Consumer Freedom Daily Headlines

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2

Eroding The Meatless Moral High Ground
2007-04-03 17:00:00
Though animal rights groups self-righteously chow down on bean sprouts, tofu dogs, and nayonnaise in the name of animal welfare, the ideologically animal-free diet, like the movement itself, has thousands of skeletons in its pantry. Surprisingly, the number of animals affected by the production of a veggie burger is significantly more than those needed for a thick steak, chicken wing, or Thanksgiving turkey.According to researcher Steven Davis, a professor of animal science at Oregon State University: ?Vegan diets are not bloodless diets. Millions of animals die every year to provide products used in vegan diets.? Clearing fields for growing produce displaces entire eco-systems, and agriculture machines like the combine harvester shreds millions of rabbits, mice, pheasants, snakes, birds, and moles annually.Davis? research suggests that switching to a food system dominated by beef and dairy would save the lives of 300 million more animals annually than switching to a vegan system.A ...
More About: Meat , Ground , High , Less , Round

Quote Of The Week
2007-04-02 17:00:00
A tip of the Consumer Freedom hat to Frank Tate, who did a number on the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and its executive director Michael Jacobson in his column last week for the popular online news site Scoop. The whole piece is worth a read, but the highlight is Tate's dead-on description of CSPI's fact-challenged modus operandi:[S]o disingenuous has been Jacobson's claims that he has earned the rare distinction of being called various things in the media - ranging from the benign "Consumer Advocate" to the less flattering "Nutrition Terrorist," "Terrorist," "Food Cop," "Killjoy," "Food Fascist," "Food Nazi" etc. In fact, the latter labels appear with such stunning regularity in the media that few men could have been so definitively defined.Jacobson, to put it mildly, is guilty of utter disregard for the truth and scientific facts, frequently exaggerating figures and claims to advance CSPI's own agenda. ...Health claims or the converse, "un-healthy" claims, ...
More About: Week , Quote

It’s As Simple As Saying “No”
2007-03-30 17:00:00
A new study on children's advertising released by the Kaiser Family Foundation has food activists up in arms. And, as usual, some not-so-surprising statistics have spawned invasive policy proposals that completely ignore the role of parents in kids' eating habits.The Kaiser study's major findings are that half of advertising during children's shows is devoted to food, and that a substantial portion of ads aimed at children and teenagers are for candy, snacks, cereal, or fast food. (Click here for the full report.) The accompanying press junket included some not-so-subtle threats of increased advertising restrictions from Senator Sam Brownback, and typical hand-wringing about the evils of the food industry from Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.But before we start banning ads that don't promote broccoli or Brussels sprouts, here's a reality check for parents: Kids are just that -- kids. If you want your kids to stop watching television ads, turn off ...
More About: Simp , Simple

Recalled Pet Food Kills Fewer Animals Than PETA
2007-03-30 17:00:00
We just came from a fascinating event at the National Press Club in Washington. At noon today, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal s (PETA) vice president Bruce Friedrich did his best to implicate IAMS (a well-known pet food company) in a product recall related to the deaths of a few hundred dogs and cats. We weren?t terribly surprised when Friedrich had us thrown out of the building -- after all, we were there to remind the national media that PETA itself has killed far more animals than the tainted pet food. And in PETA?s case, it?s on purpose.This month?s pet food recalls made us wonder how PETA would react if manufacturers all committed to making their products safer by testing every single batch -- on animals. The only way to be absolutely sure dog food is safe for Fido, after all, is to feed it to some other living creature. (In fact, that?s how the manufacturer of the recalled pet food confirmed that the product was tainted in the first place.) But PETA?s press release ...
More About: Food , Animals , Pet Food , Recall

Blame Canada
2007-03-29 17:00:00
Yesterday Cana da 's national public health agency adjusted its standards for trace levels of mercury in several species of fish. Based on recent science (click here, here, and here) that firmly placed fear of fish in the same category as other irrational phobias, we expected our neighbors to the north to encourage increased seafood consumption. Instead, Health Canada created new confusion by preaching strict limits on the consumption of a half-dozen fish species. True, the agency hedged its bets by allowing that "most Canadians do not need to be concerned about mercury exposure from eating fish." But this nuance will likely be lost on much of the public, who will be more frightened to put fish on their dinner plate in general. And that's decidedly bad for public health.Canada's maritime economy relies on seafood as a big part of its gross national product, so an edict to lay off the orange roughy and tuna sushi is unexpected, to say the least. Nevertheless, we're seeing the hand ...
More About: Nada , Blame , Lame

