Tom Laskawy’s Posts

• Infrastructurally unsound

  Will Whole Foods' new mobile slaughterhouses squeeze small farmers? 0

  Posted 2 hours, 31 minutes agoFor years, small-scale poultry farmers have had trouble processing their birds for market. Grist has learned that Whole Foods is looking to solve just that problem. But will the retail giant's effort squeeze the very farmers it's designed to help?

• Tuna Blues

  So long and thanks for all the fish 44

  Posted 3 days, 2 hours agoThere was some hope recently that the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the organization charged with managing the Atlantic tuna fishery, would listen to its own scientists and ban commercial Atlantic bluefin tuna fishing so that the species might survive. Nope.

• survey says!

  Feed the world sustainably by 2050? Yes, we can! 5

  Posted 1 week, 2 days agoAdding a bit more data to food system reformers' arguments, a new study led by Germany's prestigious Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research takes on the question of whether we can "feed the world" while preserving the planet come 2050.

• good for bottom lines, bad for waistlines

  How the 40 year drop in the minimum wage helped cause obesity 3

  Posted 1 week, 3 days agoTom Laskawy has written about the link between wages and obesity before -- with wages dropping since the 60s and healthy food prices always going up, people eat more unhealthy food. But now two economists have drilled down into these issues and claim to have found a specific link between a drop in the minimum wage and obesity.

• Oh Rats

  While scientists fight over BPA studies, Congress could just act 1

  Posted 1 week, 4 days agoA great part of the scientific debate over BPA becomes "quibbles over individual rat studies" -- and over the rats themselves. The best explanation of the Great Rat Debate comes from an article about the shadowy network of so-called "product defense firms" that are used by industry to sow fear, uncertainty, and doubt over any research that questions the safety of commercial products.

All Posts

Tom Laskawy’s Recent Comments

• Click here to view comment in original post

  Yes.On Soda lobby gets its game on posted 2 weeks ago 4 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  Hmmm... The link had disappeared! Fixed, with a note on who did the research added. Thanks!On Scientists claim junk food is as addictive as heroin posted 3 weeks, 2 days ago 18 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  Do you have a cite? My figure came from that just-released UCLA study. I'm also curious if your figure is for *total* sugar intake (i.e. including naturally occurring sugars such as in fruit and so on). If you have a handy link, please post it.On Is Michelle Obama about to take on Big Food? posted 1 month ago 40 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  Maybe so. But the role of government is to support behavior we as a society wants and to reduce behavior we don't. Just because people "should" be able to act in a certain way doesn't mean government can't act when they don't. It can and it does in almost every aspect of our lives. And it needs to act to address obesity because we've proven too many individuals can't do it on their own.On Can Jamie Oliver cooking lessons cure obesity? posted 1 month, 1 week ago 10 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  For the record the FDA does NOT inspect meat, eggs and poultry. That responsibility lies solely with the *USDA*, which is sort of the point of my post. When the House food safety reform bill tried to bring the FDA into the picture regarding meat, the industry was able to strip that provision from the bill. Yes, the FDA is underfunded -- but the USDA is utterly captured by the industry it regulates and does not seem to be able to act in the public interest to reform the US meat processing system. Some believe the FDA would take a more rigorous stance on food safety and act in ways that would truly enhance safety -- but of course it's also possible that it would in turn be captured by the industry it regulates (as seems to have occurred with the FDA and drug companies). But we need to some *something*.On Warning: This product may cause sickness, paralysis, and death posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago 51 Responses