Reading List for September 13-17

1. More on Food Safety
In the wake of salmonella scare - egg recall, stories about the safety of our food supply still abound. While one senator introduced new food safety legislation, another senator blocked a vote on the current food safety legislation now before Congress. But some critics complain that legislation won't help anyway: the problems lies in the overlap of (or divides between) the FDA and USDA. In China, they're taking a different approach entirely: calling for the death penalty for food-safety violators.

2. "France's New Battle of the Bulge" from The Atlantic
“Each year brings an average of 250,000 more French people who are considered obese. One nutritionist said France's obesity epidemic is about 20 years behind that of the United States.”

3. A rose by any other name ...
The members of the Corn Refiners Association are trying to improve their image (and bottom line) by changing the name of high fructose corn syrup to the more innocuous-sounding "corn sugar." They've already started a new marketing campaign, and on Tuesday, September 14, they filed an application with the FDA for permission to use the new name on food nutrition labels.

Even Marion Nestle has weighed in on the change. My favorite comment on Nestle's blog post comes from a reader named Sheila: "Added sugar is added sugar…we don’t really need most of the added sugar found in a lot of processed foods, regardless of the origin of the sugar or what that sugar is called." Here, here!

4. "Can a school lunch overhaul beat junk food?" from Marketplace.org via NPR
In the next several weeks, Congress is "expected to pass - and the president is expected to sign - the School Nutrition Act. It's a $4.5 billion plan to get healthier food into school cafeterias. ... The new money should mean more fruits and vegetables to compete with all the pizza and chicken nuggets you find in school lunchrooms. But what about competing with the pizza parlor right across the street?"

5. The Debate over Food Trucks
As food trucks are becoming more popular (and serving better food), some urban areas - like Washington, DC, Chicago and Los Angeles - are finding the mobile cafes to be controversial.

What do you think: Do you have food trucks in your area? Do you like them? Do you think they should be allowed?