Most Recent Campaign Headlines
Can you get cancer from “USDA Organic” “Uncured” hot dogs, bacon, ham and jerky with labels that say “No nitrates or nitrites except those naturally occurring in celery powder?”
Yes, you can.
Here’s why: When non-organic celery powder grown with nitrate fertilizer is used in certified organic processed meats it interacts with the protein in the meat to create the same carcinogenic substances found in non-organic hot dogs, bacon, ham and jerky made with synthetic nitrates or nitrites.
Miami Beach-based Truly Organic will pay $1.76 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission complaint that the company deceived shoppers by labeling its products as organic and vegan. An FTC investigation revealed that some Truly Organic products contained no organic ingredients at all, and others contained ingredients that were not vegan, including honey and lactose, according to the FTC complaint.
It may be true that you can take the boy out of the country, but it’s apparently not so easy to get the CEO out of Silicon Valley.
In mid-June, Will Harris, owner of White Oak Pastures, publicly invited Pat Brown, CEO of Impossible Foods, to visit Harris’ ranch in Bluffton, Georgia. The invitation was prompted by a statement Harris got wind of, in the latest Impossible Foods Impact Report, which facetiously referred to regenerative grazing as the “clean coal” of meat.
The company has also claimed that grassfed beef “generates more GHGs than feedlot beef”—a claim that didn’t sit well with Harris, whose ranch in Bluffton, Georgia, stores “more carbon in the soil than our cows emit in a lifetime,” according the website.
Harris told a reporter for Civil Eats that he was “stunned” by the “clean coal” analogy. “I think there were many mistruths in that attack,” he said.
Labeling of food is a minefield; the FDA has many rules about what companies can and cannot say on their packaging and in their advertising, but there are combine-sized holes through which companies can drive.
Pesticide suits may not have the staying power many in the food world feared, after all. Following news of the first billion-dollar verdict against the manufacturer of Roundup®, food and beverage companies braced as a series of suits targeted products allegedly containing trace residues of glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) and other pesticides.
Twinings Tea and Beech-Nut baby food are the targets of new lawsuits over the presence of the cancer-linked chemical glyphosate in their products.
Both the Twinings and Beech-Nut lawsuits are about how the products are marketed, not whether they pose a direct danger to consumers.
Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), with help from then-President Obama, effectively stripped consumers of their right to know if their food contains GMO ingredients.
Now, under the Trump administration’s “free-for-all” approach to regulation, the USDA wants to let companies like Monsanto-Bayer, DowDupont and Syngenta (now owned by ChemChina) “regulate” their own genetically engineered products.
TAKE ACTION: Tell the USDA to do its job: protect consumers, not the biotech industry!
Impossible Foods — maker of the veggie “burger that bleeds” — is the latest darling of the food-tech world. Its stardom is driven largely by its claims that the burger is better for the planet than the real thing: But what’s actually in its signature patty raises big questions.
In 2016, the Environment America Research & Policy Center reported that Tyson Foods, one of the world’s largest meat and poultry producers, dumps more toxic pollution into the nation’s waters than any other agribusiness corporation, and produces the most animal manure of five major companies assessed nationwide.
Yet Tyson continues to falsely claim that the company cares about being “stewards of the land.” In its marketing and advertising materials, Tyson brags about its “commitment to conservation” and its “dedication to environmental leadership.”
We don’t think false claims like these are harmless. And we believe the courts won’t either.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – July 17, 2019 - Food & Water Watch and Organic Consumers Association (OCA) sued Tyson Foods, Inc. in D.C. Superior Court under the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act, for deceptive marketing and advertising of chicken products sold under the Tyson brand and other brand names.
“Tyson’s inhumane chicken operations take a tremendous toll on the environment,” said Wenonah Hauter, Food & Water Watch executive director. “In 2014, Tyson dumped more than 20 million pounds of toxic pollutants into US waterways. From 2013 to 2015, the company was guilty of more than 300 wastewater Clean Water Act permit exceedances. Any claims of environmental responsibility are patently false.”
Pages
Scientific Studies
Get Local
