By Mark Memmott

An urgent cry for help from one of the world's poorest nations:

"Ethiopia appealed on Thursday for 159,410 tons of emergency aid to feed 6.2 million people, 25 years after more than a million perished in the country's notorious famine," Reuters writes.

As the BBC says, "hunger stalks Ethiopia once again."

The Associated Press notes that "the crisis stems from a drought that has affected much of the Horn of Africa, including Kenya and Somalia."

Oxfam International says a "radical shake-up" of the aid system is needed to break Ethiopia's "cycle of hunger."

Dairy cow manure being spread on fields is contaminating rural wells that supply drinking and bathing water, leading to illnesses. (Chris Stephens / AP Photo/Cleveland Plain Dealer)

By Frank James

Anyone who still has an idealized vision of how healthy it is to live in the nation's rural heartland compared with its suburbs or cities should read the latest installment of the New York Times' "Toxic Waters" series which highlights the problem of rural wells that provide drinking and bathing water for farm families being contaminated by farm runoff.

The thrust of the story is that the federal government isn't doing enough to regulate the practice of large farms, especially dairy farms, spreading cow manure of farmland in an attempt to get rid of the material. This is leading to too much cow manure being applied, which is contaminating rural residents' water wells with E. coli and other harmful bacteria and substances.

The piece focuses on Morrison, Wisconsin about 17 miles south of Green Bay. An excerpt:

n Morrison, more than 100 wells were polluted by agricultural runoff within a few months, according to local officials. As parasites and bacteria seeped into drinking water, residents suffered from chronic diarrhea, stomach illnesses and severe ear infections.

"Sometimes it smells like a barn coming out of the faucet," said Lisa Barnard, who lives a few towns over, and just 15 miles from the city of Green Bay.

Tests of her water showed it contained E. coli, coliform bacteria and other contaminants found in manure. Last year, her 5-year-old son developed ear infections that eventually required an operation. Her doctor told her they were most likely caused by bathing in polluted water, she said.

Continue reading "Cattle-Manure Runoff Making Rural Families Sick (And Urban Ones Too?)" >

U.S. foodmaker Kraft has bid $16 billion to acquire British candymaker Cadbury which has rejected the offer. (Joel Ryan / Press Association via AP Images)

By Frank James

It appears a chocolate war has begun.

Kraft, the huge foodmaker based just outside of Chicago, has made a $16 billion unsolicited but initially friendly bid for Cadbury, the British candy company which has rejected it as too low.

Now it appears Kraft may go the not-so-friendly route, with the American company dropping broad hints it could eventually make a hostile offer if Cadbury doesn't go along nicely.

Meanwhile, there are evidently rumblings that Hershey, the huge Pennsylvania-based chocolate maker, could make its own offer for Cadbury's.

An excerpt from The Wall Street Journal:

Kraft -- which owns brands including Oreos and Velveeta cheese -- could face competition for the U.K. company. Hershey Co., the famed Pennsylvania chocolatier, "is likely to make some response," said one person familiar with the matter. Hershey and Cadbury have discussed combinations before. Hershey distributes Cadbury products in the U.S. under a longtime agreement.

Prior to Kraft going public with its offer on Monday, Cadbury had already rebuffed the advance in private. In publicly rejecting it, Cadbury said the offer, a 31% premium to its closing share price on Friday, "fundamentally undervalues" the company...

Continue reading "Kraft's $16B Bid For Cadbury Launches Chocolate War" >

Nestle Toll House cookie dough in a San Francisco store's refrigerator case in June. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

By Frank James

If you're the Nestle company trying to recover from a food-borne illness crisis affecting one of its popular products -- the raw refrigerated dough for its Toll House cookies -- the timing of a story in today's Washington Post was far from auspicious.

The company reintroduced its Toll House cookies to supermarkets just last week after E. coli contamination led to illnesses in scores of consumers.

Meanwhile, the Post this week ran a feature on Linda Rivera who was gravely sickened by the bacteria E coli O157:H7 linked to raw cookie dough produced by Nestle's plant in Danville, Va.

For a couple of reasons, the story could have a chilling effect of many consumers. One is the severity of Rivera's illness. The other: Nestle hasn't established the cause of the contamination

An excerpt:

Her mute state, punctuated only by groans, is the latest downturn in the swift collapse of her health that began in May when she curled up on her living room couch and nonchalantly ate several spoonfuls of the Nestl?? cookie dough her family had been consuming for years. Federal health officials believe she is among 80 people in 31 states sickened by cookie dough contaminated with a deadly bacteria, E. coli O157:H7.

The impact of the infection has been especially severe for Rivera and nine other victims who developed a life-threatening complication known as hemolytic uremic syndrome. One, a 4-year-old girl from South Carolina, had a stroke and is partially paralyzed...

