Free Republic

The processed food industry is struggling to come to grips with a more educated consumer. Gone are the days where government and mass-media could completely sway the buying habits of the American public as they did in the past. Today mainstream media is still largely financed by big industry, from pharmaceuticals to processed food to automobiles, and as Americans change their buying habits it is very likely mainstream media will also die a slow death. It would be wrong to assume that the processed food industry will simply change and start producing healthy food, however. Instead, they will try to...

Yes, greek yogurt is delicious, nutritious, and surprisingly cost-effective. But, we admit we’d never really thought about this consequence of making it our go-to breakfast snack. It turns out that one of the byproducts of greek yogurt production is a little thing called acid whey. It’s a runny substance that is remarkably bad for the environment: If acid whey is dumped, its decomposition can deplete ecosystems of oxygen, killing fishy inhabitants. But, with the continuously growing popularity of that delicious yogurt — it now accounts for $2 billion of the $6 billion yogurt market — finding an ecologically responsible way...

The New York senator helps land a sweetheart deal for a politically-connect yogurt company.Starting this month, the United States Department of Agriculture has announced that it will test out a new product in school lunches—high-protein, a.k.a. Greek-style yogurt—in four different states. Yet, what seems like an innocuous, even reasonable addition to the menu of foods offered to American public school students upon inspection turns out to be the latest example of corrupt nanny-statism masquerading as “for the kids” do-goodism.The USDA argues that Greek-style yogurt is better for kids because it has more protein. And given Michelle Obama’s new National School...

First, Michelle Obama called for healthier school lunches -- and kids complained that the first lady's menus left them hungry. Now, the United States Department of Agriculture has green-lighted a pilot program to serve trendy Greek yogurt in school cafeterias in New York, Idaho, Arizona, and Tennessee. If all goes well this fall, Greek yogurt may became a staple in Washington's $11 billion school lunch program in some 100,000 schools. In one sense, it's an example of America's growing European Union-style nanny state -- not to mention crony capitalism and insider influence. Two of the biggest cheerleaders of Greek yogurt...