Jennifer E. Gaddis and Sarah A. Robert.  Transforming School Food Politics Around the World.  MIT Press, 2024 (322 pages)

This is an edited volume describing programs and policies to improve school food in the United Sttates, but also Japan, Canada, Peru, Finland, India, Brazil, and South Korea.

Every country does school food its own way.  Only three countries—India, Brazil, and South Korea—have universal school meals, although some U.S. states do too (one chapter explains how states managed it).

Overall, the chapters explain what school food advocates are doing and what works.

If you are interested in school food advocacy, this book is your Bible.

It is especially so because it is Open Access.  You don’t believe this?  Here is a link to a pdf of the entire book.

Even more, the authors wrote a guide to the book with chapter-by-chapter discussion questions, activities, and other resources useful for college classes and practitioner book clubs.  This too is Open Access: here is the link to the study guide.

Enjoy!  And use!

By the time the FDA posted this outbreak alert, the cucumbers had all been picked, shipped, and done their damage.

The outbreak

Total Illnesses: 449
Hospitalizations: 125
Deaths: 0
Last Illness Onset: June 4, 2024
States with Cases: AL, AR, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT, WA, WI [31 states]

The CDC investigation:  Of 188 people interviewed (69%) reported eating cucumbers.

The product

cucumbers distributed by Fresh Start Produce Sales, Inc. and grown by Bedner Growers, Inc., of Boynton Beach, FL. Recalled cucumbers are beyond shelf life and should no longer be available for sale to consumers in stores.  Bedner Growers, Inc.’s growing and harvesting seasons are over. There is no product from this farm on the market and likely no ongoing risk to the public.

The self-protective reaction

According to Food Safety News,

the Florida Department of Agriculture (FDOA) called the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) tracing of a Salmonella outbreak to a local cucumber grower “at best inaccurate, and at worst misleading.” Apparently, the head of food safety at the FDOA, who told the FDA in an email “We find the science inaccurate, unsubstantiated and unnecessarily damaging to the firm implicated.”

Comment

This outbreak is worth special attention, not least because so many people were affected in so many states, and the cucumbers were gone by the time investigators knew they were the most likely cause.

• Half the cases were due to a new kind of Salmonella, S. Braenderup.
• The FDA idenified S. Braenderup in untreated canal water used for irrigation.

Salmonella in the water?  This means there must be some kind of enormous CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operation) nearby, spilling its cattle, dairy, or poutry waste into local streams.

The regulatory issues

This brings me to law professor Timothy Lytton’s latest paper on precisely this issue:  Lytton, Timothy D., Known Unknowns: Unmeasurable Hazards and the Limits of Risk Regulation (July 02, 2024). Oklahoma Law Review, Vol. 76, No. 4, p. 857, 2024.

This Article develops general principles for addressing known unknowns using a case study of efforts to regulate agricultural water quality. Contaminated water used to cultivate fresh produce is a well-known cause of recurrent foodborne illness outbreaks. Unfortunately, it has, so far, proven impossible to reliably quantify the risk of human illness from any given source of agricultural water.

At least one problem here is the split in regulatory authority between FDA (cucumbers) and USDA (animals).  FDA has no authority over CAFOs.  Its authority stops at the farm.  How is the cucumber farmer supposed to stop toxic forms of Salmonella from getting onto cucumber fields?

That is the insoluble regulatory problem Lytton’s piece addresses.

As I keep saying, eating less is bad for business.

If you need proof, just look at how the food industry is scrambling to figure out what to do in response to the effects of GLP-1 drugs in decreasing appetite and food “noise.”

Here are a few examples.

The threat

Weight loss drugs may be melting US ice cream demand: Demand for frozen dairy products in the US has been declining for decades. Consumers’ growing interest in GLP-1 weight loss products is putting further pressure on demand…. Read more

Ozempic’s Effect on Food Innovation: Anti-obesity drugs have dropped on the food business in the last year like ChatGPT has dropped on the world. And according to experts assembled for a recent Mattson webinar on the topic, the effects of new appetite suppressants including Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound have only begun to be felt among American consumers and the food industry that sells to them.

The promise

Nestlé introduces Vital Pursuit brand to support GLP-1 users in the US: Nestlé is introducing Vital Pursuit, a new line of foods intended to be a companion for GLP-1 weight loss medication users and consumers focused on weight management in the US. The products are high in protein, a good source of fiber, contain essential nutrients, and they are portion-aligned to a weight loss medication user’s appetite. The new line is also well-suited to support a balanced diet for anyone on a weight management journey. Vital Pursuit is the first food brand from Nestlé intended for GLP-1 users with the goal of complementing the eating habits of millions of Americans who are currently prescribed a weight loss medication or actively working to manage their weight.

