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The FDA has announced plans to investigate the “Smart Choices” initiative, an industry-led nutrition labeling program, arguing that the labels may mislead the public by implying that sugary foods are healthy.

I’m amazed that the “Smart Choices” label has gotten this far, considering it was trying to suggest that Froot Loops are somehow nutritious, and happy that the FDA is taking decisive action to curtail the manipulative marketing scheme.  However, given that Kraft has announced that they are phasing out the label, and General Mills, Kellogg and Unilever plan to follow suite, I have a feeling the label will not be around for much longer regardless of what the FDA does.

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One of the most popular food trends in the past year or two has been local food. So why is eating local all the rage, and what can you do to be part of this growing movement?

What is local?

We need to start by defining the word local. It has different meanings to different people, but I define local as being as close to home as possible. With food, that would mean buying food raised or produced as close to your home as possible.

To purists, or locavores, local means buying food within a set radius, such as 50 or 100 miles. To others, local means as far as a day’s drive from where you live. Because geography and growing is different around the country (and world), I opt for a more flexible definition.

Technically, this means that any food you buy close to your home is local, even conventional or industrially produced food. So inherent within the local label is the concept of sustainable. Try to avoid food from a large industrial operation, no matter how close to your home it is. The best way to tell if a farm is industrial is to find out how big it is and how diverse its products are. A very large farm producing only one crop is most likely industrial – when you plant the same crop on many acres, you attract pests, which means you have to use pesticides. So focus on smaller farms, ones that have different types of crops, and find out what their growing practices are.

When you’re shopping for local food, look for local sustainable food from a small independent family farm. That means minimal chemical pesticides and fertilizers were used, the land and everything on it was treated with respect, and every effort was made to provide you with the most wholesome, nutritious food. In general, smaller farms are more sustainable because they tend to grow a variety of crops and undertake conservation practices such as crop rotation, so they usually have less problems with pests. But it’s always wise to find out exactly how your food was produced before you make the decision to buy and eat it.

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Glenn Beck is almost always frustrating to watch.  And while I try not to post about too often because it seems like it would just be giving him more of a platform, I was so enraged by his rant on vegetarianism and Meatless Mondays last week that I couldn’t help but respond with a post.

Well, I’ve calmed down a bit since then but I couldn’t hide my joy at Jon Stewart’s clever and right on Glenn Beck impersonation from last night’s Daily Show.  In the skit Stewart takes on the subject of Glenn Beck’s recent appendicitis and uses it to show how ridiculous Beck is night after night after night.

It might just be the perfect segment to get your weekend started right.

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The 2010 Cinema Eye Honors Nominees have been named and I am very very happy to report that The Cove has received a record-tying 7 nominations! It got nominations in the Production, Cinematography, Editing, Original Score, Debut Feature and the top prize, Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking categories.

Also exciting is the fact that Food, Inc joins The Cove in the Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking, Original Score and the Audience Choice categories and picked up another nomination for Graphic Design and Animation!

The entire list of nominations is below–I’m of course rooting for The Cove and Food, Inc but also for the wonderful Agnes Varda in the directing category (one of the only categories where The Cove and Food, Inc were not nominated) for her beautiful film The Beaches of Agnes.

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New research from Consumer Reports reveals that many canned foods, including soups, juice and vegetables, contain measurable levels of Bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical that has been linked to a wide array of health issues such as reproductive abnormalities, cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Here at TakePart we’ve discussed the dangers of BPA extensively, and hopefully this frightening new report will encourage the FDA to set stricter safety standards for BPA levels and ultimately strengthen efforts to ban BPA in materials that come into contact with food. Read the rest of this entry >>

The official Food, Inc. Discussion Guide is now available for download providing teachers with the resources to guide classroom conversations about the eye-opening documentary for student audiences, high school age and older.  The snazzy and impressively thorough 103-page guide was developed by the Center for Ecoliteracy, and offers questions and activities based around the film’s themes, including health, sustainability, animal welfare, and workers rights.

The lesson plans are designed to help students make more thoughtful decisions about food and participate in a meaningful dialogue about food and food systems.  I really wish I had been able to see and discuss Food, Inc. when I was in high school, as it would have challenged me to think more deeply about the significance of where our food comes from, and how the choices we make three times a day, can have a tremendous impact on the planet and our health. Read the rest of this entry >>

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Eating a diet high in processed food has been shown to increase the risk of depression according to a new study from the UK. Personally I’ve found that I feel more sluggish and down when I eat additive-laden sweets and fried foods, compared with the brightness and mental acuity that eating whole foods brings, so I’m not particularly surprised by the finding.  Hopefully it will encourage more people to increase their intake of whole grains, fish and fresh fruits and vegetables.  Read the rest of this entry >>

Speaking of Fox News former TakePart blogger Kerry Truman just alerted me (via Twitter) to a frustrating rant from Glenn Beck about vegetarianism (which seems to be all over the place these days). In it Beck expresses his disgust with Meatless Mondays (whom we love here at TakePart) a group that recently partnered with Baltimore city schools to stop the schools from serving meat one day a week.

Beck’s rant is below.

Here are just a few of the problems with what he said. Read the rest of this entry >>

IBM has just announced a new iPhone application called Breadcrumbs, which will give consumers detailed information about food when they scan the barcode of packages in the grocery store.  While some of the features of the soon-to-be-released app sound  useful, such as checking for product recalls, I’m suspicious about how thoroughly the program will actually be allow you to “follow your food from farm to fork” as the tagline suggests.

Most grocery items that are printed with a barcode usually contain a long list of ingredients, many of which have passed through a number processing and distribution centers, making traceability a daunting, if not impossible task.  One hope is that upon learning more about the tangled web of the industrial food system, shoppers will be more inclined to purchase items that can be more clearly tracked, particularly when they can learn more about the farmer that actually grew the food, rather than a mysterious supply chain.  Read the rest of this entry >>