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FeelTheBern: Socialism Is Not A Dirty Word, Say Socialists

FeelTheBern: Socialism Is Not A Dirty Word, Say Socialists

Nov 22 2015 | comment(s)

As Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders watches his Presidential hopes fade, supporters are rushing to defend him. Though he has never campaigned as a Democrat in his entire career, he expected Democrats to embrace him because he always caucused with them in Congress; instead, he is a Democrat-Socialist campaigning for the nomination in the same party as a guy who got a standing ovation for killing Osama Bin Laden and will leave office with America in three wars and who let the AquAdvantage salmon get approved. That is going to be a struggle for acceptance in mainstream America when they see a guy coming from a state that says GMOs must have warning labels and has actively campaigned against the very thing the sitting President is taking credit for improving - the economy.
White House Asks American Council on Science and Health For Guidance On Cigarette Harm Reduction

White House Asks American Council on Science and Health For Guidance On Cigarette Harm Reduction

Nov 20 2015 | comment(s)

On November 19th, the American Council on Science and Health met with officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the White House Office of Management and Budget, and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs group to discuss sensible regulations related to the FDA's new authority over tobacco products like cigars, pipes and also tobacco substitutes like e-cigarettes, which are also deemed to be in the group though they are not tobacco (it's a nuanced point - there is no commercially viable way to create nicotine without tobacco.)
Greenpeace anti-GMO Agenda 'No Less Brutal Than ISIS' For Poor People

Greenpeace anti-GMO Agenda 'No Less Brutal Than ISIS' For Poor People

Nov 19 2015 | comment(s)

Greenpeace is again trying to stop the Philippines from using genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to solve hunger and vitamin deficiency. The group believes, without evidence, that GMOs are “contaminating non ‘GE’ environments and future generations in an unforeseeable and uncontrollable way.”
Chensheng Lu Says Politicians Are Eating Neonics

Chensheng Lu Says Politicians Are Eating Neonics

Nov 18 2015 | comment(s)

Dr. Chensheng Lu of Harvard School of Public Health, a nutritionist-turned-bee-expert, says members of Congress are ingesting five neonicotinoid pesticides in the cafeteria.

That will get some action. After all, this is the same cafeteria so concerned about sustainability they replaced plastic spoons with corn-based ones that melted in soup and had to be sent to a special composter in emissions-belching trucks. Everyone hated them, they were terrifically expensive, and it took Republicans getting back control of the House of Representatives to undo that policy.
Farm To Table Dog Food: For Wealthy Elites Who Want To Separate From The Pack

Farm To Table Dog Food: For Wealthy Elites Who Want To Separate From The Pack

Nov 13 2015 | comment(s)

If shade-grown, fair-trade organic no longer gets coos of wishful self-identification from your friends in Malibu, here is a way re-establish your elite credentials: Dog food that is locally grown. 

Farm-to-table pet food is all the rage. If you want your dog's food to 'explode with flavor', it takes an executive chef to design the meals. If you are on a Paleo diet, your dog can even copy it, though your dog would probably prefer that anyway.
Soda Politics: Easy To Write When No Scholarship Is Required

Soda Politics: Easy To Write When No Scholarship Is Required

Nov 13 2015 | comment(s)

David Katz is solidly against the consensus of scientists when it comes to food. It's no surprise, he is a friend of Dr. Oz. Thus, it is also no surprise he really likes the latest book from Dr. Marion Nestle, which invokes a vast, corporate soda conspiracy, etc. et al. 

The problem is that it isn't really a serious work, though books like that never are. Like Dr. Oz, Nestle needs a fact checker, writing that the American Council on Science and Health “depends heavily on funding from corporations that have a financial stake in the scientific debate it aims to shape” and that Coca-Cola is a significant sponsor.
The Romantic Myth Of Sustainability - Again

The Romantic Myth Of Sustainability - Again

Nov 12 2015 | comment(s)

Are you more likely to buy produce if it's picked by hand? Do labels such as local and organic conjure up imagery of small-scale farmers keeping money in the community and sustainable living and no pesticides or fertilizer?

It's a myth created by organic trade groups. There is a reason you see few small-scale farms run by anyone over the age of 40. While young idealists may initially invest in them, the reality is there is no substitute for the hard work and it is a lousy retirement plan. Picked by hand? I have to tell you, as someone who actually grew up on a farm that was small scale and the non-technological Idyll created by organic trade groups, there is a reason I got a scholarship to go to college, and that reason was to stop picking things by hand
Minorities Would Like A Little Less Representation In These Ads

Minorities Would Like A Little Less Representation In These Ads

Nov 09 2015 | comment(s)

Remember when television was all white people and that was a bad thing? Now it's somewhat difficult to find that sort of 1950s family. White fathers are instead helpless goofs that need to be rescued by wives or kids.

And minorities would like a little less representation, at least in food ads. Hispanic and black youth are disproportionate viewers of ads promoting unhealthy savory and sweet snacks, according to a report published by UCONN Rudd Center for Food Policy&Obesity.
Accept Global Warming And Deny Biology? We Know How You Vote

Accept Global Warming And Deny Biology? We Know How You Vote

Nov 05 2015 | comment(s)

Former anti-science activist who became a GMO advocate Mark Lynas notes that two papers denying science are out at the same time - but their audience is diametrically opposed to each other.
More Doctors Call for DSHEA (And Supplements Industry) Reform

More Doctors Call for DSHEA (And Supplements Industry) Reform

Nov 05 2015 | comment(s)

Dietary supplements - or rather the dangers of dietary supplements - continue to dominate the news of late.

