What’s going on in Food Politics this week?

• The government is finally cracking down on all these food companies that have been emblazoning their food-like products with specious health claims such as “Heart Healthy,” “Good for You,” “A Better Choice” and “Smart Choices.” The Washington Post reported earlier this week that the FDA is concerned about these ‘inaccurate” labels and plans on creating a uniform labeling system by early next year. FDA commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, a mother of two, feels it’s her personal and professional responsibility to monitor such labeling, ensuring that consumers can trust what they read on packaging again. Reporter Lyndsey Layton writes:

“There are products that have gotten the [Smart Choices] check marks that are almost 50 percent sugar,” said Hamburg, who sent a letter to industry Tuesday outlining the FDA’s intentions. “Products with symbols stating they provide a high percentage of daily vegetable requirements and other nutrients but neglect to mention they represent 80 percent of your daily fat allowance. There are those with zero percent trans fats on the front [label] but don’t indicate that they contain very high percentages of saturated fats.”

Nutritionist Marion Nestle, on her blog, thinks the “Smart Choices” campaign, which designated Fruit Loops, Skippy’s peanut butter, and Cocoa Krispies as healthy, was the last straw. I’d like to think that those of us who joined in Change.org’s letter-writing campaign also nudged the FDA.

• Speaking of Change.org, their Sustainable Food section is a fantastic read. This week, I enjoyed Katherine Gustafson’s post on Bill Gates’ appearance at the World Food Prize in Iowa, where he announced that he and Melinda have committed $120 million to smallholder farmers in the developing world.  “Melinda and I believe that helping the poorest small-holder farmers grow more crops and get them to market is the world’s single most powerful lever for reducing hunger and poverty,” Gates said, according to Gustafson.

• Over at La Vida Locavore, Jill Richardson reports on the Institute of Medicine’s sane recommendations for the new National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs standards. (Which apparently ag secretary Tom Vilsack is previewing on a conference call today.) Richardson makes the distinction between the federally-reimbursed school lunch program (which is overseen by the USDA and hasn’t been updated since ‘95) and everything else (which is not overseen by the USDA and actually has no nutritional standards whatsoever). And then writes, “My biggest fear is that any changes to school food policy will be based on what Michael Pollan calls ‘nutritionism:’ i.e. regulations calling for lunches to contain specific nutrients instead of specific foods. And, as the people who market Rice Krispies understand, you can take a relatively junky food and fortify it until it appears very healthy (the back of the Rice Krispies box touts all of the nutrients in the cereal, even though it’s basically nothing more than fortified refined grains and sugar.)”

• OK, so this has nothing to do with politics, but my hometown of Salem, Oregon made it into the New York Times Dining section this week! Lucy Burningham wrote an excellent piece about Sodbuster hop farm and fresh-hop beer. Though I guess drinking a local, seasonal beer (knowing your hop farmer and all) is part of the locavore trend, and knowing where your beer originates (a farm!) is a subject I’ve covered here in the past. Burningham writes, “In Oregon and Washington, hop farmers call brewers hours before a harvest, when plants (called bines — vines without tendrils) have reached perfect ripeness. Brewers will drop everything when they get the call. Newborn baby at home? Too bad. Fresh hops require even more coddling. Personally making the pick up has become a ritual for brewers who like to be reminded of beer’s agricultural roots.”

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