that crops can stay viable for food processing. They use biotechnology and genetics to increase meal quality, drought tolerance and herbicide tolerance. Dow AgroSciences largest competitors are DuPont, Monsanto and Bayer CropScience AG and it has an annual sales figure of 758.9 million dollars. This competition is important when viewing the relationship between large agribusinesses. 

DuPont
Another large Ag company which competes with the aforementioned Dow AgroSciences is DuPont. They also manufacture genetically modified seeds and research crop management. They control the Pioneer company which distributes a large variety of grains such as corn, alfalfa, soybeans, rice and cotton. This company is very large and is involved in many industries including agriculture. 

Monsanto
Another large agribusiness, which has been in the media lately because of court cases, is Monsanto. These court cases involve the company and small farming productions which inadvertently used Monsanto genetically modified seeds to grow crops. This company has annual sales of 13,504 million dollars and is a company that focuses on genetically modified crops such as corn, cotton and oilseed. Most famously this company is known for creating roundup ready corn and soybeans which are resistant to the herbicide Roundup. 

ADM
Archer Daniels Midland company is a food processing company which processes corn, soybeans, wheat, cocoa and animal feed to name a few. ADM's largest competitors is Cargill and Ingredion which also process these agricultural products. ADM has a yearly annual sale of 89 billion dollars and is one of the world's largest producer of agricultural commodities. 

John Deere 
Another large Agribusiness which deals with the machinery part of agriculture  This business impacts the world of Food Processing because the amount of time and money extracting crops from the field changes how much the farmers are being paid by these large food manufactures. John Deere is one of the largest and most well know agricultural machinery producer. 

http://www.hutchpost.com/2012/10/30/adm-releases-earnings-report/

http://mascusblog.com/2012/02/07/more-used-john-deere-equipment-coming-to-mascus/http://abid-hussain.blogspot.com/2010/10/at-its-low-at-last-agrochemical-major.html

http://the.jhu.edu/hccn/2011/09/03/dupont-early-career-engineer-2/

http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/Pages/logo-download.aspx

Are these companies beneficial or detrimental to the U.S. Food System?

Large agribusiness are needed to create a large volume of product at a fast pace but they can force smaller producers out of the marketplace as well as hurt small family farm operations. These large corporations supply smaller food manufactures and take a lot of the control away from consumers in regards to genetically modified crops. These businesses can be seen as the antithesis of traditional farming and food production and are often called corporate farming. Since a few companies control a large percentage of the market it is seen as monopolizing the market and creating price fixation for certain agricultural products. Some other arguments against these companies are that they focus heavily on the use of chemicals and artificially changing crops to increase yield. Smaller family farms or home gardens may be too difficult for the U.S. to sustain our growing need so large scale agribusiness is American's solution. 

http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/fact-sheets/how-corporate-control-squeezes-out-small-farms-8589942044

Food Safety Follow Up: Criminal Charges in the Salmonella in Peanut Butter Case

From NPR:

Four former executives from Peanut Corp. of America and a related company are facing federal criminal charges for covering up information that their peanut butter was contaminated with salmonella bacteria.

The charges are related to a nationwide outbreak of salmonella back in 2009. More than 700 people became ill, and federal investigators traced the source of the bacteria to peanut butter manufactured in Blakely, Ga., by the Peanut Corp. of America. The company is no longer in business.

More here:  link.

Organic tomatoes healthier?

NPR is reporting results from a new study that's good news for organic tomatoes:

A new study published in the journal PLOS ONE finds that tomatoes grown on organic farms were about 40 percent smaller than conventionally grown tomatoes. The upside? They pack more of a nutritional punch. The researchers found the organic tomatoes had significantly higher levels of vitamin C, sugar and lycopene.

Go here for the full story:  link.

Food Safety Part 2: Salmonella Recal Deemed Unnecessary

Blogger had trouble with Deanna's blog entry.  So I rebuilt it and split out the Salmonella recall story (below).  Fingers crossed: let's see if this works.  (--T.J.)