Food Companies Want a Piece of the Ozempic Pie, Too: Last fall, word of a looming existential threat to the packaged food industry began to bubble up in earnings calls and among analysts. Drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, experts feared, could be a little too effective at curtailing people’s cravings for snacks and sweets, and if too many people got on the drugs, their changing habits could eventually do the industry real harm. Could buyers begin to forsake Doritos and Oreos and Pizza Bagels?

Danone Targets Health, Nutrition as Food Industry Braces for Ozempic Era: The food company is targeting like-for-like sales growth of 3%-5% for the 2025 to 2028 period, with operating income rising at a faster pace than sales. Danone plans to double down on health and nutrition in the coming years as food companies seek to tackle the effects of Ozempic and other blockbuster weight-loss drugs on eating habits.

Supergut’s Marc Washington on ‘Ozempic era’ opportunity: The IPA World Congress + Probiota Americas 2024 in Salt Lake City highlighted many of the innovations happening in the prebiotics space, including how GLP-1s are impacting the category…. Watch now

I subscribe to The Hagstrom Report, not least because Jerry Hagstrom reports on items I might not see otherwise.  Here’s one:

Kroger, Albertsons release list of stores to be sold: The Kroger Co. and Albertsons Companies have released the list of stores they intend to sell if their acquisition plan is approved.

He conveniently provided links to Kroger-Albertsons’ list of stores to be divested, and also to an article about the divestments with a handy map.

From the map, you can see that most stores will be divested in the West: Washington (124 store), Arizona (101), Colorado (91), California (63), and Oregon (62).

One reason why the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the merger is evident: there will be fewer grocery stores available.  Other reasons: less competition between the chains, and more power over employee wages, benefits, and working conditions.

The proposal says 579 stores will be sold to a new owner, C&S Wholesale Grocers.

Kroger’s says: “You’ll see that the 579 stores and other assets to be divested were thoughtfully chosen to allow C&S to succeed in the geographies and maintain – if not increase – the level of competition that consumers benefit from.”

The FTC’s oroginal press release explained why the merger is not a good idea:

The FTC charges that the proposed deal will eliminate fierce competition between Kroger and Albertsons, leading to higher prices for groceries and other essential household items for millions of Americans…lower quality products and services, while also narrowing consumers’ choices for where to shop for groceries. For thousands of grocery store workers…[the merger] would immediately erase aggressive competition for workers, threatening the ability of employees to secure higher wages, better benefits, and improved working conditions…executives for both supermarket chains have conceded that Kroger’s acquisition of Albertsons is anticompetitive, with one executive reacting candidly to the proposed deal: “you are basically creating a monopoly in grocery with the merger.”

Monopolies are never good for consumers.  Let’s hope the FTC holds firm on denying this merger.

The title of this article triggered my usual question: Who paid for this?  I cannot think of any reason other than marketing this supplement for doing a study like this.

Multi-nutrient supplementation of astaxanthin, vitamin E and grape juice improves episodic memory, cognitive performance – RCT:  A study has found that 12 weeks of multi-nutrient supplementation, comprising astaxanthin, vitamin E and grape juice extract, resulted in improved episodic memory and several biomarkers associated with cognitive health…. Read more

The study: Lopresti AL, Smith SJ, Riggs ML, Major RA, Gibb TG, Wood SM, Hester SN, Knaggs HE. An Examination into the Effects of a Nutraceutical Supplement on Cognition, Stress, Eye Health, and Skin Satisfaction in Adults with Self-Reported Cognitive Complaints: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. Nutrients. 2024; 16(11):1770. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16111770

Method: adults aged 40 to 70 years with subjective memory complaints were randomized to take a supplement containing vitamin E, astaxanthin, and grape juice extract daily for 12 weeks or a matching placebo.

Outcomes:  Changes in cognitive tasks assessing episodic memory, working memory, and verbal memory., speed of information processing, attention, and self-report measures of memory, stress, and eye and skin health.

Results: “Compared to the placebo, nutritional supplementation was associated with larger improvements in one primary outcome measure comprising episodic memory (p = 0.037), but not for working memory (p = 0.418) or verbal learning (p = 0.841). Findings from secondary and exploratory outcomes demonstrated that the nutraceutical intake was associated with larger improvements in the Everyday Memory Questionnaire (p = 0.022), increased plasma brain-derived neurotrophic factor (p = 0.030), decreased plasma malondialdehyde (p = 0.040), and increased skin carotenoid concentrations (p = 0.006). However, there were no group differences in changes in the remaining outcome measures.”

Conclusions: “The results from this 12-week study provide some support for the cognitive-enhancing effects of a nutraceutical containing astaxanthin, vitamin E, and grape juice extract in adults with self-reported memory complaints. This was demonstrated by improvements in one primary outcome measure (episodic memory) but not working memory or verbal learning.”

