Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
by Marion Nestle
May
16
2019
A roundup of articles about—cocoa deforestation
I subscribe to ConfectionaryNews.com for information about this industry. It recently collected a series of articles on the cocoa industry and how it is attempting to become more sustainable: Editor’s Spotlight: The future of cocoa deforestation
- Cocoa deforestation: What about farms outside sustainability programmes? Rick Scobey, the president of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) outlines how cocoa outside sustainability programmes can be deforestation-free and what happens to farmers encroaching on protected areas. Read more
- ‘Fairtrade is an open system, we champion all cocoa farmers to achieve a sustainable livelihood and become resilient to climate change and market factors’: Jen Shepherd, Fairtrade Foundation’s cocoa supply chain manager, talks to CN editor Anthony Myers on how the organization is working with its producer networks to address key issues such as climate change, gender empowerment and living incomes in the industry. Read more
- Ecuador’s sustainable cocoa future after cadmium: Ecuador’s efforts to create value at origin could be damaged by the EU’s recent regulation of heavy metal cadmium in chocolate, claims the president of the country’s cocoa export association. Read more
- Power & politics in cocoa: Are chocolate’s colonial roots moulding sustainability? The European and US chocolate industry holds power in cocoa and is able to set the agenda for sustainability on its terms, says Dr. Kristy Leissle. Read more
- Child labor in the cocoa sector: ‘both a symptom and contributing factor to poverty’ – podcast: The wellbeing of children and youth in cocoa-growing communities was an important item on the agenda of WCF’s recent partnership meeting in Brazil. Taco Terheijden, Cargill group director, sustainability, explains what his company is doing to improve conditions for young people working in the cocoa sector. Read more
