QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Food politics underlie all politics in the United States. There is no industry more important to Americans, more fundamentally linked to our well-being and the future well-being of our children. Nestle reveals how corporate control of the nation's food system limits our choices and threatens our health. If you eat, you should read this book." - Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation
Rhino here:
I've recently co-produced an exercise video for American Indians entitled, "RezRobics", and a comedy companion video entitled "RezRobics For Couch Potato Skins". This project was inspired by the epidemic of diabetes currently spreading through Indian communities caused by decades of living on the corporate TV promoted "American diet" of high carbs, high sugars and high fat. The diabetes epidemic is not only in Indian country but is taking off in every community in the world where TV, convenience stores and fast food windows exist. The "grow your own veggies" movement of the 60's and 70's was no flower child illusion. Let the buyer (and eater) beware.
"Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health" by Marion Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H.
We all witness, in advertising and on supermarket shelves, the fierce competition for our food dollars. In this engrossing exposé, Marion Nestle goes behind the scenes to reveal how the competition really works and how it affects our health. The abundance of food in the United States - enough calories to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child twice over - has a downside. Our over efficient food industry must do everything possible to persuade people to eat more - more food, more often, and in larger portions - no matter what it does to waistlines or well-being.
Like manufacturing cigarettes or building weapons, making food is very big business. Food companies in 2000 generated nearly $900 billion in sales. They have stakeholders to please, shareholders to satisfy, and government regulations to deal with. It is nevertheless shocking to learn precisely how food companies lobby officials, co-opt experts, and expand sales by marketing to children, members of minority groups, and people in developing countries. We learn that the food industry plays politics as well as or better than other industries, not least because so much of its activity takes place outside the public view.
Editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, Nestle is uniquely qualified to lead us through the maze of food industry interests and influences. She vividly illustrates food politics in action: watered-down government dietary advice, schools pushing soft drinks, diet supplements promoted as if they were First Amendment rights. When it comes to the mass production and consumption of food, strategic decisions are driven by economics - not science, not common sense, and certainly not health.
No wonder most of us are thoroughly confused about what to eat to stay healthy. An accessible and balanced account, Food Politics will forever change the way we respond to food industry marketing practices. By explaining how much the food industry influences government nutrition policies and how cleverly it links its interests to those of nutrition experts, this path breaking book helps us understand more clearly than ever before what we eat and why.
Click here to see the Table of Contents
TO READ A LESSON PLAN ON FOOD POLITICS FROM THE N.Y.TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/20020219tuesday.html
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law ( http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html ).
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Rhino's Weblog is the responsibility of The Rhino.
Gary Rhine
rhino@kifaru.com
http://www.kifaru.com
http://www.dreamcatchers.org
http://radio.weblogs.com/0103207/
8:13:03 AM 
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