Food

Every time we at EWG talk about the damage farming can do to drinking water, air quality, public health and quality of life, we hear: “Well, you know we have to feed the world.”

The key to ending world hunger while protecting the environment is to help small farmers in the developing world increase their productivity and income.

When you’re trying to achieve a healthier lifestyle, diet and exercise tend to get most of the attention. But there’s another critical step to living healthier: reducing your intake of toxic chemicals.
 

Back to school means books, studying and recess – to kids. For many parents, this time of year means packing lunches.
 

Panera Bread’s Kids Meal Promise – a children’s menu free of artificial flavors, preservatives, sweeteners and colors – challenges the rest of the fast and fast-casual food industry to get serious about kids’ health. If it works, American kids and everybody else will win.

Most of the food Americans eat is produced in ways that harm the environment and worsen climate change. The federal government subsidizes unhealthy crops that have contributed to Americans’ expanding waistlines, while Monsanto and big agriculture push pesticides and genetically modified seeds on farmers.
 

EWG President Ken Cook issued the following statement today in response to the House's consideration of the Roberts-Stabenow GMO labeling bill the House is expected to take up this week.

Children with high levels of the chemical bisphenol A in their bodies were more likely to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder than those with lower levels of the chemical, according to a study published June 6 in the journal Environmental Research.

For a variety of reasons, EWG does not support the Roberts-Stabenow legislation to establish mandatory, federal labeling of genetically engineered food. That said, we are grateful to many members of the Senate who stood up for consumers to twice defeat the “DARK Act,” which would have blocked both federal and state labeling laws, and who subsequently secured important concessions from the pesticide, food and agriculture lobby. In the face of a massive industry lobbying campaign, their commitment to consumers’ right to know and states’ right to require GMO labeling is exemplary.