Canadian Headlines, Yesterday's News
2007-03-28 17:00:00
Today dozens of Cana dian newspapers ran stories on the latest gloomy obesity report. Headlines like "Obesity dooms Canadian children to shorter lifespan" and "Generation XL facing shorter life than their parents" frantically warned readers of the apocalyptic findings by the House of Commons Committee on Health. But despite the doomsday headlines, this report is not landmark, or even original. The "obesity will lead to lower life expectancy" claim is the same tired line that assorted scaremongers have been trotting out since it appeared in a 2005 New England Journal of Medicine study. Though frequently used, it's dubious at best.Because they used intuition rather than hard data to arrive at their conclusions, Dr. S. Jay Olshansky and his co-authors quickly recanted their findings, admitting to Science magazine that their "life expectancy forecasts might be inaccurate." Nevertheless, food activists continue to spout this claim, bringing much of today's news down to the realism stand...
More About: News , Yesterday , Dian

Ten Essential Mercury Facts
2007-03-27 17:00:00
OK -- you?re still confused about harmless traces of mercury that have always been in the fish you eat. A major Harvard study concluded that the health benefits of seafood far outweigh the risks. A study of over 9,000 British women linked fish consumption during pregnancy to high childhood IQs. And the federal government?s Institute of Medicine has advised against placing warning signs in supermarkets. But you still have questions. No problem. We?ve got answers.Today at our Merc ury Fact s website, we?re releasing ?Ten Esse ntial Mercury Facts,? a brief look at rock-solid mercury facts everyone should know. The bottom line: Eat more fish. It?s good for you. Needless anxiety isn?t. Click here to download your very own full-color PDF of this handy resource.

Irradiation (Finally) Getting Its Due; Anti-Tech Activists Incensed
2007-03-27 17:00:00
On Sunday, NBC's Dateline profiled a cutting-edge technology that could work wonders for the American food supply ... if activists would just let it. (Click here for video.) Irradiation -- a process that exposes meat, poultry, and produce to extremely low levels of radiation in order to kill food-borne pathogens -- is tremendously effective, perfectly safe, and doesn't compromise food quality. But it's not an industry standard. That's primarily because anti-tech activists -- like the ones at the misleadingly named Center for Food Safety (CFS) -- have successfully stoked anti-irradiation anxieties among consumers.As Dr. Dennis Maki, an epidemiologist and Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, rightly noted in a related question-and-answer on MSNBC.com:When you realize that every large health organization around the world has basically endorsed irradiation as a mechanism of food safety, that speaks volumes to me. None have refused to [endorse irradiation] ... There ...
More About: Tech , Final , Finally , Radiation , Ense

Vegan 'Physicians' Group, Heal Thyself
2007-03-26 17:00:00
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) chief attorney Dan Kinburn appeared at a San Francisco legal conference on Friday, and a funny thing happened on the way to the lunch buffet. Kinburn encouraged an audience of trial lawyers to use Proposition 65 (California?s notorious ?bounty hunter? law) to sue ?virtually every restaurant in the state of California that is not serving an all-vegetarian diet.? This, we presume, would include The University Club, whose buffet lunch for the event included cold cuts, cheese, and a delicious shrimp pasta salad. (PCRM, remember, fights for vegan nutrition by sneering at the consumption of all animal products.)Kinburn made his way through the lunch line with PCRM toxicologist Chad Sandusky. While they left the turkey and ham undisturbed, we watched as they both dug happily into the shrimp-and-pasta dish (made, the kitchen assured us, with real mayonnaise -- the kind made with actual chicken eggs).Memo to Dan and Chad: If you want the l...
More About: Self , Vegan , Group , Physician , Vega

