Mark Bittman: Food movement has bigger issues to tackle than GMO labeling

mark bittman retires the minimalist and moves to nyt op ed pages

There is some talk about the food movement’s winning. I’m not even sure such a thing as a food movement exists.

Yes, we have seen some encouraging developments: a promised reduction in the use of antibiotics by Tyson Foods and McDonald’s, a marginal wage increase by McDonald’s for a small portion of its worst-paid workers, a reduction of the use of artificial colors by Nestlé, Kraft and others; the elimination of aspartame in some diet drinks by Pepsi; a more sweeping (and credible) announcement on additives by Panera; and Chipotle’s claim to have all-but-eliminated foods produced using genetic engineering.

Wage increases and reduced antibiotics are welcome developments; the rest of this barely registers in its significance.

This isn’t a case of perfect being the enemy of good enough, but one of not getting carried away by what amounts to a little greenwashing. We need to change that.

What have we seen? Some increase toward labeling foods produced with genetically engineered seeds, which — if it were to lead to greater transparency — would be a good thing. But this is not a burning issue; better to see labeling that addresses antibiotics, pesticides and treatment of workers and animals.

I’ll believe there’s a food movement when Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush are forced to talk directly about food issues. I’ll know we’ve started to win when anyone who wants to farm real food has land on which to do it, when we’ve started talking about providing that same quality dinner to anyone who needs it. Until then, we have a lot of work to do.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Let’s Make Food Issues Real

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