On November 19th, the American Council on Science and Health met with officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the White House Office of Management and Budget, and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs group to discuss sensible regulations related to the FDA's new authority over tobacco products like cigars, pipes and also tobacco substitutes like e-cigarettes, which are also deemed to be in the group though they are not tobacco (it's a nuanced point - there is no commercially viable way to create nicotine without tobacco.)

Greenpeace is again trying to stop the Philippines from using genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to solve hunger and vitamin deficiency. The group believes, without evidence, that GMOs are “contaminating non ‘GE’ environments and future generations in an unforeseeable and uncontrollable way.”

Dr. Chensheng Lu of Harvard School of Public Health, a nutritionist-turned-bee-expert, says members of Congress are ingesting five neonicotinoid pesticides in the cafeteria.That will get some action. After all, this is the same cafeteria so concerned about sustainability they replaced plastic spoons with corn-based ones that melted in soup and had to be sent to a special composter in emissions-belching trucks. Everyone hated them, they were terrifically expensive, and it took Republicans getting back control of the House of Representatives to undo that policy.

If shade-grown, fair-trade organic no longer gets coos of wishful self-identification from your friends in Malibu, here is a way re-establish your elite credentials: Dog food that is locally grown. Farm-to-table pet food is all the rage. If you want your dog's food to 'explode with flavor', it takes an executive chef to design the meals. If you are on a Paleo diet, your dog can even copy it, though your dog would probably prefer that anyway.

David Katz is solidly against the consensus of scientists when it comes to food. It's no surprise, he is a friend of Dr. Oz. Thus, it is also no surprise he really likes the latest book from Dr. Marion Nestle, which invokes a vast, corporate soda conspiracy, etc. et al.  The problem is that it isn't really a serious work, though books like that never are. Like Dr. Oz, Nestle needs a fact checker, writing that the American Council on Science and Health “depends heavily on funding from corporations that have a financial stake in the scientific debate it aims to shape” and that Coca-Cola is a significant sponsor.

Are you more likely to buy produce if it's picked by hand? Do labels such as local and organic conjure up imagery of small-scale farmers keeping money in the community and sustainable living and no pesticides or fertilizer?It's a myth created by organic trade groups. There is a reason you see few small-scale farms run by anyone over the age of 40. While young idealists may initially invest in them, the reality is there is no substitute for the hard work and it is a lousy retirement plan. Picked by hand? I have to tell you, as someone who actually grew up on a farm that was small scale and the non-technological Idyll created by organic trade groups, there is a reason I got a scholarship to go to college, and that reason was to stop picking things by hand

Remember when television was all white people and that was a bad thing? Now it's somewhat difficult to find that sort of 1950s family. White fathers are instead helpless goofs that need to be rescued by wives or kids.And minorities would like a little less representation, at least in food ads. Hispanic and black youth are disproportionate viewers of ads promoting unhealthy savory and sweet snacks, according to a report published by UCONN Rudd Center for Food Policy&Obesity.

Former anti-science activist who became a GMO advocate Mark Lynas notes that two papers denying science are out at the same time - but their audience is diametrically opposed to each other.Two reports deny scientific consensus on same day: Greenpeace on GMOs https://t.co/vra6Cq5Srt&GWPF on climate: https://t.co/cORzmSbcqx

Dietary supplements - or rather the dangers of dietary supplements - continue to dominate the news of late.Lamar Odom’s ordeal brought public attention to the dangers of “herbal viagra” and a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that unregulated dietary supplements cause tens of thousands of ER visits have both generated national headlines on the dangers of these products. 

It's no secret that various forms of "dark money" fund groups like US Right To Know and political allies like Center for Media and Democracy, which runs the political attack site SourceWatch.But the desperate gambit of using Freedom of Information Act requests to bully scientists into silence has backfired; economists like Dr. Chuck Benbrook have been exposed as conspiring with the entire spectrum of progressive anti-science groups, including the magazine Mother Jones and academics like Dr. Marion Nestle and, of course, Dr. Oz, which had two people from the same organization on his program to foment fear and doubt about food.