Calling In Fat
2007-03-26 17:00:00
Stomach aches, sore throats, and hacking coughs are standard excuses for calling in sick, but a recent report released by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts hints that employees' obesity may soon make the list.Using data from only a handful of companies in Texas, the study claims that obese employees cost state businesses billions, mostly in the form of health care bills, decreased productivity, and absenteeism. As a means of addressing the issue, the report concludes: "Ultimately, of course, only the individual can be held accountable for the lifestyle choices he or she makes."But take this lip-service statement with a grain of salt (before sodium becomes a controlled substance).The main author of the paper, Susan Combs, hardly has a track record of championing personal responsibility. As a former Texas agricultural commissioner, her policy initiatives like state-wide school cupcake bans and french fry fines gave credence to her self-proclaimed nickname of "food czarina."The...
More About: Alli , Calling , Call

Practice (And Really Expensive Technology) Makes Perfect
2007-03-23 16:00:00
Comparing apples to oranges just doesn't cut it. In order to describe the difference between the findings of a recent obesity report by the Avon Longitudinal Study and the studies commonly cited by food police like the Center for Science in the Public Interest, one would need to compare apples to protractors. The reason for this mammoth discrepancy can be summed up in three words: Body Mass Index (BMI).BMI, devised two centuries ago, is the measurement used by the federal government and many activists to determine obesity. Unfortunately, the calculation uses height and weight -- instead of muscle mass and body fat -- to determine a person's portliness.The method is archaic, but it's still used because it requires little time and almost no money. Often this crude measurement mistakenly categorizes athletic people like Tom Cruise, Mark McGwire, and Michael Jordan as overweight and obese.Despite knowing the limitations of BMI, obesity scaremongers use it to collect most of their apo...
More About: Technology , Techno , Tech , Practice , Pens

Quote Of The Week
2007-03-21 16:00:00
This latest gem comes from German animal-rights campaigner Frank Albrecht, who sparked a global controversy yesterday when he told a mass-circulation German newspaper that it was "inhumane" for the Berlin Zoo to raise an orphaned polar bear. Instead, he demanded that the cute bear cub be killed immediately:The zoo must kill the bear ... Hand-rearing a polar bear is not appropriate and is a serious violation of animal rights.The bear Albrecht is referring to -- an adorable ball of fur affectionately known as "Cuddly Knut" (click here for some vanity shots) -- was taken in by a zookeeper in December after it was abandoned by its mother. The bear cub has since risen to national prominence (it's not hard to see why), and is expected to make its first "public appearance" later this week.But for Albrecht -- who subscribes to a philosophy that puts chickens and cows on the same moral footing as people -- bottle-feeding, cuddling, and playtime are basically forms of torture. And Berlin Zoo...
More About: Week , Quote

What Olivia Newton-John Already Knew
2007-03-20 16:00:00
Over the years activists have managed to blame obesity on almost every food imaginable: steak, milk, soda, and even juice. Rather than distancing themselves from this contrarian reputation, food police like Center for Science in the Public Interest director Michael Jacobson are openly "proud about finding something wrong with practically everything."Instead of hedging their bets, others choose to approach the problem in a more analytical fashion. For instance, researchers in the Avon Longitudinal Study (a project of the University of Bristol) carefully examined multiple factors and then placed all of their chips on one square: physical activity.Today, after eleven years of research, the scientists announced their conclusion in a British newspaper: "The findings point to a lack of exercise, rather than gluttony, as the key to obesity in young people."In a groundbreaking report published in PLoS Medicine (the Public Library of Science journal), the researchers acknowledge the changing...
More About: What , John , Hat , Read , Newton

Mercury Update: It’s (Still) The Whale Meat, Stupid...
2007-03-19 16:00:00
News flash: The global panic about mercury in fish can be traced back to a single scientific study whose participants got nearly all their dietary mercury from eating whale meat -- not fish. Hard to believe? Don't take our word for it. In this month's Environmental Health Perspectives journal, the author of that infamous study (fear-of-fish monger Philippe Grandjean) says so himself. And like environmental activists who have held his theoretical banner high, Grandjean fails to discuss the practical world in which ordinary people live (and eat). People who steer clear of whale meat -- including pregnant women -- are none the worse from tiny traces of mercury in the fish they eat. In fact, they're generally better off eating as much fish as possible.Here's Grandjean and his research team in their own words:[T]he correlation between fish intake and methylmercury exposure is relatively low, due to the fact that whale meat, rather than fish, is the main source of methylmercury exposu...
More About: Meat , Stupid , Update , Whale , Stil