Salmonella Recal Deemed Unnecessary in Oregon and Washington. There was no recall for the salmonella outbreak in Oregon and Washington because there were no deaths and most people blamed it on the consumers rather than the poultry company. I agree that a recall in this situation was deemed unnecessary. If the chicken was sold under faulty conditions or became contaminated in the feed lot, then the poultry company would be to blame. The article states that salmonella is common in all chicken, not just Foster Farm products. This further proves that a recall was unnecessary for this outbreak. I agree that it must have been lack of education of food safety on the consumers’ end. A lot of people do not know how to wash their hands properly after touching meat.

Also, carelessly throwing raw poultry into a shopping cart on top of other foods is common. Unfortunately, not many people realize how unsanitary this is. Consumers should be wrapping the raw poultry in plastic bags that the grocery store supplies in the meat section of the store before placing it in their basket. They must also keep in mind to separate the raw poultry from their other items even though it is wrapped in plastic bags. Raw poultry juices can still leak out of a plastic bag if not wrapped correctly, so it is very important that you still keep it separated from everything else.

Food Safety

http://fillyourplate.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/food-safety-rating-system.jpg

The FDA versus the USDA                 

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that each year 1,000 people die from food-borne hazards in the U.S. The pie chart on page 5 shows that more food-borne illness outbreaks fall under the jurisdiction of the FDA than the USDA during the period 1990-2006. According to the second pie chart on page 5, the USDA has higher budgetary expenditures than the FDA for food safety programs and inspections by a total of $323 million dollars. The FDA actually inspects food processing facilities once every ten years rather than once every year. A frozen cheese pizza is inspected by the FDA while a frozen pepperoni pizza is subjected to USDA inspection. One of the FDA’s biggest problems is that it is empowered by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to intervene only when food is found to be adulterated or misbranded. This is a problem because the FDA does not receive clear mandates from farm-to-table when it comes to food safety.

                  

 








Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) systems are currently in place for seafood, juice, meat, and poultry products. HACCP helps prevent food contamination because it is a program of quality assurance and preventative process control. It is true that less than one percent of food imported into the U.S. is inspected. This percentage definitely needs to be increased because it leaves the U.S.’s food supply vulnerable to substandard foods from foreign countries. The August-September 2006 E-coli in bagged spinach outbreak was due to uncleanly processing facilities. The FDA does not have the power to order a producer to recall any food product found to be contaminated. Today recalls of contaminated food are voluntary.

 

Will the New Laws Help Increase Food Safety?

The mandatory produce and safety standards state that the new law will establish minimum standards for the safe production and harvesting of fruits and vegetables. The new law does establish a mandatory inspection frequency for food facilities. The new law also gives FDA authority to issue a mandatory recall if a company fails to implement a voluntary recall after being asked by FDA. Under the enhanced product tracing abilities, the FDA is directed to establish a system that will enhance ability to trace both domestic and imported foods. Under Importer Accountability, the FDA will explicitly place the responsibility on importers to verify that their foreign suppliers have adequate preventative controls in place to ensure that the food they produce is safe. I think these laws will cause a huge decrease in outbreaks of foodborne illnesses across the U.S. I think the most useful law enforcements are those that have to do with imports because our country does not take it seriously.

More from NPR: The Phosphoros Footprint of Meat

Yesterday (while Thon was setting a new record for student-based philanthropy!), NPR was reporting ont the phosphorus footprint of meat.

...Geneviève Metson, a doctoral student in natural resource science at McGill University in Canada, did the math for you. She wanted to find out how much of the phosphorus that's mined and turned into supplements for animal feed or fertilizer to grow feed crops goes to the meat industry.

Pretty unsurprisingly, she found that meat consumption is driving much of the phosphorus use in the food sector. And, she argues in a paper published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the heavy phosphorus footprint of meat is good reason to eat less of it, given that phosphorous is a finite resource that might become scarce one day.
 

The full NPR story is linked here.  The research study is linked here.