Welcome to the Food and Nutrition Law and Policy Blog

Welcome to the Food and Nutrition Law and Policy Blog!

This blog provides timely and comprehensive information and analysis of cutting edge food and nutrition
law and policy issues.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Anyone writing legal scholarship about food law?
The Journal of Food Law & Policy at the University of Arkansas School of Law is seeking submissions for its Spring 2011 issue. This Journal, the only student-edited U.S. law journal focused exclusively on food law issues was started in July 2005, and it is now well established in the academic community. Available on both Westlaw and Hein On Line, the Journal features articles on a wide range of current issues of food law and policy.  It includes regular food law updates from the United States, the European Union, and Canada. The Journal is published twice a year and is edited by some of the top law students at the University of Arkansas School of Law.

Article submissions can be e-mailed to foodlaw@uark.edu.

For more information, or to make a submission, contact the Journal via e-mail at foodlaw@uark.edu or by phone at (479) 575-2754.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Snapple and its Claims

This one is from the Dallas News via Rudd Center Health Report.  The Dallas News piece is dated November 20, 2010.

Lawsuits accuse Snapple maker of false health claims

Preventing Obesity

We eat poorly and don't exercise.  Here's the latest from Reuters via msnbc.com:
Cheap obesity steps could have major health impact

Irradiation of Fresh Produce

I am a huge fan of Bill Marler. I get a lot of food safety information from his blog and related websites.  Bill sees people suffering the worst possible effects of having eaten poisonous foods.  So if I disagree with something Bill says, don't ever read any disrespect into that disagreement.

From MarlerBlog:
Less irradiation can kill more bugs on leafy greens
Posted by Bill Marler on December 07, 2010
ScienceDaily reports in “Killing Salmonella and E. Coli on Fresh Produce With Half the Normal Food-Irradiation Levels” that a team of Texas A&M researchers has developed a way to cut by as much as half the amount of irradiation needed to kill 99.999 percent of salmonella, E. coli and other pathogens on fresh produce. . . .
(Isn't this blogging stuff cool? Science Daily publishes an article based on a press release from Texas A&M University. Bill Marler blogs about the Science Daily article. And I blog about Bill Marler blogging about the Science Daily article.)

I suppose it's a relief that it doesn't take much radiation to kill salmonella and e. coli on produce.  But I think this is the wrong direction.  These are pathogens that originate in animals.  They shouldn't be on the produce in the first place.  It is not OK that they are there.  We've been seeing more of this kind of contamination of produce lately.  Is it because our operations are so big we can't keep track of where the animals are? Are harvesting practices so out of control that employees don't clean their hands? Where are these poop bacteria coming from? It's simply NOT a given that food must be contaminated.  We're doing something wrong.

So we keep turning to more and more technology to solve problems that are created by technology in the first place. 

New Food Law Blog

Greetings! This is a brand new blog that will focus on food and nutrition law and policy.  There is no real need for this blog -- all of the topics that interest me are well-blogged elsewhere.

But it is useful for me to have a place to post news, fun, thoughts, and other food law related material.  So this blog is for me.  I welcome readers, but folks, don't take it personally. . . I'm just not doing this for you.  (At least not at this point.)

Topics that interest me: food policy, nutrition policy, any legal issues involving food starting from development of patent-protected seeds all the way through to attempts to tax sugar beverages to control obesity.  Along the way there are intellectual property issues, environmental law issues, agricultural policy issues, administrative law issues related to ingredients, labels, and food safety, organic certification, school lunches, tort liability for food poisoning, the same for poor health outcomes.

I have an interest in nutrition in particular, but also kind of have a fetish for food labels and what can go on them.

This is not a blog about food itself.  I don't care about recipes.  If you are a pr person for someone who has created the next perfect dietary supplement or cocktail mix, please go stuff yourself with apple fritters and fruitcake.  I am NOT interested in talking to you. I will NOT post your public service announcement. I will NOT link to your client's website. 

But if you see an interesting label, I'd love to know about it.

Donna