People For The Ethical Treatment Of Insects?
2007-03-16 16:00:00
A tip of the Consumer Freedom hat goes to the editors of Salvo, a Chicago-based cultural journal with a wry sense of humor. The magazine’s inaugural issue was sprinkled liberally with advertising parodies, including one aimed squarely at People for the Ethical Treat ment of Animals (PETA) : STOP THE INSECTICIDE! One million ants are slaughtered every month by careless missteps, cruel young children with magnifying glasses, and newspapers wielded in ignorance and fear. Feeling bugged? To learn what you can do to help stop the insecticide, or to sponsor an orphaned pupae, call 1-800-555-PETI. People for the Ethical Treatment of Insects . The ad hints at a fair question. Why doesn’t PETA invest considerable time and money fighting the senseless slaughter of bugs? There are 900,000 known insect species (three times more than the rest of the animal kingdom combined). That’s 80 percent of the world’s species, and surely some of them are capable of feeling pain as they rocket int...
More About: Men

Lions And Bulls And Bears, Oh My
2007-03-15 16:00:00
The demands of Wall Street?s shareholders may cause more to grow than just the corporate bottom line. The financial district is also pushing your bathroom scale into the red, if you believe Marion Nestle who gave a talk Tuesday at the University of Kentucky. She claims that food companies? emphasis on profits and pressure to sell leads to a society filled with an abundance of tasty, affordable food and, therefore, fat people.But that same eagerness to grow gives companies an eagerness to offer consumers what they want. And -- as Nestle admits in her speech -- a ?backlash against unhealthy eating trends? has prompted many Americans to demand healthier foods.Accordingly, the industry has responded with products to meet that need: functional foods. These new yogurts, drinks, condiments, and more grant consumers nutritional and medicinal benefits, like reducing cholesterol, stabilizing blood sugar, and warding off cancer. Since Nestle supports the emergence of healthy options in superma...
More About: Lion , Bears , Bulls , Bull , Lions

Pried From The Mouths Of Babes
2007-03-14 16:00:00
The battle cry "for the children" might seem like an honest justification for political activism. But when campaigning for kids involves exploiting them, activists no longer seem so upstanding. For instance, a recent editorial in The Ottawa Citizen criticized tactics used by one animal rights group, outlining the schemes suggested in a letter to its members:The group recently advocated the recruitment of children for an anti-seal hunt protest. Specifically, it called for children "dressed in black" and holding flowers to march on the offices of the federal department of fisheries. "It will draw a lot of media attention if we can get the children," said the group in an e-mail notice.And this case is not an isolated incident. Groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) frequently target impressionable, young children with radical propaganda. At elementary schools PETA employees pass out violent cartoons, while the group's online kids' site encourages children to v...
More About: Babes , Mouth , Babe

Anti-Fish Activists Endangering Public Health?
2007-03-13 16:00:00
We?ve never been big fans of activists who hawk mercury-in-fish fears. They?re perfect examples of agenda-driven extremists who keep flogging their message despite what science has to say. Over the course of the last six months, for instance, three separate studies (click here, here, and here) have demonstrated that mercury fear mongers are, well, all wet. This avalanche of science begs the inescapable conclusion that activists warning us about ?toxic tuna? should be called more than just ?misinformed? -- they deserve to be called dangerous.As we told you earlier this month, a landmark study published in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet found a strong connection between pregnant women's fish consumption and their children's IQ levels. (The women who ate the most fish -- mercury and all -- had the smartest kids.)In the wake of that finding, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer profiled a few moms who are having second thoughts about their decision to cut back on fish du...
More About: Health , Fish , Public , Public Health , Ring

