There are a lot of actions undertaken by PETA of which most people are unaware.  One of them is buying stock in publicly traded meat companies, such as Tyson. 

According to a story on Meatingplace, PETA owns stock in several companies as part of a campaign to influence these companies through stockholder’s meetings.  As stock prices plunge, PETA has been forced to buy more stock in these companies to maintain the minimum level of at $2000 worth to participate in the meetings.

I’m all for stockholders having a say and holding public companies accountable for their actions.  I’m adamant about humane treatment for all God’s creatures (our ranch’s founding principle is “respect for all life”).  I’m not a fan of PETA.  PETA doesn’t want animals treated humanely, they want to abolish all use of animals and their environment for human sustenance, comfort or entertainment.  I put no trust in an organization that will use any ends to their means, including causing harm to animals and people.

PETA’s participation in these companies will not be primarily for reform, but publicity. 

We’ve blogged about home food safety here more times than I can count.  It hit home (literally) last night.

My boys go to a Montessori school where they have access to a kitchen.  Lunch is truly part of their curriculum, a place where they discuss nutrition, recycling and also honor healthy food and communal dining.   They are encouraged to bring “oven food”, in glass containers or wrapped in foil to heat up in the oven (no microwaves allowed) so they can have a hot lunch.  As a sidebar, it is very gratifying to have your children choose a bowl of homemade beef stew for lunch over PB&J!

Yesterday’s lunch was “stuffed hamburgers”.   My son forgot to put his dish on the oven tray at lunch time for heating, so was not able to heat it up.  He chose not to eat it cold (can you blame him?), but apparently go hungry about 3 pm between the end of school and start of his afternoon Performing Arts class, so ate his now 8-hour old, non-refrigerated hamburger. I’ll spare you the details of what happened when he got home about 6 pm.

This was our home-grown beef, ground and frozen straight from a USDA-inspected carcass at a plant whose cleanliness I see with my own eyes each month.  The meat was cooked properly and placed in the refrigerator immediately after we finished our supper.  My son has a very sensitive palate–often declaring the milk to be ‘off’ days before the rest of us suspect anything.  He said the burger was delicious.  The failure here was that he has an uninsulated lunch box, so foods like leftovers and sandwhiches should NEVER be eaten if not consumed at lunch.

Fortunately, the onset of what I can only attribute to food poisoning was so rapid that Eric does not seem to be suffering any after effects this morning.

I think when he gets home from school today we’ll  be making an online visit to the FSIS’s mobile food safety game.

Happy Cow-loween:  Visit Cattle4Kids.com for some fun pictures, games and information about cattle, 4-H and related topics.  (picture courtesy of Beef Daily’s “Halloween Cowboy Style“)

Halloween Junk Food at Whole Foods: My friend, Dr. Rita-Marie, is fired up (read that po’d) that Whole Foods is pimping white flour, white sugar, food coloring-frosted cookies as Halloween Treats.  So much for “nutrients intact, as nature created” (the supposed Whole Foods motto).

Food Safety Gone Astray: A November ‘teach-in’ about how recent changes in agri-business practices implemented in the name of “food safety” have had harmful environmental effects.  In particular, changes in production after the e-coli-in-spinach outbreak may have negative effect on wildlife with dubious value to food safety.

Field Guide to Organic Labels:  An op-ed piece from Kansas puts organic labels and the decision to buy in perspective.

Ladies — here’s a verified warning from my PTA listserv.  Sherwood brand Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate coins are being recalled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency because they contain Melamine, the ingredient that has caused many infant deaths in China.  These candies are sold at Costco and many bulk and dollar stores.  Please check your children’s Halloween candy and DO NOT LET THEM EAT THE PIRATE COINS (those wrapped in the shiny gold foil — picture below).  Please let other parents know about this!

OH FOR THE DAYS WHEN PIRATING WAS SAFE!!!!

See recalled candy and actual Halloween pirate below.

According to a study released by the Environmental Working Group, bottled water is no better than filtered tap water, despite being considerably more expensive (not to mention the carbon footprint of bottles and transportation, or the reports of phlalates from the bottles!).

• Many bottled waters use municipal water sources that have been filtered or otherwise purified.  As much as I complain about Cameron, TX tap water, I’m not sure I’d rather be drinking water from Las Vegas or Houston.
• Bottled water manufacturers are not required to disclose test results for contaminants, unlike municipal water.  The report showed that faith in bottled water purity is not always well-founded
• The same chemical profile is found in many bottled waters as in tap water.  Those images of mountain springs don’t have much to do with the source or the purity.

I geeked the study, and it passed the transparency test of having the actual data available.  Although somewhat alarmist in its executive summary, the basic truths have not been twisted.

The bottom line:  You are better off financially and environmentally buying a good water purification system for your own tap water.

Kids cereals still too sugary.  According to Consumer Reports, 11 top kids cereals have as much sugar as a glazed donut, and two are more than 50% sugar by weight.  Best bets for fiber and low sugar? Cheerios, Kix, Honey Nut Cheerios (all General Mills), and Life (Quaker Oats).

 The Organic Milk Debate: Is big the same as bad? Consumers and activist groups are saying yes.  Do industrial-scale organic farms violate the intentions of the organic laber, or is it the next step in bringing organic to the masses?

Eating Healthy on a Budget:  Lots of links and tips in this post from BlogHer.  I’m still a fan of more fresh, less processed, more home-grown and home-cooked.

