Food Politics Highlight Reel: Five Stories to Help You Get Caught Up | Civil Eats

Food Politics Highlight Reel: Five Stories to Help You Get Caught Up

1. Rancho Recall: The End of Sonoma County Beef? (Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

Millions of pounds of beef have been recalled after-the-fact, many small local Bay Area producers are left without a processing facility, and some big questions remain unanswered. The Pt. Reyes Light, a hyper-local newspaper, also investigates.

2. Rival Industries Sweet-Talk the Public (New York Times)

An interesting run-down of the legal battle between the sugar industry and the Corn Refiners Association (two of the most powerful players in the food industry) about the proposed re-naming of high fructose corn syrup as “corn sugar.”

3. How This Food Blogger Convinced Chick-fil-A to Go Antibiotics Free (Reuters)

The company said consumer demand was responsible for the change, but some sources are crediting blogger Vani Hari whose large audience seem keen to sign petitions aimed at food corporations. Her site, Food Babe, was also involved in last week’s removal of the yoga mat ingredient in Subway’s bread.

4. Organic Dairy Farmers Hit by California Drought (Medium)

Organic standards require dairy cows to graze on pasture for at least 120 days a year. But current conditions in the state have kept pastures to dry to provide sustenance. With their pastures barren, organic cattle and dairy farmers in California are looking at bowing out of farming altogether.

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5. SF’s Soda Tax Is Less Annoying than New York’s Soda Ban (The Bold Italic)

The city’s Board of Supervisors is set to tax sugary drinks at a rate of two cents per ounce, allocating the money to fighting childhood obesity.

Bonus: A few lovable food and farming-related valentines from around the Web:

Lettuce grow old and wilted together (The Kitchn)

I need you like California needs rain (KQED)

Today’s food system is complex.

Invest in nonprofit journalism that tells the whole story.

Let’s goat steady (Modern Farmer)

See a story this week you want to share? Let us know by commenting on this post.

Since 2009, the Civil Eats editorial team has published award-winning and groundbreaking news and commentary about the American food system, and worked to make complicated, underreported stories—on climate change, the environment, social justice, animal welfare, policy, health, nutrition, and the farm bill— more accessible to a mainstream audience. Read more >

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