Free Republic

The front page of Sunday's Sacramento Bee features the Center for Consumer Freedom and its "counteroffensive" against lawmakers and activists who push for excessive regulations on our favorite foods and drinks. Anti-soda crusader Harold Goldstein tells the Bee that Americans simply can't be trusted with the complex task of feeding themselves. "The delusion is that we all make free choices," he insists. While Goldstein's rhetoric seems outrageous to most, inside the increasingly influential world of the food police, there's nothing unusual about it at all. Indeed, it's hard to find a card-carrying member of the Gastronomical Gestapo who doesn't dismiss...

The World Health Organization, whose mission involves tackling the scourges of AIDS and Malaria, now spends its valuable time and resources fretting that people like to eat steak and drink soda pop. Late last week, WHO released its "draft global strategy on diet, physical activity and health." Following this development, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a Saturday feature titled: "WHO wants 'Twinkie tax' to discourage junk foods." When Kelly Brownell first proposed the Twinkie tax, only reliable food scolds like the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) thought it was a good idea. But now "sin" taxes on foods...

Forget that relaxing glass of wine, unless you want the neo-wowsers screaming 'bad role model', writes Miranda Devine. There is a certain type of person ever present in Australian life, devising ways to deny pleasure to the rest of the population. In Norman Lindsay's day wowsers were churchgoers purse-lipped about nudity. But now that the churches are empty and their moral restraints cast aside, today's wowsers have had to find fresh fun to eradicate, like alcohol, cigarettes, Big Macs, vanilla Coke, cars and air-conditioning. The neo-wowsers are obsessed with health and eco-concerns in just as mean and censorious a way...

When you see the American Heart Association's "heart healthy" label, you have some additional, helpful information about the product you're buying. That seems simple and obvious. But European bureaucrats have decided that their subjects are too stupid to handle such information. New rules governing food labels in Europe, would "put an end to endorsements by doctors or other health experts, because they might suggest that not eating the specified food could lead to health problems" (emphasis ours). Thankfully, the U.S. is going in the opposite direction. The FDA will allow "qualified health claims" on more products -- a move that,...

Tomorrow the misnamed Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) will hold an "Integrity in Science" conference where attendees will "learn how corporate dollars are used to buy scientists." CSPI's implicit assumption is that any scientific research -- whether on clean energy, food technology, or life-saving pharmaceuticals -- is inherently suspect if any of its support comes from corporate sources. Rather than judge the scientists, CSPI would judge their grantmakers. And of course any criticism of CSPI's brand of "scientific" research coming from corporate-funded sources is inherently flawed. CSPI itself refuses corporate support, so its scientific research should be...

January 8, 2003 A "Moderate" Prohibition A new study by Center for Science In the Public Interest isn't in the public interest. By Ronald Bailey "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lacks both the authority and the information to adequately evaluate the safety of genetically engineered (GE) foods," claims the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) in a just-released study. An uncritical Washington Post story about the study describes CSPI as "moderate" on the issue because the activist group claims it is not in principle opposed to genetically enhanced crops. But with this new report, they join...

The Other Fake MeatFriday, August 30, 2002 By Steven Milloy You might think the anti-meat food police at the Center for Science in the Public Interest would be cheering the new meat substitute Quorn. Instead, CSPI is scaring the public and bad-mouthing Quorn to the Food and Drug Administration. Quorn is "the processed cellular mass that is obtained from the filamentous fungus Fusarium venenatum strain PTA-2684," according to the manufacturer's application to the FDA. The fungus by-product was approved in the U.K. in 1985 and is the top-selling meat substitute in Europe. The FDA approved Quorn in the U.S. last...

<p>You might think the anti-meat food police at the Center for Science in the Public Interest would be cheering the new meat substitute Quorn.</p> <p>Instead, CSPI is scaring the public and bad-mouthing Quorn to the Food and Drug Administration.</p> <p>Quorn is "the processed cellular mass that is obtained from the filamentous fungus Fusarium venenatum strain PTA-2684," according to the manufacturer's application to the FDA. The fungus by-product was approved in the U.K. in 1985 and is the top-selling meat substitute in Europe.</p>

July 17, 2002 We, the jury, find the defendant “starchy”On April 24, Swedish scientists announced that a chemical called “acrylamide” had been found in rice, potatoes, and cereals -- all starchy foods that are usually cooked at high temperatures. During the following months, two separate groups of California trial lawyers announced plans to sue a wide range of restaurants and food manufacturers, based on the premise that the acrylamide in French fries, potato chips, and breakfast cereals is putting the public in grave danger. The first “notice of intent to sue” was filed only 7 days after the Swedes announced...

It was 1997, and the tobacco companies were on the ropes. Facing a rash of lawsuits from state attorneys general seeking billions of dollars in reimbursement for what they claimed were the Medicaid costs of smoking-related diseases, the companies were about to agree to an unprecedented settlement with the states. Under that settlement, the major tobacco companies would pay the states more than $200 billion, accept sweeping restrictions on cigarette advertising and pay $1.5 billion for an antismoking campaign. While very few editorialists had much sympathy for the tobacco companies, many wondered what kind of precedents these lawsuits would...

The same group that said Chinese food, popcorn and soft drinks were no good for us, is now targeting another of America's favorite food items - pizza. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) releases a report Friday, detailing its nutritional analysis of the pizza served at some of America's most successful restaurants. Representatives of the food industry are already firing back, labeling the authors of the pizza report, the "food police" and criticizing them for "thinking people are stupid." John Doyle, co-founder of the Center for Consumer Freedom, an advocacy arm of the restaurant and food and...