Lamar Odom’s ordeal brought public attention to the dangers of “herbal viagra” and a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that unregulated dietary supplements cause tens of thousands of ER visits have both generated national headlines on the dangers of these products. 

David Goulson: Denier For Hire?

David Goulson: Denier For Hire?

Nov 05 2015 | comment(s)

It's no secret that various forms of "dark money" fund groups like US Right To Know and political allies like Center for Media and Democracy, which runs the political attack site SourceWatch.

But the desperate gambit of using Freedom of Information Act requests to bully scientists into silence has backfired; economists like Dr. Chuck Benbrook have been exposed as conspiring with the entire spectrum of progressive anti-science groups, including the magazine Mother Jones and academics like Dr. Marion Nestle and, of course, Dr. Oz, which had two people from the same organization on his program to foment fear and doubt about food.
Conflict Of Interest: Anti-Fracking Study Authors Didn't Disclose Financial Ties To Environmental Group

Conflict Of Interest: Anti-Fracking Study Authors Didn't Disclose Financial Ties To Environmental Group

Oct 16 2015 | comment(s)

The world of social media has been abuzz with the revelation that anti-science economist Dr. Chuck Benbrook was involved in an orchestrated campaign to demonize scientists and promote the agenda of his corporate sponsors. The chain of dark money wends its way through sites like SourceWatch, US Right To Know, Mother Jones and on to science critics like Michael Pollan, Dr. Marion Nestle and Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Millennials May Be The Death Of Organic Farming

Millennials May Be The Death Of Organic Farming

Oct 15 2015 | comment(s)

A demographic educated to believe they want locally grown and accustomed to cheap should be the perfect target market for organic food, especially after its giant size - a $100 billion industry(!) - has brought costs down, but organic corporations shouldn't rest on their laurels.
FOIA Shows How Anti-GMO Economist Orchestrated “Independent” Research To Promote Organic Food

FOIA Shows How Anti-GMO Economist Orchestrated “Independent” Research To Promote Organic Food

Oct 14 2015 | comment(s)

Robyn O’Brien—who styles herself as a foodie version of Erin Brokovich - considers economist Chuck Benbrook - who styled himself a Research Professor while an adjunct at Washington State  University - a "mentor" and an "inspiration."
Bay Area Skeptics To Hold Official Houdini Séance On Halloween

Bay Area Skeptics To Hold Official Houdini Séance On Halloween

Oct 14 2015 | comment(s)

Can the greatest escape artist even escape death?

In the spirit of scientific skepticism, two on-stage séances will summon the ghost of Harry Houdini — on Halloween, the anniversary of his death. The first séance will be earnest, conducted by a professional “psychic medium.” The second will be full of illusion and special effects, conducted by master magician Paul Draper.
2015 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists Announced

2015 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists Announced

Oct 13 2015 | comment(s)

Three winners and six finalists of the 2015 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists have been announced. The awards were created in 2007 and honor postdoctoral scientists from institutions across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. 

Winners are awarded $30,000 each and finalists are awarded $10,000 each in unrestricted funds. 
Gustatory System And Personality: Bitter Taste Preferences Predict Sadism

Gustatory System And Personality: Bitter Taste Preferences Predict Sadism

Oct 12 2015 | comment(s)

Bitter taste preferences might be associated with antisocial personality traits, finds an analysis of two US samples (N = 953, mean age = 35.65 years, 48% female).

Participants self-reported taste preferences and answered personality questionnaires assessing Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, everyday sadism, trait aggression, and the Big Five factors of personality.

Result: Bitter taste preferences were associated with malevolent personality traits and most strongly to everyday sadism and psychopathy.

So if your next date from Tinder orders bitter food at dinner, you know what to expect.
Another Mainstream Science Publication Calls Out USRTK And Its Media Enablers

Another Mainstream Science Publication Calls Out USRTK And Its Media Enablers

Oct 09 2015 | comment(s)

Nature Biotechnology, which by the name obviously supports agricultural science, has come late to the party defending scientists against the icy chill of bullying tactics by the US Right To Know organization, which is itself funded by organic food corporations and has a director that is the well-known political operative and former Clinton lawyer, Lisa Graves, behind the PR group that runs the SourceWatch advocacy site.

But it's never too late to take the correct stance.
Is mandatory GMO labeling unconstitutional?

Is mandatory GMO labeling unconstitutional?

Sep 21 2015 | comment(s)

A Supreme Court decision in Reed v. the Town of Gilbert (which concerned the constitutionality of certain standards for or restrictions on signage in a town in Arizona) may mean that process-specific food-labeling initiatives are likely to be deemed unconstitutional by federal courts.
Whole Foods Is Not What Made Organic Food Mainstream, Kroger Is

Whole Foods Is Not What Made Organic Food Mainstream, Kroger Is

Sep 20 2015 | comment(s)

If you prefer an organic toxic pesticide over a synthetic one, or prefer food created with older genetic modification rather than the modern kind, then you are willing to pay more for those values.

And it was only a matter of time before companies followed the money.