Food Links
Round up of food news
I haven’t done a post of links for ages. These are articles that I’ve read over the last month or so. If there are any topics that you would like to know more about, please let me know in the comments.
Food Systems
Climate change and biodiversity loss:
July 4th was the hottest day globally
Mark Bittman’s essay on why aren’t we doing more about climate change and healthy food choices
“We could tame the climate crisis before it’s too late. We could have our people eating well, farming well, being way healthier in ten or, at the most, twenty years.”
Biodiversity loss includes the reduction in food choices
The number of species and varieties of plants and animals, fungi, yeasts, etc., that we eat are reduced as conventional ag pushed for efficiency rather than sustainability
Sustainability claims have been made that cannot possibly be true
Access to healthy food for children:
NJ expands free school meals (but sadly not to all children)
A hopeful story about Bidii Baby Foods in New Mexico
Food and Politics from Alicia Kennedy
Warning my library expanded after reading this series
I find that even though Alicia and I approach food from different starting places (me as a scientist, Alicia as a food writer), we end up in very similar places.
State of Food Security and Nutrition Report released.
FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFO, WHO (2023) State of Food Security and Nutrition Report.
Key findings show:
Food insecurity is still higher than in 2019, with 122 million more people facing hunger in 2022.
Approximately 2.4 billion individuals, largely women and residents of rural areas, did not have consistent access to nutritious, safe, and sufficient food in 2022.
In 2021, 22.3% (148.1 million) children were stunted, 6.8% (45 million) were wasted, and 5.6% (37 million) were overweight.
Urbanization increases consumption of processed and convenience foods in urban, peri-urban and rural areas.
Previously self-sustaining rural regions, especially in Africa and Asia, are increasingly dependent on national and global food markets.
Food Safety
Outbreaks and recalls
Frozen fruit and hepatitis A
Flooding
Resources from NECAFS for farmers and other food producers affected by flooding
FDA
FDA updates duration of enforcement discretion policies in two COVID-19 era FSMA guidances
Aspartame
WHO declares the sweetener aspartame possibly carcinogenic to humans
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) says there is limited evidence showing that aspartame is carcinogenic in humans
Classed as Group 2B
WHO and FAO’s Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) reaffirmed acceptable daily intake of 0-40 mg/kg body weight. That’s about 9-14 cans of diet soda if you are an adult weighing around 70 kilograms (150 lbs) assuming there was no intake of aspartame from other sources
Lab Grown Meat Approval
Cultivated meat has been cleared for sale in the United States.
Upside Foods and Good Meat, who both make what they call “cultivated chicken,” they have approval from the USDA to start producing their cell-based proteins
They had both been approved earlier by the FDA
Reminder that if you want to know more about any of these topics, please let me know in the comments.
Who Writes Food Crumbs?
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