When Good Studies Happen To Bad Apples
2007-03-12 16:00:00
While many Americans name baseball as their favorite pastime, the food police can't tolerate any celebration involving chili-drenched hot dogs and ice cold beer. Instead, activist groups pass the time by fishing -- for statistics to support their agenda."According to the latest study ..." has been their anthem for a long time. But neither song, nor cheers accompanied the release of the most recent food study, "Toward the Reduction of Population Obesity" published in Psychological Bulletin. The reason for the dead silence may be the fact that the report did not fall on their side of the food fight.Actually, the authors -- most notably Dr. David Allison -- debunked some of the food fanatics' favorite initiatives: Fat-taxes, food-zoning, and all-out bans.The study found that prohibiting food (economically, geographically, or legally) could have multiple unintended effects: making forbidden foods more desirable, disproportionately affecting the poor, and actually driving people to eat...
More About: Apple , Studies , Apples , When , Good

Proverbial Road Repaved By NYC Bureaucrats' Questionable Intentions
2007-03-09 20:34:03
As we told you yesterday, the Big Apple's Big Brothers will soon force some fast-food chains to post calorie counts on their menu boards -- but only those companies that already provide customers with that information (normally with point-of-sale posters and online nutrition guides). In an ironic twist, a few of these newly regulated restaurant companies are saying "thanks, but no thanks." If New Yorkers feel slighted, their local bureaucrats are to blame. And they can always eat lunch across the river in New Jersey.New York City's new menu-labeling requirement only applies to a handful of restaurant companies. And it will include a number of nitpicky rules about how that information has to be presented -- on menu boards, for instance, in the same font size as the rest of the menu. (The city's Board of Health has yet to explain why posters that hang next to cash registers don't do the same job.)Among the companies targeted by New York City's new regulation (all of which have be...
More About: Question , Over , Quest , Road , Rove

Film Snares (In)Humane Society Of The United States
2007-03-09 20:34:03
Spring is in the air in Canada, which means the wealthy Human e Society of the United States (HSUS) is once again gearing up to hassle our neighbor to the north. HSUS has long used Canada's annual seal hunt -- essentially the culling of an overpopulated species by subsistence hunters -- as a fundraising platform. Last year it even dreamed up a phony U.S. "boycott" of Canadian seafood (which we systematically debunked) in order to vent its frustration northward. But this time around might not be smooth sailing for the giant animal rights group and its cohorts.Last year HSUS's campaign included a series of high-profile photo shoots with the likes of Paul McCartney and his (then) wife. And -- of course -- the filming of a fundraising video. But unbeknownst to HSUS, someone else's camera was also rolling. As The Ottawa Citizen describes it, Quebec filmmaker Raoul Jomphe filmed HSUS activists "ignoring a dying seal for more than an hour ... the animal rights activists pulled the dying ...
More About: Film

When Science And Activist Agendas Collide
2007-03-09 20:34:03
Yesterday, JAMA (the journal of the American Medical Association) published the results of a study that's sure to ruffle some food activists' feathers. A group of Stanford researchers have declared the low-carb Atkins diet the decisive winner in a yearlong head-to-head competition between four of the nation's most popular weight-loss plans. Overweight women who followed the Atkins regimen -- much maligned by animal-rights loonies and joyless-eating types alike because it places virtually no restrictions on meat intake -- shed the most pounds. They also had lower blood pressure than those on the veggie-friendly Ornish diet, the low-carb Zone diet, or fat-tax advocate Kelly Brownell's LEARN diet.You can bet your bottom dollar (or the dollars for your bottom) that if Atkins dieters hadn't performed well, activists bent on replacing your tasty treats with tofu would be claiming victory. Instead, the likes of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and the Center for Scien...
More About: Science , Agenda , When , Coll

Mealtime Malcontents
2007-03-09 20:34:03
"This one's too hot." "This one's too cold." Like whiny characters in a twisted fairy tale, the food police at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) never seem satisfied with the options on the table. The spread has never been more bountiful than the selection available to today's American consumer. In a spectrum ranging from cholesterol-lowering yogurt to calorie-burning drinks, the average consumer can find an item to address almost any ailment or satisfy any craving. But CSPI is no fan of choice.Offering up a rally cry "for laws and regulations that would help rein in soft drink consumption," CSPI's executive director Michael Jacobson makes no attempt to hide his contempt for soda, even suing soft drink manufacturers over the healthy, diet alternatives and criticizing the new vitamin-fortified drinks they offer customers.And while CSPI hosted a press conference last week to condemn restaurants for generous portions, the insatiable activist group issued a press ...
More About: Time , Content , Tent , Meal