Continue reading "Nestle's Troubled Toll-House Cookies Return But News Story Doesn't Help" >

By David Gura

Last week on Talk of the Nation, NPR's Linda Wertheimer spoke with Frank Bruni, restaurant critic for The New York Times, about his new memoir, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-time Eater.

After five years, Bruni hung up his critic's cap. (Sam Sifton, whom NPR's Jack Zahora profiled for Morning Edition, is the newspaper's new restaurant reviewer.) In his last column, which The Times printed today, Bruni answered some of the questions he's been asked over the last five years:

What's the best sushi place? What about the best steakhouse? Is there any best, safest way to navigate a menu?

Bruni has a new gig with The Times, as a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine.

Joey Chestnut, left, of San Jose, Calif., defending champion of the Nathan's Famous July 4th Hot Dog Eating Contest, and former champion Takeru Kobayashi, of Nagano, Japan, eat hot dogs after weigh-ins, in New York, Thursday, July 2, 2009. AP Photo/Richard Drew

 

By Frank James

In an attempt to give new meaning to the term "cancer sticks," a cancer-fighting group is suing hot dog manufacturers to force them to put warning labels on their products alerting consumers to the increased cancer risks from eating processed meats.

The timing of the lawsuit by the Cancer Project in New Jersey state court couldn't be better, given that this is National Hot Dog Day, according to the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council. For the record, the council also says the entire month of July is National Hot Dog Month. It does not so far as to call this the year of the hot dog, however.

Because it's Hot Dog Day, the council is hosting its annual Capitol Hill lunch for lawmakers who are probably practicing the cardinal rule of hot-dog eating which is: do not think too much about what you're eating.

The Associated Press reports:

The Washington, D.C.-based Cancer Project wants to force hot dog makers to use warning labels. The group filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Superior Court in Newark on behalf of three New Jersey residents. The defendants are Kraft Foods, manufacturer of the Oscar Mayer brand; Sara Lee; Nathan's Famous; and the makers of the Hebrew National and Sabrett brands.

Continue reading "Hot Dogs The New Cancer Sticks?" >

By Frank James

American agribusiness remains a powerful special interest on Capitol Hill. For proof, you need go no further than the farm industry's success in fending off efforts last year to reform farm subsidies.

A hog in Collins, Iowa drinks water. AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

On another agricultural front, there's a renewed congressional effort by critics of the widespread use of antibiotics in animal feed to pass a law to curtail the practice which, many scientists worry, is causing many more antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

But agribusiness has opposed such legislation in the past and isn't pleased about the current push against antibiotics in livestock feed.

That view comes through in a New York Times story about the new legislative attempt in the House:

"There are no good studies that show that some of these antibiotic-resistant diseases -- and it seems like we're seeing more of them -- have any link to antibiotic use in food-animal production," said Dave Warner, a spokesman for the pork producers' group.

Continue reading "Fight Against Antibiotic-Fed Farm Animals All Uphill" >

By Frank James

When it comes to food safety, the good news is that the Obama Administration acted on what's called the "egg rule" which is meant to address the risks from salmonella in eggs. The bad news is that it took two decades to get there.

Gardiner Harris, a New York Times reporter who covers the Food and Drug Agency, was on NPR's Diane Rehm Show panel discussing food safety today and spoke to this point with which he led his story today.

He said:

What's remarkable about the egg rule is that it's been in process for 20 years. We've known for 20 years how to fix this problem. And it's basically been bickering within the government. USDA kind of had oversight of chickens but FDA has oversight of human health. There were arguments going back and forth through five different administrations about who was going to oversee this.

And it just never got done. Nobody ever made it a priority. The real issue here is that you need congressional leadership and you need people in the administration who their attention will not wander. And the problem in the past, even the Clinton Administration announced they were going to pass an egg rule. Well, the attention kind of wandered. It didn't happen.

And all of these aspirational rules that were hoped for in the future, are they going happen, is something going to happen. Is there going to be another war that's going to distract this administration?

Food safety tends to get to the bottom of everybody's pile. Obama has said he's not going to let that happen but we'll see.

As NPR's Joanne Silberner explained in her report on All Things Considered today, there's a real governmental effort between the White House and Congress now to strengthen food safety in light of many high-profile food recalls, including the latest one involving cookie-dough, that have worried Americans no end about the safety of their food.

The Obama administration has announced plans for aggressive rules aimed at making the nation's food supply safer. The moves come in the wake of a series of serious food outbreaks and concern within the food industry that people fear their food. Reaction so far has been positive, both from industry and consumer groups.

At the announcement of the new initiatives Tuesday, Vice President Joseph Biden set out to make one thing clear: Food safety is very important to this administration.

Continue reading "New Egg Food Safety Rule 'Only' 20 Years In Making" >