Just because the elections are over doesn’t mean there isn’t news to cover–food news, that is. See this week’s stories below.

1. How a National Food Policy Could Save Millions of American Lives (Washington Post)

Food movement powerhouses Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, Ricardo Salvador, and Olivier de Schutter have proposed a simple idea: The U.S. government should adopt a comprehensive food policy that protects public health, workers’ rights, the environment, and farm animals. The authors point out the tension between the First Lady’s Let’s Move initiative and the business-as-usual Farm Bill the President signed earlier this year, pointing to the fact that the government funds “both sides in the war on Type 2 Diabetes.” Fortunately, they suggest, solutions are within reach, and they start by recommending increased coordination between the eight federal agencies that influence the food system. In the meantime, the authors are calling on everyone to sign a petition to the President, urging him to take executive action on this issue.

2. Kale or Fracking? Farmers and Corporations Fight it Out for Water (The Guardian)

As extreme droughts continue to plague California, conflicts are brewing between oil and gas companies and our country’s primary food suppliers for access to water. For consumers who want low-cost groceries and electricity, for example, this tension might not have an easy solution. As wages continue to stagnate, many of life’s daily necessities might grow increasingly out of reach for most people, possibly necessitating an entire reconfiguration of both our agriculture and energy industries.

3. Senators to FDA: Get Data on Antibiotics in Food-Producing Livestock (The Wall Street Journal)

Earlier this year, the Obama Administration laid out a strategy to combat the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Critics of the plan argued that it did little to target the overwhelming use of unnecessary antibiotics in animal agriculture, instead offering a mere suggestion to stop pumping otherwise healthy animals with antibiotics to promote growth. In an effort to put more pressure on the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), a group of senators has penned a letter urging the agency to enact a proposed rule that would ramp up data collection and reporting on the issue.

4. Fast Food Chains Aggressively Market to Black and Poor Kids (Salon)

The tricks fast food companies use to entice children are well known–free toys, loveable mascots, and celebrity endorsements come to mind. But a new study found that stores like McDonald’s and Burger King are more likely to target kids’ with in-store marketing techniques in predominantly Black areas, as well as predominantly low-income ones. Kids of color are already more likely to live in areas with an overabundance of fast food restaurants and limited options for healthy alternatives. These factors have serious implications for these kids’ health–for Black and Latino youth in particular, rates of childhood obesity are nearly double what they are for white children.

5. California’s Strawberry Industry is Hooked on Dangerous Pesticides (Center for Investigative Reporting)

What happens when attempts to protect the public health backfire, and exposure to dangerous chemicals actually increases? In California, regulators allowed the use of a known carcinogen, 1,3-D pesticide, to double, putting communities who lived near the state’s strawberry fields at significantly greater risk for cancer. These risks are even greater for people of color and a group of Latino residents near Rio Mesa are fighting back against unfettered pesticide use.