As you are probably already aware, the food industry is very political when it comes to guiding our eating habits and keeping animal agriculture in business. A recent example is the threatening of a lawsuit by the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) against PETA. PETA had been running a campaign against dairy with their ads and informational material alerting people that milk usually contains certain levels of blood and pus due to infected udders. CMAB is not only demanding that they stop running the ads, but to forfeit all promotional materials and all profits made though the campaign. PETA also filed a suit of it's own against CMAB claiming false advertisement on their "happy cows" commercial. Not only did the judge admit it was indeed false advertisement, but CMAB were not charged and allowed to continue with the promotion since they have government affiliation! This is not the first time we have witnessed food politics in action. Some years back Oprah addressed "mad cow disease" on her show and stated she would never eat another hamburger. After a dramatic decline in meat sales following her statement, the Cattlemen's Beef Association slapped her with a large lawsuit claiming she owed them for lost sales. The case was settled, but Oprah no longer discusses issues pertaining to the meat industry on her program. She has also been denied interviews by individuals who were invited to speak on the show, but were told they could not speak about vegetarianism. These are just two examples of how food politics in this country work and not for the good of the public, or the animals for that matter. I highly recommend the book on the right side of by blog entitled Food Politics. It is a very informative read and gives an in-depth look into the US food policies.
As you are probably already aware, the food industry is very political when it comes to guiding our eating habits and keeping animal agriculture in business. A recent example is the threatening of a lawsuit by the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) against PETA. PETA had been running a campaign against dairy with their ads and informational material alerting people that milk usually contains certain levels of blood and pus due to infected udders. CMAB is not only demanding that they stop running the ads, but to forfeit all promotional materials and all profits made though the campaign. PETA also filed a suit of it's own against CMAB claiming false advertisement on their "happy cows" commercial. Not only did the judge admit it was indeed false advertisement, but CMAB were not charged and allowed to continue with the promotion since they have government affiliation! This is not the first time we have witnessed food politics in action. Some years back Oprah addressed "mad cow disease" on her show and stated she would never eat another hamburger. After a dramatic decline in meat sales following her statement, the Cattlemen's Beef Association slapped her with a large lawsuit claiming she owed them for lost sales. The case was settled, but Oprah no longer discusses issues pertaining to the meat industry on her program. She has also been denied interviews by individuals who were invited to speak on the show, but were told they could not speak about vegetarianism. These are just two examples of how food politics in this country work and not for the good of the public, or the animals for that matter. I highly recommend the book on the right side of by blog entitled Food Politics. It is a very informative read and gives an in-depth look into the US food policies.
It is sad right now in this country that a disgusting unhealthy hamburger from McD's is often times cheaper than a healthy whole foods vegan meal. The government must overhaul its food policy. Why not give money to farmers that grow organic veggies rather than GMO pesticide laden corn that will be fed to cows? It's really sad that special interests from all over influence the government so much. Maybe if Dennis K. gets elected president he will change all that? Unforuntately he doesn't have much of a chance. Which book do you recommend reading about this topic? I'm really interested, but for some reason I'm not seeing it on your blog
ReplyDeleteIt's the fourth book down on my Amazon sidebar.
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