Bill of Rights for Young Athletes.  From Arizona Mama.  Not food-safety related, but relevant to all of us who have school-age children involved in athletics or any other myriad of activities.  Hitting home for me in particular is every child’s right (athlete or not) to be treated with dignity.

Yo-Yo powered i-phone charger.  From Ecogeek.  Several times cooler, more convenient, and better for the environment than a solar powered charger.  Not sure you’ll be seeing this one the market any time soon, but it’s a fun idea!

Although parents play a key role in ensuring that the food our family eats is safe, kids need to know about food safety too.

Here’s some things kids can do (along with the whole family):

Wash and Dry your hands before you make or eat a snack or meal.

Put back packs on the floor, not the counter (or desk or other eating surface).  Same goes for purses, btw.

Put foods like milk, yogurt, lunch meat and eggs back in the refrigerator right away. 

Use separate cutting boards for meats versus fruits and veggies.

Use ice packs in lunchboxes and picnic baskets. Throw away uneaten lunch box leftovers.

Some cool links and tools: (thanks to Keep Schools Safe pointing me to these)

Food Safety Coloring Book

Track Bac-a mobile food safety game  (this one’s particularly fun)

Tips for Packing a Safe Lunch

Kid’s World-Food Safety  

Food Safety Activity Book

New information keeps coming in about the milk crisis in China. The FDA has issued a warning against consuming Mr. Brown label products and White Rabbit Creamy Candy based on a recall of melamine tainted goods in Taiwan and China.

This is the first indication of the milk crisis affecting our buying habits here in America, so it’s especially important to get our facts straight on this one.

Despite the warnings, the FDA still has found no traces of melamine in any goods entering the United States. These advisories were put out as a precautionary measure since major global food companies have been touched by the ongoing crisis.

They are still on the lookout for any dangerous imports, but so far there have been no hazardous products found or any cases of illness reported in the U.S.  Though some blogs have blown this news wildly out of proportion.

While the situation is still very serious and requires vigilance, all indications show that the FDA is acting responsibly by trying to head off even the remote possibility of unsafe groceries hitting supermarket shelves. They are doing a commendable job thus far.

It’s an unavoidable fact of life that a globalized food market means that we’re never completely isolated from problems on the other side of the world. But it’s important to rely on reliable information to find out what those problems are and how fully they may affect our families.

Does Eating Local really do any good?  Economic Sense makes the case for increased efficiency of production as a viable way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, rather than eliminating whole types of food.  Revisit our earlier post on the same National Geographic article.

The case of the disappearing supermarket:  From Chow.  Critics argue that San Francisco’s trend away from big supermarkets and toward smaller groceries (like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods) is harmful to those with lower incomes.  Chow maintains “The fact that, in general, high-calorie food is cheaper than fruits and vegetables is entirely unrelated to supermarkets”.

PETA asks Ben and Jerry’s to use human breast milk instead of cow’s milk .  From Barfblog.  Ben and Jerry’s responded by saying, “We applaud PETA’s novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother’s milk is best used for her child.”

Lead warnings from SmartMama. One in 10 children in the United States has blood lead levels about 5 micrograms lead per deciliter of blood according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Here’s a good update on lead sources in children, including a cool device that tests for lead, cadmium and other heavy metals on toys and surfaces.

Make it a Green Halloween:  From Natural Family Online.  A grassroots movement to brand treats and other items that are child/environment/people friendly.  Think outside the candy-box.

Eco-choice:  Toilet Paper or Bidet?  I’m not going to spoil it by answering here.  You’ll have to go to Green Daily’s blog to find out.

This weekend my husband casually mentioned that we should no longer allow our kids to buy chocolate milk from convenience stores because it came from China and was contaminated with melamine. In shock, I took to the Internet to figure out whether my children really were at risk, and, if so, how much and what I should do.

First, this is not some silly food scare. This is every mother’s nightmare. The melamine found in baby formula has lead to wide spread illness and a handful of deaths in that China.

It’s only rational for Moms here in the U.S. to ask if this crisis is going to hit our shores anytime soon.

So what did I find out? Well, first, a blog post by the Washington Post scared the pants off of me.

And the numerous disavowals by companies that there was nothing to fear did not necessarily quell my disquiet.

Although multiple articles about how hard the FDA is working to ensure we are all safe were helpful.

After a lot of research and digging (much of it on the FDA website – a true treasure trove of important information), I realized that the short answer is that we’re safe. Most of the panic has occurred because of some multi-national subsidiaries in China, which have found minute traces of melamine that are far under the permitted amount allowed by the highly-restrictive EU standard.

However, none of the goods sold in China ever find their way into the U.S. To be clear, once this crisis broke the FDA did extensive checks of all incoming baby formulas and they turned up nothing. As of this moment not one child in America is affected by this disaster, nor is it likely that any of our children will be in the foreseeable future.

But some bloggers are trying to tangentially tie this latest incident in with other imports from China. But there are consequences in raising red flags too often and about too many products. When you muddle the line between clearly dangerous imports and those that are safe, the buying public gets panicky and makes decisions without clear and reliable information to go on. Making that distinction is of the utmost importance. It separates a genuine crisis from a scare.

Because, let’s face it: A lot of safe and nutritious foods that we buy for our kids at the supermarket are imported. While it’s crucial to have firm standards with which to judge the quality of the groceries we let inside our homes, these standards have to hold up to the facts also.

A well balanced mind to serve well balanced meals.

Baby Formula

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FDA Inspection

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