IPES Food (International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems) has a new report,  Food From Somewhere: Building food security and resilience through territorial markets.

The report argues that territorial food systems are better able to promote food security than industrial food systems.  This is because “corporate controlled global food chains offer a flawed recipe for food security, and are full of risks and vulnerabilities:

• the exposure of industrial commodity production to climate shocks;
• the diversion of valuable resources into ultraprocessed foods, livestock feed, and fuel;
• the standardization of diets around wheat, rice, and maize, and the growing reliance on a handful of crops and commodity exporters for global calorie intake;
• the bottlenecks in fragmented and geographically-dispersed global chains;
• the vast energy requirements built into high-tech digitalized supply chains – and
• the dangers of making global food security contingent on ‘just-in-time’ supply chains that do not work all the time.”

The remedy: “we found that territorial markets are the backbone of food systems in many countries and regions, and make critical contributions to food security, equity, and sustainability, while building resilience on multiple fronts.”

By territorial, they mean regional, local, close-to-home markets, with short supply chains.

The report comes with a video introduction.

Chinese scientists have published Global Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

This exceptionally well written paper lists obesity prevalence for nearly 200 countries.

From this chart, regional variations are evident.

The prevalence of pediatric obesity in the US is 18.6%, while that in Japan, another high-income country, is 3.9%. Differences in dietary habits may play a role in this disparity. European countries and the US often embrace a diet preference of processed food, which are typically abundant in unhealthy fats, added sugars, and refined carbohydrates. In contrast, diets rich in whole grains and vegetables, which are generally regarded as healthier options, have historically been prioritized in Southeast Asian countries.

The paper describes factors associated with childhood obesity:

• age
• sex
• school type
• maternal obesity
• having breakfast
• number of meals per day
• hours of playing on the computer per day
• maternal smoking in pregnancy
• birthweight
• regular exercise
• sleep duration

Some are fixed and can’t be changed.  But most can.  This list suggests a range of policy options, all of them worth consideration.

Obesity prevalence is increasing among children.  We need to act now.

There is much fuss these days over the American Heritage Foundation’s extreme right-wing 2025 Mandate for Leadership project, and whether presidential candidate Donald Trump supports it or not and, if so, to what extent (see account in The Guardian).

The Project 2025 plan includes calls for replacing civil servants with Trump loyalists, eliminating the education department, putting the justice department under the president’s thumb and banning the abortion pill…Among the plan’s more drastic proposals are to fire thousands of permanent civil servants and replace them with hired conservative Trump loyalists, dismantling the federal education department, asserting presidential power over the Department of Justice – which is nominally independent – and a ban on the abortion pill.

The 2025 project’s 900 pages aim to pack the government with extreme radical conservatives, make them political appointees, and put them in charge of—and staffing—every government department.

Overall, this blueprint for destroying any inconvenient aspect of government says “trust markets, not government.”

I took a quick look at the agenda for federal agencies dealing with food issues.  Here are a few things I noticed.

USDA

Understand that the word “reform” in this context means “dismantle.”

• Proactively Defend Agriculture [stop focusing on climate change and renewable energy]
• Reform Farm Subsidies; repeal the sugar program [hard to argue with this one]
• Separate the agricultural provisions of the farm bill from the nutrition provisions [SNAP]; Move the USDA food and nutrition programs to the Department of Health and Human Services.
• Reform SNAP: reimplement work requirements; reform eligibility; reevaluate the Thrifty Food Plan
• Reform WIC; reevaluate excessive regulation of infant formula
• Reform school meals [translation: reduce participation]; reject universal school meals
• Eliminate checkoff programs [again, hard to argue]
• Remove obstacles to agricultural biotechnology [e.g., GMOs]

FDA

As far as I can tell, the plan only deals with FDA’s oversight of abortion and other drugs.  It says not one word about undermining the FDA’s oversight of foods and food safety [I’m guessing this an oversight].

EPA

Most of the discussion is about getting the EPA to stop fretting about climate change.  But take a look at this one:

• Revisit the designation of PFAS chemicals as “hazardous substances”

FTC

The report asks: Should the FTC Enforce Antitrust—or Even Continue to Exist?

On the other hand, it tosses in “The FTC should examine platforms’ advertising and contract making with children as a deceptive or unfair trade practice, perhaps requiring written parental consent.”

Other provisions

Basically, the aim of this document is to give the Republican President a roadmap for replacing one deep state with another that favors conservative business interests and ideology.

John Oliver explains all this better than I can.

The bottom line in a seemingly impossible situation

• You must not vote for Trump.
• You must vote for Biden.
• Sitting this out or voting for a third-party candidate is a de facto vote for Trump. Not a good idea.

Here’s cartoonist Clay Bennett’s take on it..